Hey guys, I'm new to the forum, glad to be here. I got my SP-555 a few weeks ago and have been having fun with it. My MIDI keyboard is busted so I'm attempting to use my SP as a MIDI controller to play samples in Reason 3 and Ableton (mostly reason). I looked through all the posts related to MIDI on the forum and couldn't find anything on this particular topic; most of it pertained to problems w/ receiving MIDI note data on the SP555.

I have the SP plugged into my laptop via the included USB cable, and the MIDI is rigged from the SP to my laptop with a MIDIsport Uno (MIDI-to-USB device). When I hit a pad on the SP, the samples in Reason are triggered and play through the SP just fine. The problem is that the sample that would be normally assigned to that pad on the sp ALSO plays, resulting in two sounds being played at once. I've read through the whole manual and can't find anything that refers to this problem. Can I stop the samples that are stored in the SP's memory from playing when I'm using it as a MIDI controller?

After reading through several threads, it seems like I might be doing an extra unnecessary step here. I'm using a MIDI-to-USB device running from the SP's MIDI jacks to my computer. Is it possible to use the SP as a USB MIDI controller (using only the SP's USB jack), without using the MIDI output at all? I can't figure out how to do this.

Answers to either question would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to contributing to the forum!

take your bank b or a
delete all the samples
record a 1 second loop of silence
copy and paste it through out bank b or whatever
now you have empty samples that send midi AND work with the sub pad.

oof, I was worried that deleting the banks would be the only way to do it. I had already considered doing that but had not yet made the step, thinking it to be a bit drastic.

So there's no other way to do it, other than to delete one of the banks? Which means that if I wanted to use a higher note (or just have the option of using the whole scale), I would have to delete the corresponding bank for that note as well?

Thanks for the help so far!

just export the samples to your card, if you really need them again import them back.
as far as higher octaves go, get a midi keyboard man. or if you have another sound card, dont select the 555 as a driver, but still use the midi then you wont be able to hear samples at all.
or if it really bothers you get a new card with only blank samples. but thats really drastic i guess.

yo now that i think about it, just turn down the samples with the start/end/level knob and that should do the trick

if you use the sp 555 as a midi controller can you apply the internal effects to the sounds?
does anyone use the 555 to control a dj program, specifically serato?

as long as you use usb/audio/midi connection and have them all selected in your pref. then you should hear the output coming into your 555 just as any other audio source, so yes you can apply internal effects while using it as a midi controller.

i've used it with deckadance to a somewhat successful degree the mappings should be similar. i had the pads seperated by virtual deck a and b by a(1,2,5,6,9,10,13,14) and B(3,4,7,8,11,12,15,16) where the first verticle stack was kill switches and and a cue, and the second stack was loop controls.

the crossfader was a bit of a problem because if you assign it to one of the knobs you wont be able to mod the effects you choose without fading the songs. you could get by this by just saving the effects in effect memory that you want, but that takes away from say doing a djfx build up or delay feedback build into the climax.