Pitch/matching samples...

[Disastrous]

I know this topic has been done to death as a good search of the forum seems to reveal many threads on the subject.

I got my 404sx last week and have been coming to grips with it over the past week. I love it to bits and it's one of the most creative bits of kit I've used in ages.

However, the lack of pitch control (in any meaningful way) is driving me nuts.

I don't want to take it back to the store to swap for an Electribe sampler (I REALLY don't! A brief play of both revealed the 'tribe really didn't feel intuitive at all) so I need to find a way to put samples the same key without firing up the computer (or I might as well stay in Ableton for good).

How do you guys get round this?

Let's say you have a Doo-wop sample in Am and a flute sample in Dm - how on earth do you get them to sit together?

Is there no way at all with this box? Not even the basic play the sample through faster so the pitch is higher thing?

Assuming not, are there any workarounds without firing up the computer?

Looking for any creative ideas circa 2016 as this is potentially going to kill this for me.

[rageone]

i use other gear for that. the 404 is a great sampler but is limited in many ways... get a 202 cheap and it will do the trick for you, you might use it for bouncing, sampling and other stuff too

a mpc is also great but more expensive. you might consider getting one in the future

i actually always wanted a mpc and got the 404 as a cheap substitute. i ended up liking it and use both in different ways now

[Disastrous]

i use other gear for that. the 404 is a great sampler but is limited in many ways... get a 202 cheap and it will do the trick for you, you might use it for bouncing, sampling and other stuff too

a mpc is also great but more expensive. you might consider getting one in the future

i actually always wanted a mpc and got the 404 as a cheap substitute. i ended up liking it and use both in different ways now

I was torn between an MPC and the 404 and actually, the lack of new MPCs available to try out is what swung me in favour of the 404.

I've got an Ableton/Push setup as well but got the 404 chiefly to get away from composing on the computer as to me, it's not a creative place to work. I've got an old RM1X I use for sequencing duties so considering getting an old rack sampler I can sit underneath it to take on pitching/multi sampling duties...don't know if it's a waste of time/money with Ableton sitting there though!

I don't suppose there's anything quick and easy on the iPad/Pod that would let me do this without buying loads of kit like an audio interface or whatever?

I use the 404 on the sofa a lot and do a lot of sampling from my phone so wouldn't be a thing to bounce over to it and back.

[lordarekkusu]

why not use you ear and start messing with both pitches until you're satisfied? i think it's the best and also that way you can adjust very precisely how the pitch will sound on both sample and give great effects and vibes to your track. don't be that lazy guy that buys a 404 and expect it to do it all automatically like a DAW. Btw, I even don't know how to do this you guys saying using Ableton

[Disastrous]

why not use you ear and start messing with both pitches until you're satisfied? i think it's the best and also that way you can adjust very precisely how the pitch will sound on both sample and give great effects and vibes to your track. don't be that lazy guy that buys a 404 and expect it to do it all automatically like a DAW. Btw, I even don't know how to do this you guys saying using Ableton

Because you can't!

The pitch control on the 404 adds a timestretch algorithm to protect the tempo. Unfortunately this produces very audible artefacts which are fine as an effect, but hopeless for trying to repitch a multitimbral sample IMO.

The closest way I've found with the unit itself is to use the DJ looper effect but that only lets you pitch down.

I think it's a pretty well known weakness of the 404 so everybody has to go out the box to do it - I'm just wondering what creative solutions people have found.

The best two I've got so far are bouncing to a Zoom H5 which has quite a good pitch/timestretch and bouncing to an old cassette deck and running the tape speed control but both seem a bit convoluted.

[lordarekkusu]

Oh I see... My bad then. You can also after adjusting the pitch of both samples to your like, match their bpms. But I also know that the bpm/time is not the most famous... I really don't know, try using Ableton or other DAW and importing everything correctly to the memory card.

[mr.thraz]

most people get a record player with pitch control. I don't have one though.

I do most of my pitching on my 505 but that only does tone pitch, not time pitch.

I don't have a 404 but for my 606 and 505 (when real time pitch is needed) I record into Audacity then pitch the audio and sample from that or I’ll use my 606 as a controller for the Hydrogen drum machine and use it's 16 levels pitching.

my 606 is my interface so it's no big deal for me to do that but other people feel like "why use a computer when you have a sampler!"

well the 606 is made to be used with a computer so its cool by me.

yeah anyway, software!

or get a pitching record player!

or learn to use your thumb and index finger to pitch up and down a cheap record player like old-school dj/producers did!

or use some other device like a 202 or a st224.

most sp's just aren't good at time pitch, that's just one of it's limitation.

[mattworldpeace]

I've tried putting all the samples I want to use on my phone and then using an app that has that functionality. It works really well.

Heres the app I use(it's also available for android):
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/audio-s ... 23422?mt=8

[Disastrous]

I've tried putting all the samples I want to use on my phone and then using an app that has that functionality. It works really well.

Heres the app I use(it's also available for android):
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/audio-s ... 23422?mt=8

That app looks great!

Leads me onto a supplementary question:

What are using to record samples into an iPhone these days? Line in wont work with the TRRS Jack, will it? Presumably an interface is needed...?

[disDope Circus]

It is sadly a (pretty well known) missing feature on the 404, so kinda have to get creative. I think a lot of peeps get another sampler to fill the gap and bounce. The 202 being the favourite for those who like to keep it in the family, but my special friends are the sampletrak and the totally slept on su10, which you can still score cheap if you're lucky! I think min was 50 quid and it's got pitch, 16 levels, mute groups - totally perfect sex partner for the 404

[yo-yo crunch]

from the factmag video looks like ras g uses au-pitch in garageband.
did you try chromatic ps?

[MattCoops]

Dude, get a 202. Be the best 100 bucks you spent on gear.
I bet you'll use the 202 more than the 404.
They're a great pair though for bouncing samples back and fourth.

[mr.thraz]

Dude, get a 202. Be the best 100 bucks you spent on gear.
I bet you'll use the 202 more than the 404.
They're a great pair though for bouncing samples back and fourth.

great advice! are there other SP's that do pitch?

[l i f]

great advice! are there other SP's that do pitch?

sp 808 has varipitch + bpm matching. With the disc formated to 32bit you can slow down/speed up between 22% - 139.9% if you sample at 100%. Can get pretty creative depending on what it's set to when you sample. It has separate time and pitch shift as sample-edit features, plus some pitch-change effects (octave down, independent stereo pitch up and down, triad maj/minor) much cleaner than 404's but still 'artifact-y' and not as useful as the vari-ptich wheel.

Other advantages I can mention: resample with 4 stereo pads and ability to padsample at the same time a signal is coming in via line-in (overdub). Another good advantage is editing sample length of resamples to the nearest sample-bit so loops will never go out of sync. It does a million other things too. I use it with my 404, they make a damn fine pair.

Was on ebay today saw an 808ex for around $200USD

[mr.thraz]

great advice! are there other SP's that do pitch?

sp 808 has varipitch + bpm matching. With the disc formated to 32bit you can slow down/speed up between 22% - 139.9% if you sample at 100%. Can get pretty creative depending on what it's set to when you sample. It has separate time and pitch shift as sample-edit features, plus some pitch-change effects (octave down, independent stereo pitch up and down, triad maj/minor) much cleaner than 404's but still 'artifact-y' and not as useful as the vari-ptich wheel.

Other advantages I can mention: resample with 4 stereo pads and ability to padsample at the same time a signal is coming in via line-in (overdub). Another good advantage is editing sample length of resamples to the nearest sample-bit so loops will never go out of sync. It does a million other things too. I use it with my 404, they make a damn fine pair.

Was on ebay today saw an 808ex for around $200USD

WOW! more good reasons to get an sp-808. (i heard it has cut groups too) problem is if i get one i'm gonna need to get the multi-card replacement for the zip drive from mpcstuff.com (that'll be $250) plus i'd want the op1 or 2 on it. (another $200).

that's like $430.00 right there, after shipping it'll probably be $510.00. but i'd do it since i like the 808/505/606 style workflow better than the 202/303/404/555 workflow.

then again i might just get a beat thang and a microkorg (to go with my 606 and 505) and be done with it.