I know you can't set the BPM within the 404SX to the decimal, but can it receive such data via MIDI? I've been hooking up my SP to a Korg EMX and it seems that it can do it, but I'm not positive.

Yeah, I think it can. When synchronizing the SP-404 will always be the slave and will adjust to the BPM whichever it gets through the midi.

I think the SP-404 rounds the bpm up whenever it tries to figure it out for a sample, but this doesn't mean the internal bpm can't be set to the decimal with use of an external midi signal indeed.

yeah it works..

because when you sync by MIDI it doesnt just say "OK the BPM is 104.5"
but rather it says

tick

tick

tick

tick

tick

So it doesn't matter what the gap between the ticks is..

All true, but bear in mind it only works for patterns - loop samples have no clever auto BPM sync.

Jim

Yeah I should have mentioned that I was referring to patterns, not samples. Thanks for the replies. Having the EMX's step sequencer + the 404's sequencer for more offbeat stuff is such a great combo.