All user reviews for the Roland SP-404

Amazing efx section! 'DJ Efx Looper', 'Sub-sonic' are some of the new stuff. Really kool stuff! BAttery operation!! sampling is very easy. resample, trim, loop, reverse. editing is simple too. sequence section: very simple to make patterns: many features for u to play around with. very light!

Price paid

$285

UTILIZATION

This baby will shoot your music production speed to the roof!!

I'm using it for 3 months. No problem.

SOUNDS

Fantastic sound! 24 bit! sampling from other media (cd, tapes) is very easy with superb quality. In-built miic usage not recommended. But there is an external mic input; use it for your field recording (battery operation!!)

OVERALL OPINION

Sexy!. looks fantastic beside my 2 cdj turntables.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: abba ( 1-, 2006)

Jam-packed for it's size and price, without making you jump through 500 button-combos. Everything is nearly self-explanatory, with a small bit of re-reading bits of the manual to "get it". Light-up buttons make it great for a darker area, you can have the area around the LED pulse to the BPM. The effects are nice for a unit this price, controllability is easy, and you can throw it in and use the effects on inputs-in. Lots of banks, a huge improvement over the last 303. Built-in mic and of course- it's battery operated. Make beats on the bus. The "sub pad", when hit, plays the last pad you hit on the 1-12 area. Perfect for rolls and doubling up. But I will say- I really really wish it had velocity-sensitive pads. I mean, this can be remedied by resampling your snares and such at lower volumes, but it's annoying. This thing is awesome for DJing though- whether used for live effects or sample triggering. Say you made a new track- throw it on and use it that night. The pads are crisp and hit on time. But watch out for the pitch- as usual, it sucks when pushed past the +/- 3 area. A very, very good multi-use machine, especially for the price.

$400 USD

UTILIZATION

Very easy. Pick it up and start hitting away. I figured out most of it within 20 minutes of tinkering with it.

Metal faceplate, rubber pads, plastic bottom. Haven't had many problems with it's durability yet, it has a semi-heavy feel to it. I was quite surprised by the quality feel of it, a major jump from the sp-303.

SOUNDS

What more can you say? 44.1khz cd-quality sampling. It actually doesn't weaken down bass. Straight-sampling. You can also EQ while importing (helpful if you're importing directly without a mixer/anything else).

OVERALL OPINION

It's a great machine. Yes, you can make beats on it. But be warned- the sequencer blows hard. It sucks. It's best just to hit them live into something else. Other than the sequencer and the non-velocity-sensitive pads, it's a complete machine for sample triggering, looping, and basic effect-functions. Quality through and through, and can support up to 1gb compactflash cards.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: nickp ( 3-, 2006)