Should you buy an SP-404 in 2024? (a humble opinion)

Yo, what's up? Thanks for checking out another one of our videos. Sorry, our upload schedule has been kind of wack. I'm going to try and push a few more of these out. I got plenty of machines to cover and all that type of stuff, but we appreciate you checking it out and allowing us to speak monotonely at you about drum machines that we're not sure anyone cares about anymore. I know by now most people already know about the SP404, seeing as how there's a new version that does a lot more stuff. I

figured I would still break out my old one and make this video to help anyone who may be on the fence about their value in 2024. I'm going to show you how I use mine in a couple different ways. I'll also talk about what parts of the unit I like and what keeps it valid to me. There are a ton of different ways to utilize the machine and it can get interesting when you dive into other people's workflow. A simple YouTube search would bring thousands of videos and tutorials showcasing some of the dif

ferences in use. The actual amount of information on this machine is so plentiful that it becomes in itself a huge plus to owning one. I don't expect to break any boundaries with this video. I just wanted to put out a few realistic opinions I had about it. Okay, here comes the baseline stuff as far as the machine specs and what the different versions mean. The original SP404 was released around 2005. The original version had a compact flash card reader and a couple of differences in effects main

ly with the sound of the compressor and the sound of the vinyl sim, if I recall. I haven't owned one in a while. In 2009, the SP404SX was released with an updated card reader and some changes to the compressor effects and a few other minor things. The workflow improved due to the SD card speeds being faster and generally being able to be used in higher capacity. The base workflow did stay the same though. The only real difference between the SP404SX and the SP404A, which is the one in this video

, is pretty much the paint job. On the front panel, this is where all your controls are. You have your pots for different effect parameters. You've got your effect trigger pads around the screen in the middle there. Everything else is bank buttons, sample slots, and hold and input buttons. Looking at the back, you have RCA input and output, a MIDI in your power switch, and your optional power adapter to run the unit. I had to freeze frame this part because I shot it kind of badly. Your front pan

el has an instrument line in like a guitar cable. It's got a headphone in, 1,25 inch. It's got volume and SD card slot with a secure screw. Like I said before, there are a ton of workflows for this thing. Some people like to make the whole beat in the SP404. This isn't really for me. I find it kind of tedious. [BLANK_AUDIO] The SP404 Mark 1, I guess we can use that to differentiate that we're talking about the old ones, doesn't really have a slicing or chopping tool implemented into it. Which me

ans if you're going to chop up a sample, it's going to be very hands-on. A couple of times I worked on a project like this, I found that copying the sample to a few of the pads and then using the mark button to mark the start was the best way to do it. Which brings me to another point. If you've never used one of these, there's no way to have a sample cut off another sample unless you hit the polyphony limit. The best way in my opinion to handle sample chops is to play them in gate mode. Basical

ly just hold the pad down and let go when you're done and you're going to trigger another one. I think one of the machine's big draws comes from its portability. When the 303 and the 202 were released, they were easily the most portable samplers. And the SP404 kind of expands on that idea and function. I've used my battery for a while and can fit easily into a backpack. This makes it a really good choice for playing beat sets. I actually use mine as kind of like a hardware Ableton where I can tr

igger loops in one shots and then affect them while they're playing. It's also pretty durable and I'm never really worried about mine in a live setting. Also if you're playing with a bunch of friends that use the same gear, you can just swap out memory cards and only have to bring one machine. I've used both the MK1 and the MK2 live and I honestly think the pots on the MK1 SPs are a little more burly. Or maybe it's just the fact that the MK2 is new and still in its fragility phase for me. Let me

know what you think. I use the SP404 a lot in conjunction with this SPIN portable turntable. I kind of use it as a sample capture device. Like if I'm going to one of my friend's house and you know rating their record crates. Or even sometimes some of the stores like around us will let you dig through records with one of these portable turntables so you can hear or check out mine before you buy it. A lot of times I'll use the machine in conjunction with other stuff that's RCA to capture loops of

it. Or capture different one shots or chords from a synthesizer. I kind of use it as a utility knife. Outside of playing predetermined sets or loops of sets or doing live remixes. I'm working my way over to switching to the MK2 but I'm just so used to using this for live stuff. So we'll see what happens. I find a lot of value in having a machine that allows me to capture samples through effects. So like you can turn any of the effects on the input channel. Most people know this but if you don't

that allows you to add an effect to what you're sampling in. So if you want to sample in a drum break and make it cross the right off rip you can do that. I find that it's really useful when you're using one of these almost like a field recorder for samples. It helps out and it helps you get kind of a good idea of sound design choices for that particular sample. Using the SP-404 as a companion piece to another sampler is also a really good idea. So in this kind of example you can either capture

like drum loops that you play or whole chunks of songs like off the MPC-1000 for example. You could play a sequence in and capture the loop and now you have the loop in your SP to be further manipulated with DJ effects or low-fi or equalizers, isolators, stuff like that. Sometimes I even use mine as like a master compressor for older gear like whether it's the 2000XL or the MPC-1000 it gets run into an SP-404 almost like a bus. It ends up working really well especially if you do a lot of EQing

and you get everything good to go in like the first sampler and you use the SP-404 to just crush it. All in all the SP-404 is a worthwhile purchase if you're thinking about getting one or you're looking at it for as a companion piece to other stuff you have. If you can find it for the right price and you're not using it solely to make a beat it's definitely worth it. Like if you're solely making beats on this device I would probably recommend the MK2 for an all-in-one device. However having one

of these or two of these or if you're like me and you obsessively collect stuff every number version of these machines can prove useful in more ways than one. Whether it's something you can take with you on like a road trip to grab samples from maybe a record store that's not local to you or something to throw your headphones on and just have like some meditation. Super useful battery power lasts a long time even though right now in this clip mine's saying low battery and it's probably going to

die. But they do last pretty long and they're super reliable. I've never experienced a crash with any SP sampler I've owned. So even if you're just going to use it as an FX box it's a good choice. There's a lot of stuff. I'll link a couple utilities. You can use Roland's utility to just like shoot Ableton loops out and drag and drop it onto the SD card. There's also I think Superchops is still a thing which was like a third party developed app. I used to use something called bank robber but I do

n't know if bank robbers even available anymore but that one was cool. You could see all your waveforms on the SD card as if you were looking on the as if the SP had like a screen. So all in all would recommend if you can get one for like a good price even if it's just to have it as an FX box because some of the effects in this machine are classic.