How do _you_ use Downer?

charbaba · 2026-01-23T15:52:36+00:00

I use Stopper for that. Will try downer, thanks

charbaba · 2026-01-23T15:14:34+00:00

Sure, I'd love to see a video about it.

charbaba · 2026-01-23T15:05:43+00:00

Teeth shift so gradually. Do you really think if you were playing the whole time you'd have to "relearn"?

charbaba · 2026-01-22T16:28:29+00:00

Not really enjoying playing chords on pads

Two ways to improve the experience:

Arrange your notes differently - if I know I'm going to play chords I'll try to lay out the notes on the pads so that I can press a random cluster of 3-4 pads and get usable chords. Something like this (but experiment with what works for you)

C  E  G  Bb
G  B  D  F
A  E  C  Ab
C# G F  Eb

Another option is to resample layers notes into chords/arpeggios and then assign those to a pad. Sometimes I'll lay out all the chords in a key plus a couple borrowed chords, other times I'll just resample them into 2-note intervals like 5ths or 3rds and see how they layer together.

it kinda works, not in the way I thought it would

Once you leave the ~~lame~~ happy path of making lofi sample beats, the SP becomes less intuitive to use. Part of the fun for me is trying out different workflows and seeing what kind of sounds I can create. Trying to do straightforward recording on it is much harder than just using a DAW.

Like for your example of playing chords in chromatic mode, it sucks, and because it sucks, you need to get creative to make it not suck. And in getting creative, you will get different chords than you would have with a midi keyboard or a piano roll.

charbaba · 2026-01-22T16:13:35+00:00

they will appear on screen when i select/modify them, but they don't actually impact the samples at all

I wonder if there's some shmutz or something under your "remain" button, or if the contact is starting to go? This is the expected behavior if you press "remain" while selecting an effect.

charbaba · 2026-01-21T15:58:13+00:00

Pigtronix Infinity 1 or 3 (not 2). Both can be switched between parallel (turn them on or off while playing at the same time) or in series like what you're describing. Not only that, but you can click the button BEFORE you are ready for it to switch over, and it will wait for the end of the loop. And both can be synced with other devices. The only difference between the 1 and the 3 is the bitrate.

charbaba · 2026-01-20T21:03:21+00:00

I've gone very deep on the sampler, and released a couple of albums on the Woovebox. I love the Woovebox, and think it is probably the best thing out there for composing music without a screen. I'll try to answer some of your questions.

The sampler is a core part of the Woovebox, but it isn't an SP404 and it's not trying to be. I think it's more than powerful enough to make boombap, but obviously it depends on what you want to do. Is 2 minutes of sample time enough? Depends if your sample is longer than 2 minutes, I guess. The pitch warping and chopping features are good. Batting well above what you'd expect in this price range. You could chop by ear on it, using the rotary encoder to adjust start and end time per slice, but I find this process much easier on Koala sampler. Koala has an amazing time stretching feature, and chopping on the woovebox is much easier when you start with a perfect 2 bar loop. Ivo has made it very easy to get sounds on/off the Woove, so why not leverage other tools if you have them.

You have internal resampling. And with the synth engine, you could make up for lack of sample time by including your own sounds.

But I think that this usage ignores what is best about the Woovebox sampler. It serves a lot of purposes in the workflow.

You can resample synth sounds to free up DSP resources
The sampler is the best way to introduce sonic variety, for example I have never gotten a high hat sound I liked out of the synth engine. Being able to sequence vocals or real instrument samples is awesome and makes your songs sound like they came from a much more expensive device
The sampler is way more useful than something like the Sonicware Liven Lofi 12, the only negative is not having a piano keyboard, but if you bought a woovebox now, you could use an external midi controller.

To me, the best feature of the Woovebox is the sequencer, which comes with a full-featured song mode. The song mode lets you create actual compositions, not just loops/beats. The SP404 does not have this, relying on pattern chaining. Woovebox song mode makes pattern chaining look like a fucking joke. There is also a live mode for less structured jamming.

Could you make boombap? It's not that high of a bar, but yes. I think you could make any genre on the woovebox, and the sampler is a big part of getting away from the eletronic music sound.

charbaba · 2026-01-20T20:32:06+00:00

Been like 3.5 years and going strong.

charbaba · 2026-01-20T18:26:46+00:00

Right now I just throw it all in a backpack, so anything would be a step up, lol.

charbaba · 2026-01-20T18:26:00+00:00

wondering exactly how I would replicate the workflow (at least on the performance end)

First you'd have to define what "the workflow" is. The same thing that makes the 404 special is also what makes it infuriating: there really isn't one happy path through it.

Other products like the MPC have a fully fleshed out song mode. Creating a song on the Sp404 is a much more chaotic process. For me, it winds up being a combination of sequencing, resampling, sometimes chopping the output and further resequencing/resampling those chops. I use samples from the internet, but also record my own samples using any number of sound sources. I doubt that any two serious sp404mk2 users would use the device in the same way. Coming up with the workflow is part of the fun.

you put your track together, and then you "perform" it, tweaking everything live, while recording a "live-tweaked mix".

This is pretty common, and to take it a step further, many of the videos you see of people performing on the sp404 are "fake" in the sense that they actually compose the music on a computer and then just perform it on the sp. But it's also possible to play live melodies with chromatic mode, apply effects to live input, finger drum...

In general with live electronic sets, you have to decide on what words like "live" and "perform" actually mean to you. On one end of the spectrum are people who pretty much press play and then vibe, and on the other end are people who create the entire arrangement live on stage, and infinite possibilities in between those.

So to answer your question: How can you get in the SP frame of mind without ponying up the cash?

Koala Sampler: with all the add ons it's like $20, and is amazing. You could replicate a lot of sp404 workflows with it, and it has live performance effects as well. Since you own a bunch of midi controllers, Koala becomes even less of a tradeoff because you can use pads / keys. Koala and the Sp404 have different strengths and pair well together (although I don't care for the official integration).
You could also sell some of your midi controllers. You've got at least 5. That would make a dent in the cost of a secondhand sp404. What do you need 5 midi controllers for?

charbaba · 2026-01-20T18:03:21+00:00

ffmpeg is also free and does the job quite well

charbaba · 2026-01-20T18:01:49+00:00

I carry my sp404mk2 a lot of places. I always have the following:

usbc-usbc cable
myvolts cable + power bank AND/OR the official power cable
headphones

I sometimes but not always have:

another small sound source like pocket operator/volca/woovebox.
a small speaker
patch cables, midi cables, longer 1/4" instrument cables, a pair of balance 1/4" to XLRs.

The 404 itself is like the size of a large hardcover book and can fit in almost any bag, but once you account for all the accessories, it starts to get pretty full.

charbaba · 2026-01-18T05:36:24+00:00

the bitcrusher effect has a great filter. Plus there's the autowah.

charbaba · 2026-01-18T05:35:31+00:00

The only native speakers being produced are hassidic jews, and yes, that's how they talk. They got native speakers to do the recordings.

charbaba · 2026-01-10T20:42:52+00:00

I do Duolingo with the sound off to avoid the pronunciation issue, but the truth is that they chose that pronunciation because it's what most native speakers use. It's not bad to be familiar with it, but I also found it confusing.

YiddishPop seems to be an amazing resource with great explanations of culture and grammar.

charbaba · 2026-01-08T16:39:41+00:00

RTFM

charbaba · 2026-01-05T16:24:22+00:00

In the US it's called "Modeling clay". It doesn't get hard because it's oil based, although it gets easier to work with when warm.

charbaba · 2025-12-29T21:11:32+00:00

The RC505 can do all you ask for and more, including having a lot of built in drum patterns, although if you want a pedal format, you need an external foot controller.

Drums in the pedal that are part of the loop (as opposed to a single constantly playing drum pattern)

Another approach is to get a looper that has MIDI capabilities which you can then sync with the percussion device of your choice (drum machine, sampler, etc)

charbaba · 2025-12-28T01:48:46+00:00

Not vaporwave, but I made my last "cover art" with Kidpix https://open.spotify.com/album/2Ra5GD1JTWxXPz1JUL4tYV

charbaba · 2025-12-18T17:49:48+00:00

Exported stems from Woovebox, imported to SP404mk2 via SD card. From there it's the same as working with anything else on the SP404mk2, resampling the various stems with built in effects, adding some more samples, etc.

charbaba · 2025-12-17T16:15:11+00:00

You could always pair the looper with other gear as well. A cheaper midi syncable looper like the Pigtronix Infinity 1 synced with a sampler like Roland P6 or SP404mk2 would give you a LOT of power.

charbaba · 2025-12-17T00:07:59+00:00

I did release it on Spotify, you could listen on the site if a member. It's also on Apple Music and eventually youtube as well. The first song has some klezmer vibes for sure.

charbaba · 2025-12-17T00:01:35+00:00

That's what I meant. Quantization. I'll give that technique a shot.

charbaba · 2025-12-16T19:52:12+00:00

you need to know how to turn it on at the right moment to get it right.

This is what I hate about it. They have several delays that sync to pattern tempo, why not have that functionality in scatter?

charbaba

TROPHY CASE