Good ideas here! Hmm, here's one thought...
Adjustable pattern switching: free as well as quantized to values that are less than one bar. As well as a pattern record that works live. That way you could chop up multiple patterns to build new ones on the fly.

I'd like to see an Sp-808sx with more mordern storage capacities. The Sp-808 has no internal memory and reads in real time from the ZIP drive. If it read in real time from an SD card or something it would be pretty badass. I'd be down to drop the d-beam/synth thing on it too and add USB connectivity.

sampling while you listeni to patterns/songs: like the cool st224 does...

2nd headphone jack on the back please...
rechargeable batt-pack

and the classic ones:

pitch, panning, pattern resample, polyphony (24voices minimum), saving effect settings, midi out...

.

some of these things are pretty outlandish and far fetched... even if they made a box with some of the bigger things people would flip about the price saying make it cheaper.. you get what you pay for and you gotta pay for what you want...

a portable cheaper simple-er MV is what you all are basically asking for..
mv1000

ill take a step sequencer like a MC annnnd an SP style sequencer.. gimme a pitch knob like an esx... and a usb port and a simple program to use WITH a computer.. i like to see what im doing in a track which is why i like the esx so much.. the NI maschine is a good idea but a stand alone unit that can plug in and be simple to use with software (so mapping and complicated bs.. just plug in and play) would suit a lot of cats i imagine.. you can take it with you and work while youre out and then get more technical once youre home..

maybe im dreaming harder than the people i was complaining about earlier

Yeah guys try to remember the difference between the 555/404SX and the SP-404.. because that is abotu as much effort as we can expect them to put into a new SP...... I know you all want this cool shit..
but we really really really need to keep things very simple.. very very simple!

- SDHC will be there for sure - it already has been developed, and has passed all the cost effectiveness etc tests, which is why its in the 404SX.

- USB transfer seems possible - comes with the 555, BUT... they've left it off the 404SX.. so maybe they decided that was a bad move? Or maybe its about whether it's a studio product or portable...

IMO USB would be beneficial, I dunno about making it a soundcard and all that jazz.. I'd rather leave out that sorta stuff to save money.

- Velocity sensitive pads can be included without any new designing - they will almost certainly be exactly the same as the 555's pads though, unless roland's supply of those pads changes.

- More banks - the issue here is that each pad is referenced by a midi note - of which there are only 128... They could *maybe* split banks into notes over a couple channels (they cant use all channels, as other channels need to be free for other midi gear) - but it also depends on this section of the hardware - is it possible to address over 128 positions? etc etc.

- Multitrack Sequencing - 4 or however many tracks each with a mute/unmute button... They used to do it, I see no reason why they couldn't still do it.

- multitumbrality (like if the sp had envesopes and a sample was fading out you could hit it again and they could overlap.)

Did you mean polyphonic parts? Multitimbral is like a synth where you can play 2 different synth sounds at the same time (eg, a bassline and a string/pad sound) - I think what you mean is that you can have a single sample pad be polyphonic... I know it takes up an extra slot, but I would say you should just copy the sample to multiple pads, so that you can let one play then hit the other,etc.

- Sequencer like MPC500 or RM1X

...I'm pretty sure that is too complicated for the scope of what we're doing here.. this would be something that would have to be entirely written from scratch, and take a long time to complete.. It also encroaches on MV territory.

- Panning

Should be fine.. i see no reason why you can't control panning - all it would need is to add a button for it (or a shift+other button to get to it).

- More Effects + Effect Memory

Increase cost...
you can always just resample, add another effect, resample.

- Pitch - I've been thinking more about pitch, and why it hasn't been done. . I think it may have something to do with the fact that the samples are played directly off the SD/CF/etc card. This would make it quite difficult to do if the reader can't read through the different samples at different speeds at the same time.
A pitch MFX should be doable - but might only be able to work on short samples... There is enough memory with the effects for the delays
- however long the maximum delay time is.. I guess that would be the maximum pitched sample time there would be for an MFX pitch..

- Envelopes - I'm afraid that maybe like the pitch - because of the way they read the samples from the cards, automating the volume just can't be done the 'normal' way... but it seems more likely to work than the pitch, and again - it could just be an MFX if it really had to...

I'm not sure about those last 2, its just ideas I had today.. any technical minded people here your thoughts on those 2 would be greatly appreciated!

i undestand this, but roland guys have done yet the sp202 and the sp505; those machines are the only (maybe the sp808?) sp wich have a pitch: the 202 got a "classic" pitch, the 505 a "pitch scale" function (wich is different from classic pitch: this 505's is basically a time stretch+pitch shifter), so why is it so difficult?...

That's the thing, the 555 is not recognized as a hard drive like the 606.

i could be wrong but the mc 808 has a synth engine in it.. its got pitch and usb and a different sequencer... track mutes and 16 tracks.. and it comes with an SP sticker to put over the MC

So here's Frankenstein: SP-555SX


I understand the original idea is to have somekind of modified 606, 'cause it has a screen and all. Just tried to see what could be changed on the SP-555 based on what Roland has done with the SX.

ADSR could be on the top, next to Pan/Pitch/Chop.

Overdub = Stop (forgot to change that).

Play = Play/Stop.

Maybe if the Mic In was on the back, the headphones level knob could take it's place. Pedal jack would be between headphones jack and SDHC slot. There's still some room for a screen in there - this is pushing it though.

Do the 505 and 202 read the samples directly off the card? Or are they imported to internal memory?

505 reads from both, depending where you sampled to. I never had the 202, so I can't tell you that.

I never liked the LED screen on the 404 and the 555. How about a basic LCD screen for just text and numerals like on the ESX or MPC500. Instead of waveforms, we can edit with numeric parameters.

All a new SP really needs is what the 606, 505 & 404 offers jammed together plus:
a few more voices (maybe 12, we don't need to be greedy)
larger storage cards (ie- not instantly obsolete ones)
loop capture/sequence sampling
a few more sequencer tracks (maybe)
an extra set of audio outs, ie channel 3 & 4 like the ESX (maybe)
accurate pitch shifting (plus chromatic tuner) & time stretching.

Drop the D-beam, Cakewalk program (its shithouse), V-link, internal mic, no RCA.

Chuck all the FX from other SPs together. Keep the screen basic (black & green dot matrix is sexxxy). Keep the 2 FX layers just as the 606 offers, it's still nice to have, but not essential.

I reckon the SP606 actually has a superior sequencer to the MPC500, it shows several layers of values rather just the one you're altering at a single time.

I know these will bring up the cost a bit, but there's no reason for Roland to replace the 555 or 404 with this beast. It shouldn't be hard to build an MPC1000 killer.