What is the difference between the 404 and the 404SX?

I have have the 404SX.

big thing is that the 404 compressed recorded audio... so it degraded the SQ whereas the SX dosent... it streams in an uncompressed format thats why it can handle such massive sized cards

ive also heard some fx's have been changed but i own neither machine sooo

The biggest difference like Niq said is with the audio/fx engine.. (same fx, higher quality)

But other minor difference is.

404sx comes with PC software for loading WAVs
404sx has 32gb max SD card storage the 404 has 1gb CF
404sx has sound/pattern copy. The 404 you have to resample or do flylo trick
404sx has different FX on the front face
404sx has slightly better pads, but I think some newer 404s might have the same ones.
404sx is black...
404sx can remember your pattern tempo (you have to turn the machine off in pattern mode for it to remember)
404sx has blue and RED glowing center leds....

That's all I can think of for now.

SX has :
- no internal memory (!)
- no vinyl sim compression (!!)
- no mark-let-go-chopping (!!!)
- only one type of faceplate

MPC 1000+2500 can read OG 404 CF cards up to 32MB...
(export samples on the 404 / import in the mpc without a pc in between)

My bro has a SX and me got the OG... I would take the OG at any time again... Sure Pattern copy is quit handy but not as important as vinyl sim and the fast chopping... I can't recognize any significant changes in the audio quality too...

for mac too...

Old SP-404 has:

- hard to obtain obsolete CF cards
- divided pad banks on internal memory and card. Sucks for backups because the backup function only backs up the internal memory. On the SX, backup means the whole machine state with ALL samples and ALL patterns on ALL banks.
- no swing in the sequencer (!!!!!)
- no pattern/sample copy (you have to use the awkward workaround)
- colourful faceplates available so you can brag "my 404 is better than yours"

swing ...that one is so shitty...
timestretch is a bit better though...

internal memory is an advantage for me...
e.g. for copying samples from one card to another without a computer...

i found the SX more buggy... at least with the card that came with it...

one thing thats really cool is that everything is stored as .wav files on the card...

oh I got one left :

batterie time
OG:6h
SX:5h

pattern copy and wavs are nice but like wax said

og all day, mainly cuz of vinyl sim and waxxing-fast kung fu chopping style

ahahaha what? the swing on the SX works exactly like on every other machine what did you expect, wax?

oh well... i don't want to make sth up in this thread... but i found it sounded 'limited'... you have that one type of swing and done... on a mpc or even fruity loops or any other software you can change the amount of the swing... thats picky I know... jus saying that THIS swing isn't THAT huge improvement... goin nonquantized mainly anyway...
Overall I'm still dissapointed that Roland missed the shot on this one...
I mean even the 303 had lots cool features the 404 doesn't have... if you want to delete a sample from a pattern you can hold del during the count in... i mean how could they ditch that?! ...so annoying on both 404's...

oh and don't sleep on the del-disaster... quit useful... og only though

What is this?

yeah i don't like the idea of a swing button either, it doesn't seem that useful, granted i've never used the sx, but all it is is a button you switch on and it gives quantized things "swing"??? i believe real swing is much more like the trick of adding air in front of drums, you offset an entire track (mpc has an 8 track sequencer), or maybe you can even select certain hits in the same track on the grid, by a certain percentage, negative or positive, and it sets the hits off of the quantized (or unquantized??) value that much, very useful for complex drum programing, now when i refer to swing i'm talkin about this function, not whether your drums actual "swing", thats very subjective, and, from my experience, people seem to associate 8th note triplets and 6/8 timing styles in general when referring to swing, but when talkin about samplers it means something totally different, its a function

it's a bug that comes in handy...


source: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6941&hilit=delete+disaster

this is how the swing works on the SX, you can rein in the hits according to an adjustable percentage (with ctrl2)... there is a swing setting for 16ths or 8ths, not for 32nd or quarter notes. it's not a separate button but part of the quantize settings - press quantize, select a swing setting, set the percentage.