SP-404 soundwise

[Chulukinat]

damn...it was today that i discovered my sp-404 can sound much deeper then my mpc 1000. last few days i've been focussing on the depth in sound between different drummachines ( i think the mpc 3000 wins hands down ). but i was playing with the 404 and i loaded this deep kick which sounded much wider then when i loaded the sample in my mpc 1000. anybody else noticed this ?

[balazs]

never noticed, but never did a direct comparison. one day I'm gonna compare my 1000vs.2000xlvs.404

[Chulukinat]

i owned a 2000xl as well... even though the 1000 is much cleaner sounding the 2000xl has clearly more depth at the bottom end. damn i miss those big pads and that big smooth knob and those lovely filters.

[Chulukinat]

by the way you should make a topic of this... make sure you also test the difference between loading and recording the sounds ( AD convertors test )

[J.Daniels]

I a/b my mixes coming out of my motu ultralite interface and then the sp-404 into the interface and the 404 definately gives off some sort of compression and is alot smoother as cuts some of the mid range frequencies off(similar to mpc). and with saying that, everything i do lands up going through the 404 because it just breathes life into those tracks.

[pt3r]

Funny that this thread pops up, I was reinstalling my lab last night and running sequences both from my trusty 2kxl and the 404 to check the setup and I must say that the drums on the 404 tend to knock harder, have more thump than the 2kxl.

[Chulukinat]

I a/b my mixes coming out of my motu ultralite interface and then the sp-404 into the interface and the 404 definately gives off some sort of compression and is alot smoother as cuts some of the mid range frequencies off(similar to mpc). and with saying that, everything i do lands up going through the 404 because it just breathes life into those tracks.

so this is even without the AD/DA conversion because you dont record it on the 404 ? thats strange... makes my think theres like a eq curve on the outputs like i heard there is on the mpc .

[Chulukinat]

Funny that this thread pops up, I was reinstalling my lab last night and running sequences both from my trusty 2kxl and the 404 to check the setup and I must say that the drums on the 404 tend to knock harder, have more thump than the 2kxl.

you probably didnt use the XL's filters on your drums

[pt3r]

My ears tell me that a 404 by default sounds more punchy than the 2kxl, just load the same sample in both machines and check for yourself.

[Jim Y]

People may be interested in a free test program here...
http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml
...there's also a pay for "pro" version, but you don't really need everything that can do.

It's main use is to test soundcards by recording the output back in and then see what the results are. But, you can get it to make a .wav of it's test signal, import that to your machine, play it back into the soundcard and RMAA can check the signal coming in - you can do this with all kinds of players, even tape 'cause RMAA will also play out the test signal from your soundcard for stuff that can't take the .wav test file digitally.

It does all kinds of technical tests, but you can limit it to just doing frequency response, and get a graphic response curve. Plus it can load up to 4 different sets of results so you can get a direct comparison of different gear.

I've seen the 404 actually drops off at the low end according to rmaa. Plus it's distortion is pretty high with the volume set above 12 o'clock. A little distortion often makes things sound punchier/fatter - frequency response isn't everything. I'm pretty sure that with the FX off, the 404 doesn't do anything particularly clever to the sound - the distortion is just what the chips do anyway when the signal levels get hot. It may have a 9volt supply, but the chips run off only 6volt, so they're easily overdriven.

Haven't had an Akia box to test.

[Dj Frantic]

I was getting fatter drums out of ableton live back in the day than my MPC2k MPCs require good EQing to really bang.