mpc500 vrs rolandsp404

im thinking of getting either a mpc500 or a roland sp404 just for travle and whatever out of studio stuff i might wana do...

im more leanin for the sp404 cuz its alot cheaper, and i dont need something that expencive cuz im hardly ever out of studio, but when i am i alwase wish i had something to produce with lol....

any suggestions?

The SP404 only has one sequencer track and can only record 8000 notes. Sure, you could probably get away with that, but if you wanted your drums on one track and say bass on another, well, it wouldn't be possible. 8000 notes too.. you may run out quick unless you're just working on one song at a time. I have multiple songs at any one time in my MPC500. I use each individual sequence as a full song. There are 99 sequences and up to 60000 notes, so it can hold a lot. Sounds too, with the MPC500 you can build whole instument programs, and it can store up to 128 programs, all accessible at any time. In each program you can have up to 48 sounds. Memory can be 128mb which will hold a lot! Not to mention that you can sequence external midi instruments too, up to 48 tracks. That 48x what you get on the SP404.

So yeah, you get a hell of a lot more power with an MPC500.

haha dang i knew there was a diffrence, but i didnt kno it was that big... thanks for the info

haha dang i knew there was a diffrence, but i didnt kno it was that big... thanks for the info

You can have multiple songs in the 404 also. I'm not exactly sure how many, but you can do a lot with it. Also, if your on the road, it's very doubtfull that your going to need the full sequencing power of an mpc. The Sequencer in the 404 is almost like the SP-1200. One track sequencer with basic editing. There are many people that make beats with just the SP-303/404 and nothing else. For the price of a used SP, you can't go wrong, and you get an internal mic to record any outside noises, and a gang of effects.

thekidjuno wrote:im thinking of getting either a mpc500 or a roland sp404 just for travle and whatever out of studio stuff i might wana do...

im more leanin for the sp404 cuz its alot cheaper, and i dont need something that expencive cuz im hardly ever out of studio, but when i am i alwase wish i had something to produce with lol....

any suggestions?

i got a 404 first and sold it and got a 500 cuase after i bought it i found out that you cant export (patterns) seqences from the 404 memory card to your computer. this was a major problem for me. also, the 500 has more text and stuff cause theres a bigger lcd screen, i never really got around to making a whole song on my 404 becuase i couldent get the whole sequence in .wav off of the memory card. i use my 500 WAY more than i ever used my 404. but the 404 does have some nice effects.
and another feature that was sick about the 404 was that when you were playing back a pattern or sequence, the pads lit up to tell you which ones were being pushed as it was playing, this made it much easier to erase a note you didnt need and what not, it was nice but i wouldnet make my desicion off of just that lol. and the mpc has midi in and out and the 404 only had midi in. or maybe it just had midi out, you might wana double check that but im pretty sure it was midi in.
no usb on the 404 either.

i would defineltly go for the mpc homie!
worth the extra 300 or so.

A major issue for me (a Flamenco guitarist) was that the SP-404 does not do 3/4 patterns, from what I understand (I don't see a way of setting the time signature in the manual.)

Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Thanks,

Chuck

another dope thing i forgot to mention about the 404 is that you can create your own bass sounds.

but id definetley get the 500