there must be a simpler way of doing this... advice apprecia

Hey all,

I'm hoping somebody can help me discover a shortcut to what I'm trying to do with my 2500 (jjos2 v. 1.18) and the SP-404.

The 404 can't pitch samples turntable-style. If you pitch up, the length of the sample is the same, and it sounds warbly and shitty, you know what I mean? I need real pitch like with the mpc.

I have a bunch of samples in my 404, and I want to pitch them all up by a semitone.

Thankfully, my 32mb cards will work with both machines, so I can.... export a sample to the card inside the 404, then import on the MPC, then change the pitch, then sample the pitched-up sample from the main outs, then save back to the card in the MPC, then import the newly-pitched sample into the 404 again.

This takes a very very long time to do. On top of the process described above, I also have to set new start/end points on the sample with the MPC because it must be sampled twice. In many cases, the sounds are designed to be in loop mode when played on the 404. Ideally I would like to be able to import the samples into the MPC and pitch them up in trim mode, but the "pitch shift" window in this mode does the same time-stretchy type pitching as the 404! Is there an easier way to do this without using software? I'm stuck

K. Rah wrote:The 404 can't pitch samples turntable-style. If you pitch up, the length of the sample is the same, and it sounds warbly and ****, you know what I mean? I need real pitch like with the mpc.

Is there an easier way to do this without using software? I'm stuck

With the power of todays computers, I prefer sw over any of the four hardware samplers I own.

But that's just me. A good multitrack daw or editor such as soundforge does a very good job from my experiences.

Yeah a computer is your friend here. Get an audio editor app with time stretching and hopefully batch conversion/export. Or get a free copy of Live Lite and do it there although you'd have to export one at a time.

PM me if you want to try the Live Lite route. I have a couple extra serial numbers from getting the app as a pack in with MIDI controllers. The serials are for Lite 6 but Ableton will let you use the serials for the latest Live Lite 8 I believe.

thanks guys, i picked up reaper for mac and i hope it will do the trick. if not, metatron i'll def pm you, thanks!

Here's away for without the software for the time being:

Get (2) CF cards one in the MPC and one in the SP404 load the samples into the MPC pitch your samples then just sample Via the audio outs on your mpc into the audio in ports on the SP404.
This will help you with your re-sampling loop problem.

As for the SP404 hit record and stop when needed and the start & end points corrections should be small depending on your accurracy with hitting the record & stop button.

Super duper easy way is to hot swap the cf cards. That simple.

Your MPC can read your cards from the 404 without import/export nonsense.

Sample in your 404, swap over the cf card to the MPC, pitch, then swap cf over to the 404.

Stop wasting money gotdammit!! Shit!

thanks guys, realizing now how damn lazy i am. i wish i could pitch those samples in trim mode, that would be nice. for now i'm trying to the reaper thing, seems to work quickly... thanks again. @Ill Green, looks like we're both featured on Blatvasky's new record!

K. Rah wrote:thanks guys, realizing now how damn lazy i am. i wish i could pitch those samples in trim mode, that would be nice. for now i'm trying to the reaper thing, seems to work quickly... thanks again. @Ill Green, looks like we're both featured on Blatvasky's new record!

Thanks for reminding me, I gotta send that ASAP! Yes, I kick a few verses. I've been fuct up these last couple months with personal issues, but I will find time, can't send files thru this phone.

i would ask why you need to pitch all of them up a semitone?

seems like you could detune the thing you are trying to match, instead.

would need to know the details though - maybe you thought of that.

tapedeck wrote:i would ask why you need to pitch all of them up a semitone?

seems like you could detune the thing you are trying to match, instead.

would need to know the details though - maybe you thought of that.

Well, the idea is that I'm building a live set to be played on a pair of 404s, where each 'song' is set to a sample bank.

For example, pad 9 will be the kick, pad 12 the snare, pad 3 the first half of the bassline, etc and I'll switch to a different bank after each song.

Some of these tracks sound a little too downtempo, and when I sampled myself playing them into the mpc, I realized that pitching up the performance better-matched the tempo and key of the following part, making a smoother transition.

So all of the original loop settings/pad arrangements need to be the same, only each one needs to be pitched up to help match the other songs.