Sunday, March 02, 2008

SP-404 Studio Jam



Sampling has never been one of the arts that I have been able to master and unfortunately it has never found a place really in my gear set at all. I am constantly on the look out for a sampler to somehow incorporate into my gear and normally everyone's suggestions for the live artist gravitate towards the MPC series or the Korgs ESX-1. All that being said I have on several occasions looked at the SP-404 from Roland as another alternative and I think it is unfortunately overlooked in many circles. . In the video above we have drewzle showing a nice little off kilter usage of the 404 and it gets me thinking again about this oft under looked groove sampler.

2 comments:

felix said...

Yeah the 303 and the 404 are both under appreciated.

I used to have an MPC 1000 and the 404 (which I borrowed from a friend) was a lot more fun to use. It lacked many of the sample copy/move and beat/sequence editing/saving that the MPC had...but it was a lot nice in terms of getting something sampled and playable quickly.

There are some producers (like Madlib) that have done entire albums with just a few records and a 303.

Oh yeah, and the 404 operates on batteries (for an impressive amount of time) and has a built in microphone!

Jeez, I want to buy one right now.

Unknown said...

Hi,
thanks for sharing my video, and giving the humble SP some attention :)

it is definitely a great live tool - the effects are heaps of fun, the CF card allows HUGE amounts of audio storage, and the pads are great for directly accessing your sounds/loops.

keep up the good work!

peace