Roland SP-404 vs Ableton

[milfhuntr]

Thinking about picking up an SP-404 real cheap but I am not sure I even need it.

I think I can do anything it can do on Ableton? Can an owner of one let me know if I need this?

Thanks.

[Oo.jason.oO]

I usesd to own an sp-404. It is very portable. That is it's *only* advantage. Ableton with a cheap pad controller (pick up an old m-audio trigger finger or some such thing from ebay) will do FAR more than any SP 404, and there is *nothing* the sp-404 could do better than ableton except be more portable. The effects on the SP-404 are also built-in making it faster to access and program them, but the variety and depth of what you could do effect-wise by mapping the dials on your pad controller (like the trigger-finger) to Ableton's effects would most definitely go beyond making up for it.

Unless you are doing pure performance in random places and want the most compact possible setup... or maybe doing sound effects for a play or something and want to keep things super-simple, it would be WAY more fun to have Ableton on a decent laptop with a cheap pad controller. More expensive too, but WELL worth it!

[freshdrumma]

i'm looking for a cheap sp 404 or 303 from long time, main use will be live, next to my drums, don't need to take my mac on the road, don't have to worry about spilling beer on a 1000$ computer, don't have to worry about people jumping on stage and trashing it.
but i'm also interested on the concept of having the smallest amount of features possible, limit myself and see what's coming out, i'm using ableton from version one, but recently i had more luck building tunes on my mpc 1000 (that just got smaked down on stage 3 days ago)
if you find one cheap and you don't want it, please pm me

[Sibanger]

So, what do you call cheap for a SP-404sx ?

[freshdrumma]

i was looking for one too but i gave up since the pads are really bad, the 303 instead have a little better pads and a crunchier sound.

i will love to have one for some reasons:

more portable than laptop or mpc (that i'm currently taking around)
stay away from the screen and just concentrate on music
different gear sparks differnt ideas
have a sound on it's own (bad or good, you decide)
if some one steels it on the road it's cheaper than my laptop
doesn't do internet or email so i don't get distracted

hope it helps

[MSB]

I used a 404 for a couple of years for live stiff (with other stuff too) it was great, had to do pretty much all prep work before hand though, like timing (which I used Ableton for) and processing. You can do some editing on the 404, but it is a pain in the ****.

Here's one of my home vids using it, kind of Ambient stuff sampled from Reaktor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP2hpbpjwak