quick question about sp-404

[RonnieCreed]

greetings! i'm just about to buy sp-404... i've been reading stuff about it on the forums and tried to learn thing or two. i've heard different stories and bunch of other sh!t. all and all, seems like a great piece of equipment.

the thing is, i'm a person who travels and spends time outside quite alot. i need a sampler that runs with patteries also. sp-404 seems like a good option (even better than mpc500 if im correct). i wanna keep doing beats with it when i'm on the road but i don't wanna change my style at all... i'm a sample based producer and crate digger who chops his samples alot.

so the question is for all you advanced sp-404 users: check my myspace page really quick and give me an honest opinion, can i do that type of tracks with this machine? i don't mind if it needs some work or if it's hard....i'll learn quickly.. every video i've seen of sp-404 in action has been pretty simple looping and stuff. i wanna do some hardcore chopping with it. lol.

myspace.com/ronniecreed


peace people! i hope i'll become an active member here at sp forums.

[cartesia]

The only thing that might be a prob to you is not having the pitch-playing of samples - like being able to take a single note of something then play it at other pitches... for melodies and stuff.

[RonnieCreed]

my english aint good so i'm not sure if i understood perfectly.. and correct me if i understood something wrong.

but as long as i'm able to pitch all the bits and pieces i've chopped, the same amount (so that i can match the bpm i wanna use on my beat) i'm cool with it...

...i don't need to pitch individual chop to different notes.


thanks for your reply.

[kel]

Pitch: on the 404, if you pitch down a sample it will not make it longer. It will have a timestretch kind of effect whichever way you're pitching it. but the chromatic pitch shift effect sounds pretty clean to me. the only way to get real-time pitch shift is to use the DJFX effect, and that can be very time consuming if your samples are longer than a second each.

On the MPC you will be able to match something's bpm more easily by tuning down. If you need to rely on mostly pitch-shifting, I'd get an MPC500.

Chopping:

on the 404, chopping is usually done by resampling and creating different start/end times for each pad,done by resampling over and over, but there is a technique i've learned to chop close to real-time while only having to resample twice. The beauty of the 404 is its limitations... it looks like a toy but it's a beast. you are always learning new stuff about the machine and that's what makes it more fun (and the buttons light up!!)

On the MPC you will be able to chop much faster, but I think you can only get a mono signal if you do it in 'chop-shop' mode.

i've got a 404 and an MPC2500. if my house was on fire and i could only grab one (and I couldn't sell it) it would be the 404.

[RonnieCreed]

i see, i see... well, i could do the pitching while recording from vinyl or with my pc... doesnt matter really. ..i just need sampler that i can use while i'm on the road.

well, i think i'll buy it. not too expensive around here (270€) and if i dont like it i can always return it. but i think it has all i need so i dont need to worry..

when i first started reading about this product i only heard people saying it's just a loop machine or something that dj's use live on stage, etc... seems like i can really make beats with it and go crazy with sampling and chopping...

thanks for replying.

[kel]

my 404 sat collecting dust in my closet for the first 8 months i had it. i was like "why did i buy this stupid little toy when I can just use the bomb-ass NNXT sampler in Reason?". then i found sp-forums a little over a year ago and started reading the 'production techniques' section, and tried a few of the little tricks posted here and there, and since then i've been hopelessly addicted

and the people here are much cooler than the MPC forums