Thinking SP-555 isn't right for me - opinions?

[andrew00]

Hey,

So when I got my 555 I had very little clue about beat making or loops or computers etc. I came from the rock n roll school of guitars and 'live' instruments.

I wanted to be able to create my own electronic songs, and I would have said anything from Animal Collective to Crystal Castles to Metronomy would've been my immediate reference points (at least they're the most common examples).

However from the short time I've been using my 555 I'm either too inept at it, or it's just not really working for me in the way I wanted a unit to work.

I wanted to be able to 1) create beats and b) use it as a sampler/sequencer inside a software program to play along as drums or samples or loops or whatever.

Way I saw it, MPC series were more about hip hop beat creation, whereas I wanted to create a song from scratch, i.e. without sampling others and layering that, I wanted to create my own beats and so on, and so I got the 555 b/c I thought it'd be useful for that.

But I'm thinking perhaps it's the wrong choice.

For example, the .4 second it cuts out of patterns is weird. So I've got some drum sounds loaded and I want to create my own drum pattern - but it cuts off the last part of the pattern and so the last part of the hi hat I've triggered, which seems to make the whole thing pointless?

Also, this may be because I'm a dufus, but I was hoping with the USB I could have that recording live into my PC, i.e. it also acting as an audio interface in that I'm playing these sounds and they're being recorded by Logic/Cubase etc live.

But seemingly so far - no joy.

I think what I wanted to do was not what the SP 555 does. I'm tempted to sell it and buy a Maschine as they look like they can do what I want - USB integration w/groove box capabilities.

Am I wrong here? I hope so but I'm clearly not seeing it.

[PHeMoX]

I'm sort of in the same booth as you are as far as type of music and wanting to jam along or play along with self-made beats goes.

Unfortunately there isn't really a perfect sampler designed around that.

The MV comes close in my opinion, as it gives you the possibility to play along and record directly onto audio tracks. That works great. Minor issue is that the recorded sound will be converted to 16bits instead of 24bit or 32bits.

I can however record my beats into REAPER and afterward record my jam using my rack guitar & FX processor through usb into REAPER as well. That provides the best sound quality.

As for the Maschine, that is not a stand-alone device and relies heavily on your PC to do the main stuff you want to. I know that some of it's basic functionality is a bit dodgy. I'm sure they will fix that with an update in due time, but I personally would wait for a bit for it to get rid of the early software bugs.

[andrew00]

Aye, I do like the 555 but I my needs are more towards creating beats than looping sounds and it looks like the Maschine can bridge functions pretty well.

Yes that does mean you'll need tight integration with a computer, but I don't necessarily see that as too bad a thing.

Personally I'm neither a 'one device to do it all' type of guy, nor am I a 'spend hours on a computer playing with waveforms' kind of guy - I want do be able to create songs intuitively but have something physical to play with.

As I said I hope I've just misjudged the 555 so far, but if I haven't then I think I'll have to move along.

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[JayLost]

well along side reason and a midi controler sampling your own synth sounds ext. into the 555 then into a daw like live is mad fun.