Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
By kevin Sat Feb 25, 2023 7:26 am
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I'm trying to connect MPC ONE to sp-404 mkii to give fx effect, but I can't connect. Unlike MPC Live 2, does MPC ONE not have an extra output terminal so it cannot be connected?
By HouseWithoutMouse Sat Feb 25, 2023 1:12 pm
Using it as a USB audio interface won't be possible, because the SP-404 mkII is locked to 48000 Hz sampling rate, and the MPC is locked to 44100 Hz, and this is non-negotiable. So it'll have to be analog.

Using it as a send or bus insert effect is theoretically possible with an external multi-channel USB audio interface, but the SP unfortunately has a long non-constant latency which depends on your effect settings, so it will be problematic in practice. See this video for an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juZ3gdzlPxo (Ricky Tinez, "I Finally Bought the SP-404mkII For One Reason // But It has Latency.. ") So you cannot, for example, do a heavy lo-fi filter with the SP and route some of your drums another way, bypassing the lo-fi, because the drums and the rest of it will be badly out of phase.

So the only practical option left is to use the SP-404 mkII as a master effect which processes the whole stereo mix. MPC -> SP -> final audio output, with analog cables.
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By Lampdog Sat Feb 25, 2023 3:42 pm
Fixed the pic link.
By HouseWithoutMouse Sat Feb 25, 2023 5:45 pm
If the 48000 vs 44100 problem could be solved by either Akai or Roland, the SP-404 mk2 would be a very nice USB companion for an MPC or Force. AFAIK the SP-404 mk2 provides 4 audio channels of input, so you could route two separate stereo buses into it from the Akai side. I suppose this would avoid the latency problem. But no can do, Akai doesn't accept 48 kHz and Roland doesn't accept 44.1 kHz.