pazword wrote:I've seen this phrase thrown around a lot lately, (looking at you SP-USER

) but I must admit I'm not as enlightened as many of you to know how this could fully be utilized...
What Jaytreaze just said sounds absolutely crazy to me
It has to be one of the most important functions you could wish for on an SP (and I suspect that Roland know this which is no doubt why the 404 OG/SX/A doesn't have it). There are many reasons why it's such a powerful feature, but there's one especially important reason why I personally need that ability (I want it to act as a stand-alone DAW, not just a beat-making machine).
Imagine you have the pattern sequencer triggering some samples, and these samples are basically forming a beat to play to. Now, while that pattern is playing you can connect an external device such as a synthesizer and choose to do one of two things. You can have the pattern playing to give you something to play over and record ONLY the input signal from your synth, or, you can record the sound of the pattern that is palying AND the synth that you are playing over it. WHatever you choose gets recorded to the Loop Capture.
Now that you have this recorded sample sitting in the Loop Capture, you can do ANOTHER two things with it. You can either copy the loop to a sample pad or you can go into Overdub mode. Overdub mode will basically play your recording in a loop and each time you play something (whether external or internal) it will be added to that looped recording (Sound-On-Sound), and that loop in turn can be sent over to a sample pad when you're happy with the loop.
In effect, what this means is that you have a multi-track recorder built on to your SP. The only limitation is that you have a maximum loop length of 15 seconds per loop. This does not matter, and the reason it does not matter is because it's a beat-based device with a sequencer, so all you need to do is build-up your song in loop-sized sections and trigger them using the pattern sequencer after sending those loops back to the pads. There is no limit to the amount of loops you can make as long as you have free pads to stick 'em on!
The SP-555 can be used as a stand alone DAW in that sense, and everything I just said is just ONE example of how you can use it.
There are many ways, but I'll give you one more example by linking to this Roland video demonstrating another way you might find the 'Overdub' function useful in conjunction with the 'Loop Capture' and 'External Input'.
The video should play from 6:22 but if not, just skip to 6:22:
https://youtu.be/U71STzTa8xI?t=382