SP-FORUMS

i had my heart set on the 404 but have recently become more interested in this little machine.

the music i make is turntable based. like a drum a pattern, a scratch a bassline over it, i scratch some vocals and so on and so forth.

i just have a few questions;
i read over at the roland clan forums that the 555 can't chop. is this true??
i have an alesis micron and i know absolutely nothing about MIDI, is it possible to use these two machine in conjunction with one another??
if i have the audio out from my DJ mixer going into the 555 and then the audio out from the 555 going BACK into my DJ mixer will this cause any sort of feedback issues??

and finally, is it worth the price. here in europe the 555 is currently more than the MPC 500 and the 404 is a lot cheaper (and more portable).

peace.

Hot Sauce wrote:i had my heart set on the 404 but have recently become more interested in this little machine.

the music i make is turntable based. like a drum a pattern, a scratch a bassline over it, i scratch some vocals and so on and so forth.

i just have a few questions;
i read over at the roland clan forums that the 555 can't chop. is this true??
i have an alesis micron and i know absolutely nothing about MIDI, is it possible to use these two machine in conjunction with one another??
if i have the audio out from my DJ mixer going into the 555 and then the audio out from the 555 going BACK into my DJ mixer will this cause any sort of feedback issues??

and finally, is it worth the price. here in europe the 555 is currently more than the MPC 500 and the 404 is a lot cheaper (and more portable).

peace.

The 555 is fantastic for chopping up samples. All the SPs are.
You can use your micron with it for sure. If midi doesnt work you can just use loop capture to record what you play with your sequence.
You dont want to run the output of your Dj Mixer into and then back into the mixer. its possible to make it work but its not ideal at all. Your best bet would be to get a small mixer and run everthing thru the send/returns.
If your a tablist I would say its worth the price. If not id say no. The loop capture is a dream feature if your working with instruments outside the sampler.

Frantic, can you set the record straight at Roland Clan? Please? That Quinxx dude is being very negative about it and you need to drop your considerable knowledge on that sucker!

It's the 'can it chop?' thread..

Dj Frantic wrote:The loop capture is a dream feature if your working with instruments outside the sampler.

Yeah, totally true. Plugging in my guitar or bassguitar and recording simple loop stuff is awesome. Being able to plug in a mic is awesome too, works like a charm. With slower paced music 15 sec of recording time through Loop Capture is not much though... that is, solo stuff that lasts longer than that should be chopped into samples and imported instead as the manual says "use samples for that".

Chopping itself on the SP-555 can be done and it's not difficult at all, however you need to be able to time things correctly and be able to hear where/when you need to chop. It's not visual... there's no screen. But if you ask me, that's just about the only negative thing I've noticed so far (ya together with the 'missing' USB cable lol ) and really if you practice this and have a bit of a feeling for music you'll be just fine anyway!

another thing that's great about the 555 is:
if you look at the videos at the rolandus.com that mike postet here you can see that dj kentaro(or what his name was) is overdubbing a loop and then saving the overdub to a pad.

This means that if you have a drumloop you can play live bass over it and save just the bass to a pad.. that is a great feature!

Word, that's definitely something you're going to use a lot with the SP-555.

kristoffer1989 wrote:another thing that's great about the 555 is:
if you look at the videos at the rolandus.com that mike postet here you can see that dj kentaro(or what his name was) is overdubbing a loop and then saving the overdub to a pad.

This means that if you have a drumloop you can play live bass over it and save just the bass to a pad.. that is a great feature!

thats what im saying. the ability to save it to a pad is whats dope.

i really wish the 555 had a screen tho. i mean, other than the 404 style screen (something more like the 606-style, i guess).

i'm okay with the 'mark' chop, you know - just using yr ears. but i'd really love to have the OPTION to see the wave, and hack off parts, move markers around, etc. it would straight-up build on how i've used the pc.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I will most likely end up buying the 707 (or perhaps a 606) somewhere early 2008.... It's not that I'm not satisfied with the SP-555, not at all, but those two machines will complement eachother very well methinks.

Im happy with the screen.

i like the 404 screen. i don't think the 555 can loop something and keep the music going without pause, which is why i'm gonna buy a boss loop station.

iG9 wrote:i like the 404 screen. i don't think the 555 can loop something and keep the music going without pause, which is why i'm gonna buy a boss loop station.

really? i thot kentaro was doing that....i'll go back and re-watch. i'm pro'lly wrong.

i have the rc20xl, if you want some info on it. it is pretty great, but the rc50 is pro'lly better, for multiple tracks and stereo outs.

It cant keep the music going on its own. With something else it can....same can be said for alot of things tho

What exactly do you mean with 'pause' while looping?

say u record that bass to pad, it has to write it in memory first(milliseconds). this is why this is not a real looper.
i really like the topdog rc(rc50?) it looks bullet proof, midi, stereo, it might even have a memory card slot. u could use just a rc2(no midi though) and they are pretty cheap.
actually i'm startin to warm up to the 555 though.