School me on the Roland SP-404sx

[K2000]

I impulsively bought one of these a few weeks ago, now I gotta learn how to use it...

Please share any tips? I'm wondering about the best way to organize samples (have all "verse" parts on one bank? Or have all "drum" sounds on same bank? Etc). Does that even matter? Really, any tips on efficiency, issues to beware, etc. Lets banter! (I'll listen in). And is there a 404 forum, by any chance? Any good resources online?

I'll probably record samples into Logic, and then move the best ones onto the SD card. I guess I'm a little worried about generating a bunch of samples which will be hard to sift through later. File management and file naming is one of my weaknesses with Logic (I don't have a handle on best practices, so I'm constantly losing track of clips). I figure it's only gonna get worse now.

Bonus dumb question #1 - how many different samples can I play back at one time? Is it realistic to have multiple samples playing at once?

Without giving away your trade secrets, maybe somebody can discuss their workflow, or strategy in using the 404 in a tabletop setting? What about the 404 vs. the 555?

[kbit]

Dr Sherm Sticks will be in here shortly to get you on all the deets. But this is a link of some stuff you're looking for:

A) sp-forums
B) Bank Robber (file management program)

http://sp-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11122

[Mark of the Beast]

Hey I've got the SP-505 which somehow gets overlooked despite it having more features than the sp-404/sp-303, a nice screen to chop up wave forms, the same work flow, and cheaper used.

Sample management is one of the annoying drawbacks of the machine. So it makes sense to stay in the zone and finish what you are working on. I find that it helps to keep a lot of the same sounds from a song on the same bank, so you don't have to search around for a sample. On the SP-505, you can go into micro and it will tell you the sample location if it's already in the pattern. I don't know if you can do this on the 404sx, but it's a helpful trick.

Also I tend to keep my drum sounds on the permanent banks since I use them the most. Although if you use the card bank and switch cards, it will replace all your sounds but keep the pattern info which has led to some happy accidents.

Good luck and also check out the forum that KBIT posted about above, I'm sure you'll find something helpful there.

[baremountain]

Yo! Welcome to the 404 world
I agree the sample management could use some improvement. I've hit it from several angles, but nothing has really worked. Try keeping your SD cards labeled and keeping a journal of samples?
Also a dedicated bank for lone drum sounds is a good idea if you're going for traditional beatmaking. It's really what works for you.
I've never bottomed out with polyphony for what that's worth.
A big complaint I have is the sequencer is rigid & kinda inflexible for mistakes. No grid view/step mode, everything has to be done by cycling through the sequence in real time. Also the FX *will* remember settings when you switch to another sample, BUT you can only have it hold memory for the last sample you had FX on, and you can only processes one sound thru FX at a time. There's no elegant (read: handled digitally & not open to user error) method to record an effected sample into a new sample slot. You can do it easily, but you'll always end up having to trim and it can be a pain sometimes.

Pros:
The onboard fine trimming function is a fucking lifesaver. Once you get ahold of that, it's super useful. That said, it ALWAYS starts the sample over at the beginning when you make an adjustment and it's the fucking worst when you're trying to precisely trim the end off of a 15 second sample. For short samples it's sick though.
Flagging subsections of samples to with start and end marks is super easy & intuitive
Reorganizing samples on the fly isn't too difficult (using the function key & the move/copy function)
If you've got a clean bank, you can easily break down a long sample into many shorter samples by copying the long one to each slot in a bank & trimming from there. Makes it super easy to take a 30-50 second recording and gut it for all the good stuff.
Built in microphone is actually super useful if you don't wanna make a mess. It's sensitive and doesn't sound bad.

Just buy a fuckton of SD cards. I've filled cards in terms of sample # (120 max per card), but never hit the ceiling data-wise, so a 2GB card should always be fine. If I've got a clean bank I can go from nothing to a full song within an hour most of the time that I pick my 404 up. It's a great tool!

MotB, the 404sx doesn't save patterns or samples locally; you have to have an SD card so what you're describing doesn't carry over from the 505.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

^ u totally can effect more than one sound. press remain + pads to assign fx to as many pads as u want (including ext. input). or press remain+ one of the fx buttons to effect ALL pads+ext.

also a trick to trim the end of the sample is to put the sample in reverse and use the trim from there then flip it back when u are done.
this way it will start at the end of the sound every time and you can hear where you are trimming much faster.

the SP's are loaded w/ tricks. its just not always obvious or documented in the manual.

mute group trick. put SP in delete mode (be careful not to accidentally confirm and delete a sound). now all the pads will cancel out every other pad when pressed, sorta giving you one mute group. unfortunately u can't resample or anything from here so its really only good for live playing or recording into another device.
but is a neat trick.

[baremountain]

^ u totally can effect more than one sound. press remain + pads to assign fx to as many pads as u want (including ext. input). or press remain+ one of the fx buttons to effect ALL pads+ext.

also a trick to trim the end of the sample is to put the sample in reverse and use the trim from there then flip it back when u are done.
this way it will start at the end of the sound every time and you can hear where you are trimming much faster.

Thanks for the pointers! That FX trick will come in mad handy.
Also that reverse trimming will come in mad handy. I think I had tried that before but maybe I was trimming from the beginning (thinking the reverse flipped what the SP referred to as the beginning or ending). Either way, thanks for the pointers!

[comesect2.0]

that slicer effect is crazy on there.........i use 16gb sd cards and record for good hr....what is it ..like 6 pads at a time can be played at once...the dj fx looper is great to slow down any input and able to record while effecting a sample on fly is easy. whole albums been made with just that thing for me. just experiment youll see 3 hrs pass by in an instant havin fun with it.