Hey guys, I've been looking around in the forum and everyone seems to be very helpful so I thought I would ask a couple of questions. I've had my sp-404 for about a month now but haven't had the time to invest in it until now. I'm about to be on break from school and am hoping to learn a lot. Each time I have tried to use it, problems have come up, so I'm getting a little bit discouraged. I'm trying to record the sampler into a firepod and I'm using Cubase as my workstation.

First question, does it even make sense to do this?

I haven't been able to get it to work properly. I'm using two cords like this (http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?c ... &sku=40369), one running from my computer's audio card to the 'in' of the 404. The other I am running into my firepod from the 'out' of the sampler to try and record. The sound that is outputted is warped and some pads have lower volumes than others, which isn't the case if I just listen through the headphone jack of the 404. I am wanting to be able to use samples that I have recorded on my field recorder by running them through the 404, applying effects, and making simple rhythms with it. I can play it through my amp using the same set up but taking the 'out' to my amp. So I don't think it's anything wrong with the cords.


Also, is there any way to sync up the tempo track on a program like Cubase to the tempo of the 404?
I want to be able to create beats at the same tempo that I have recorded a song on cubase and match up the two, but that seems like somewhat of an impossibility in my mind right now.

I hope some of this has made sense and I'm sure I'll have more questions after I hear some responses.

Thanks

sure, you use MIDI to do this
viewtopic.php?t=1680

If your just looking to record the 404 into Cubase then simply plug the SP's OUT to the Audio Interface's IN. Don't plug the audio interface's OUT into the SP at all.

Thanks a lot guys, I don't know why I didn't think to try them when they weren't hooked up at the same time, but that worked and I'm making progress. I just sampled a tea pot heating up then messed with the pitch and started putting some guitar around it. I'm pretty excited
I'm getting my midi cord from home tomorrow and I'll read through that article about midi and the 404. Thanks for the quick responses guys

It's back to messing up, here's exactly what it does


I just have the sampler hooked into the firepod. The premade samples pads 1 and 2 are really low but 3 is at normal volume. When I turn the volume knob on the 404 it doesn't correlate with the volume of the 404, it kind of sounds like a radio tuner trying to find signal. The sound just comes in and out when I turn the knob. If I plug my headphones into the sampler itself everything is fine so something is happening between the 404 and my firepod. Any suggestions?

Hi, don't know how your managing to do this, but that sounds like you're somehow getting stereo mixed to mono in a way that left & right signals are cancelling each other out. What happens if you only connect the left or right to the firepod one at a time?

Jim

I just went and tried unplugging one of the the L or R 'out' from the 404 and it works. I have no idea how that's happening. It works if I have just the R in or just the L. What will happen if I record into the firepod like that? Will I still get all the sound? I did a quick recording and it seemed fine but I don't know.
The only thing was there were still some samples that I sampled from my vinyl player yesterday and they were really low. The vinyl player volume seemed pretty low so I guess that could have been it, but it seems that they were lowered even more.
thanks for the help Jim Y

Hi - I think it's probably the cables.
The one's you linked are for use with an iPod (or anything with stereo mini jacks).
You say you're using a Firepod - that's this?...
http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail ... roductId=3

How exactly are you connecting up? For the firepod, you'd be better of with a pair of RCA-1/4" Jack leads into the Firepods Line input jacks.

As for the level of the "vinyl player" - you mean Turntable? - does it have a preamp built in? The sound will be very low & thin sounding without the preamp.

Jim