The SP-404 is new from Roland - a little sampler with built in effects and sequencer, a bit like a tiny Akai MPC. It replaces the well-recieved SP-303 (here is a nice shot of Saul Williams' DJ playing live with just a SP-303 and a CD walkman), and revives a couple of features that were on the original SP-202 - battery power and a built in microphone for lo-fi on-the-go sampling. No price yet, but should be around £300. (via GearJunkies) UPDATE: My geek powers failed me, and I missed the most crucial part of the story. Over to Drew: "Holy crap, Roland finally made a 404! For those that don't know: Roland made the famous x0x machines in the 80's - there's a 101, a 202, 303, 505, 606, 707, 808, 909... but no 404! The reason was that the Japanese word for 'four' and their word for 'death' are very similar - four is considered an unlucky number, like 13 in western society..."
Holy crap, Roland finally made a 404!
ReplyDelete(for those that don't know: Roland made the famous x0x machines in the 80's - there's a 101, a 202, 303, 505, 606, 707, 808, 909... but no 404! The reason was that the Japanese word for 'four' and their word for 'death' are very similar - four is considered an unlucky number, like 13 in western society...)
huh, page not found...
ReplyDeleteJust kidding. I crack my self up.
Looks like those start/end points are still gonna be a pain in the....
ReplyDeleteI really dread dooing that by ear! (ala Akai s2000)
loop loop loolololololllllllll
404 is my phone area code tho' YAYAYAYAY!!!
ATL ATL ATL
aiiiight
That looks pretty neat. I've got an SP-202 that I picked up in Japan in 1998. I used it on a wild tour of Poland in 1999, improvising alongside a Polish jazz/rock band - even using the mic to sample them on the fly as we played. Lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteHey David Battino - I'd love a heads up on where to get a cheap Madplayer. I listen to a daily podcast, The Overnightscape, and the guy who does it uses a Madplayer to generate the background music on the fly.
since every linkback seems to want to hold any information captive, here's a link to the roland page for anybody who wants to see the announcement for real:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.roland.com/products/en/SP-404/
ReplyDeleteAlso, regarding the Madplayer, which place was it purchased from? Some of those places have pretty shitty reseller ratings, so I'd like to know what actually shipped the product :)
ReplyDeleteActually according to several sources, Roland was at least prototyping a TR-404 of all things possible back in the day.
ReplyDeleteThe same sources informed that some pre-production models are floating around... at least one, if not two sample cd makers have even included samples from such a thing in their collections. Whether these have any basis on reality is another thing...
That Roland 4 thing is total bollocks!
ReplyDeleteOr is the 1979 Jupiter 4 just a figment of my imagination????
LOL