SP-303 vs SP-404SX // Can You Hear The Difference? 

Enrique Martinez Music i have the 404 og and the vinyl sim is different compared to the sx. ctrl 1 is CMP. i do like the 303 sound but the 404 takes it for me

You can’t go wrong with the 404sx; extra pads, banks, sd card convenience, no lag etc. The subtle differences in sound are negligible in my opinion.

Enrique Martinez Music sp 404 sx is the best

Great video man. I love the 303 but have never messed with a 404. I just don’t understand why they removed the compressor setting from the vinyl simulator on the 404. What are your thoughts on this? Also, sorry if i left two comments - I couldn’t tell if my first one posted :)

303 hands down!!

Thanks Hand, gotta have a little fun with it right?

This! The thing to do with the 303 vinyl sim is to turn the noise and flutter all the way down and just use the compressor in it, great sound. As far as actually simulating vinyl, the noise and flutter on the 404 sound a lot more convincing, but the vinyl compression on the 303 is fantastic. It's almost worth having one just to use that one effect on drum machines alone. I got mine free because two of the pots were cracked off the PCB, and even though I bridged the broken traces I wouldn't really trust it for heavy use but I use it a lot for the vinyl compressor, the sound of the lo-fi sampling mode and the overall workflow of sampling and resampling to come up with loops that I'll record into the Octatrack. It's also great to just keep hooked up to the aux out on the stereo in case you want to grab a quick sample when you're listening to music or watching a movie or something. EDIT: The 303 time stretch algorithm sounds pretty wretched in a good way, too.

Yeah it’s the Vinyl sim

vulf compressorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Ehhh

He’s the man!!

Chad Wallz Which compressor? Vinyl sim or MFX?

Chad Wallz exactly why I want it 100% . Can I not achieve it with the 404sx?

The 404sx has something similar. Just use the bit crusher MFX with the filter turned off. You will get a metric ton of sp1200 style aliasing on your samples

@@MGoolas na u cant fake the funk

Higher Glyphix The trick on the SP1200 was to record 33rpm vinyls at 45rpm & then pitch the sample down which contributed to that gritty low bit sound & ofcourse saved memory Just an idea to maybe get that 'authentic' 1200 flava

@@XHALE303 do this on a 202...with the variable SR and pitch/time knob = textures and dirt levels that an sp1200 could never achieve

​@@XHALE303 Actually it wasn't really that, when you listen to Pete Rock, he never really did that. He used the Akai S950 for basslines and longer samples and SP1200 for drums I reckon.

Haha, yea clearly can be heard now right?

Enrique Martinez Music definitely, the 404sx is a lot harsher

I was thinking that or maybe he didn’t trim the samples in the 303?

same it thre me of very much

Same specially with the snare

there is 100% a delay or it plays the sample slower by MS

Old thread but I'm pretty sure it's related to loading the samples

Kyle my man! thanks so much

I was hearing that also, i like the tail end and natural feel of the 303 reverb. 404 sounded almost like a gate, or a massive pre-delay

Thanks Spider, yea im a bit on the fence about it too even though i like the 303 effects more sometimes

what you mean by dynamics ? You know what is dynamic ? The compressor explodes dynamics.

woooord! 202 & 505 are heavily underrated....

Well, maybe I can interest you in my channel then... I made many tutorial videos on the MC-505 and the EMX which are my favorite instruments. I also have an ESX, MC-909 and an MC-307. The first groovebox I ever bought was an MC-303 back in 1997. If you have any questions on these units let me know.

@@LousyFacelift Awesome , thanks for letting me know. I'll be sure to check out your channel!

wr4 Thanks! 😊

What's long mode?

@@tom22333 there are three sample modes on the 303 - standard, long & Lo-fi. Long is for longer samples at a cost of recording at a reduced sample rate, lofi allows even longer but comes with an even greater sample rate reduction. The reduction affects the sound of the sample and causes a more grainy tone.

Wreckless Reto they are all complete shit

@@richariz7896 haha, they seem to be..

Yeah the OG 404 has more vibe to it.The SX is higher quality,less character.

The OG HAS A WAY MORE BOOM bap sound to it JUST like the 303, I find the vinyl sim on the 404 OG sounds a lot more drunken on the wobble

Definitely recommend the 555🙏🤙🏼

You got it! sorry about that :)

mpc500

u sold 202? jeez

Why the 303 over the SX tho?

@@phansy9642 there's no sequencer memory cards are €110

@@adriannunez8868 the sample rates, compressor & filter to begin with

I don't think it is, maybe the 404, let me know what you find, I just moved my mc-909 to the shelf, so it is out of it for a while. If I somehow missed that the 909 can do 303 compression, I'll kick myself in the ass, and get that 909 back into the swing of things.

Which one ha

Whoa, had no idea.. that might be the one for me!

Yeah - the OG 404 is definitely a sweet spot in the series, imho (sound v storage/features etc ...) 👍🏼😎👍🏼

Yeah. Something about it right? I'm going to need to find one for my personal collection

Can i buy it From you?

Just got the SP 404A you want be mad but i also have the 303 also . Its not much that stands toe to toe with the 303 thoe . I'm thinking about writing a petition to up grade the 303 but keep the same internals as far as sound goes .

Are we just gonna gloss over the fact that your dog ate a machine that costs a rack?

@Nath T naw I don't remember the effects limiter feature being available on the 505.

You are correct. The 404 mk2 is on backorder until September 2022 (from some estimates I've seen)

just scored a sp-202 with 4MB memory card for 100$

@@256k_ that's an incredibly good deal grats dude

Can i buy it?

BUTTER BUTTER BUTTER

@@jonasan2417 ayyye lol

how did i know id find you on here.....hahahah BUTTTTER

@@RanaAli-eb2rg ayyyyyye butttta

ofc u did bro. thats ur tag g lolololol!!

Elu Eboka ll

@@BarnacleButtock SP303 manual p.52 - media.sp-forums.com/manuals/SP-303_OM.pdf SP404 manual p.38 - media.sp-forums.com/manuals/SP-404_OM.pdf

They were sampled in!

@@RickyTinez Cool! good to know, thanks for the speedy reply

Yea i liked the 303 reverb more too, felt a little more real vs the gated sounded 404sx

Good Eye!

@@rorz999 yeah, you're probably right, but the delay is too much to be an 'almost perfect trim' so he probably didn't care about it being exact or close, wich is also fine. thx

man... needed this since day one!

Hey Carl, that latency was my fault. I didn't bother to clean up the dead space in the beginning of the samples. You can trim and shorten them too. So the 303 would be just as fast as the 404

Carl S don’t think it was latency it looked more like Enrique either didn’t trim/set his sample start on the 303.

Enrique Martinez Music yeah that makes sense! I also thought that if there where latency, you would maybe not even compare it to the 404sx, idk. Nice video though! I’m actually looking to buy a more in-depth sampler, rather than the po33, which I love and use a lot (usually lofi hip hop). I think I might end up with the 404sx. I’ve also looked at the mpc1000 and actually found a great deal on eBay, but it isn’t as portable than the 404sx, though “better”. I don’t even know, haha

Hoose yeah if it was real latency, it would have been an awful “feature” to the machine. Probably can’t even call a feature

J Fields i couldn’t agree more, I was just pointing the latency out, ‘Cause even if the sp404sx isn’t really the beat for finger drumming, it should still be available, or in this case the 303