The practical use for swapping position of Buses 1 and 2 is that it makes a big difference on the sound of your effects. Say you have Tape Echo on bus 1 and Hass Doubling on bus 2. Swapping position of buses 1 and 2 will give you a drastically different sound. It’s just changing the direction of the fx chain. It won’t always make a huge difference - like when you have Vinyl Sim on one bus, for example. But it’s an essential feature.
With Bus FX Type A you can still choose if a sample is effected only by Bus 2. it's either Bus 1 + 2 (Bus 1 / orange) or just Bus 2 (green) - there is a diagram in the manual. Cheers and thank you so much for all the great content on this topic.
Scooped up your new kit! My mkII arrives tomorrow - couldn't be more stoked and no doubt your videos have prepared me (I had a 404A previously) so I'll be able to hit the ground running - great samples in the kit, will be the first I load up!
my friend can i asked when you placed your order? and where from? i ordered mine end of october and i just waited 6 months for my s2400 so i’m more than patient, just thought i would ask
@@trifource I ordered from Sweetwater 20 minutes after pre-orders opened. They got less than 100 units in their first batch, and my order luckily landed in that batch. They originally told me January as Roland got massively hit by the chip shortage and is only able to make so many to launch with.
I heard somewhere that effects are universal for the machine and not saved per project. I guess favorites is possible workaround if you wanted to do a live set with multiple projects, and you could have your different effects chains for each projects saved as a favorite. It would of course be better if effects saved with the project (assuming I’m understanding correctly that they don’t). Also, I imagine that there are probably only so many “always on” effects combinations I’d want, so once I work those out, having them as favorites seems handy. As you said, Bus 1 and 2 will work better as performance effects slots.
You convinced me to order one, let's see how this turns out once I get it, at the moment it's back ordered at Guitar Center so lets see how long it takes to eventually get to me. I'm 100% positive I'll be back here to watch your videos again as a guide 😅🙇♂️🙏 thank you for making these videos, please continue the tutorials if you can.
I don't know if it's something new, but the dry (white) bus can be sent to either bus 3 or bus 4 in the settings. They DON'T have to be favorites. Very handy if you'd like a "general " reverb, for instance, for the whole mix. A fourth send would have been nice though...four effects...four sends.
I totally understand why you don't like bus3&bus4 - for me a lot of my music work revolves around mixing & mastering - I love having a mix bus chain as a separate layout etc.
I am getting more used to the workflow now but yeah I would still prefer to just have access to all 4 in the same place even if the functionality was the same. Interesting to hear you like it separate though! Thanks for watching!
New user here with a question I haven't seen posed yet - is it possible to resample a sample with an effect on, save to a new pad, and then turn the effect off, will the affect be recorded in the new resample? This way you could leave the pads "white" to avoid the other busses but still have a singular effect on a singular pad. Viewing the routing in the manual, there seems to be only 4 total bus routings: bus1+bus2 stacked with 3/4 off, bus1/bus2 parallel with 3/4 off, and both of those scenarios with bus3/4 on. Is this correct? Super helpful video to get started with the BUSFX. I am currently at work otherwise I would test these theories, hoping to have an answer by the time I get home and start experimenting again. Cheers!
Without sounding rude I think it would be best to check the online manual for that as there are a lot of different scenarios for the BUS. One thing I can share though is that you can have them applied over multiple banks at the same time.
I can answer my own question because my unit arrived. Buses 1 and 2 are global. Pads can be assigned to different buses if they run in parallel. Hope that helps the next person who wonders.
The graphic explaining the bus Fx… is it the wrong way around? Because it deffo looks like it showing a graphic for parallel when it’s working in series and a graphic for series when it’s working in parallel. 🤔🤔🤔
@@spvidz nah I don’t think it was you, the way it was working when the screen showed series is what I was expecting parallel to be unless the edit got mixed up.
Hi, thanks for your beautiful video. I wanted to ask you if it is possible to assign different effects to the external source compared to the effects intended for the pad or for the master. If it can be done can you explain how!? A thousand thanks !
I have only one request, if you can say something to roland, ask about sampling during playback or other samples. It would be so awesome to record guitar to a live track than to "sample" to a metronome. Big up ;)
Two different ways to do this, easiest is by setting input to external, then using the skip back function. Other way is to resample your beat to pad, play it then sample your guitar onto another pad.
been trying to find a work around for this, is there really no way to save an mfx setting to a pad (or a bus to a bank or project even) without a resampling? reverb and delay don't really translate to resampling very well. i feel like the old 404 i used to have would just keep the mfx setting until told otherwise. trying to build a live set without having to remember too many settings lol.
Quick question: If you have a pad that is bypassed {White} does it also bypass Bus 3 & 4? I thought that Bus 3 & 4 applied to everything. Also, I want to point out that, even though I don't have a mk2 yet, I have looked at the manual online, and I believe the manual's diagram of the effects routings is completely wrong.
Do you have a gain staging video tutorial? I can’t find a decent video about properly gain staging the SP. There is the volume of the source, there’s all the various input levels (attenuator, dB, noise, etc.) and there’s the main volume out of the SP. All have to be calculated to get the optimal levels for performance (using as an fx unit) and to avoid clipping when sampling. Any tips? Thanks!
Well after lots of experimentation I’m happy to say I figured it out! Still with all the videos out there I think this will be one of the most helpful and yet there’s very little about. it. There’s the level of your speaker, there’s the main out level volume level, gain level, blah blah blah. Lol. So yeah to get to where everything works smooth, takes some adjustments. BUT, it’s SOOO WOTH IT once you get it right! I’ve not been able to make music this quickly with sequencers.
Just 1 question for the expert: you can play many samples in parallel but I was not able to play any 2 patterns at the same time. Is that a limitation of the machine or is there a hidden switch that I did not discover until now? Thanks!
Thanks for the detailed explanation on the effects! Is there a way to adjust the amount of send level to effects on BUS 1 and BUS 2? Say, I want some pads/samples have lots of reverb while others just a bit, both sent to same reverb but with different amount. Is that possible?
I dont think thats possible. A hack would be to have reverb on both BUS 1 & 2 and then edit the parameters of each one to be different. Thats the only way I can think of doing that
Is all of this covered in a user manual? This is going to be my first sp404 so just wondering if I'll actually have something to use that gives this info rather than trying to learn it for the first time lol
Theres an online manual available but its not very detailed. You may learn some extra tricks and tips through my videos - static.roland.com/manuals/sp-404mk2_reference/eng/index.html
There's only one situation where i would actually use bus 3 and 4. When you have effects on 3 and 4, and you resample something, does it resample with the effects from 3 and 4? If it does, I'll never use it. If 3 and 4 are only on the output, and resampling doesn't include those effects, then I'll probably have like one thing on the master but like some subtle 303 comp.
When you resample it does include BUS 3 and 4 yes. Whats annoying is unlike BUS 1 and 2, they stay on after you have recorded, so in order to listen to what the resampled pad sounds like you have to go into the EFX settings and turn it off otherwise you hear the resampled pad with BUS 3 and 4 stacked on top again. Its not that bad but just adds to the overall fiddly nature of it imo
@@spvidz see, i assumed 3&4 weren't resampled. I though of them as master effects seperate from that. If they do get resampled then i will literally never use them 😂 that's kinda weird haha
You can quickly turn off/on BUS 3 & 4 (without having to go into the efx settings) by holding down ENTER and pressing BUS FX. Thanks for the great videos.
Not that I’m aware of. All the release notes are here www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/sp-404mk2/updates_drivers/4a177d90-4d6f-44d4-b4f2-7536980ab313/
A year a go we were content with our sp404's limitations. Imo If you love the sp404 then there is nothing to moan about here. We basically have a sp404 on steroids that will keep on improving with updates and all for basically the same price.
Agreed that this is a massive improvement, that doesn't mean that the features can't be or shouldn't be better or easier to use just because they didn't exist previously
Yeah that’s the dream. This isn’t too bad once you get into it. 2 assignable BUS and 2 for final mix. The SPs will always have limitations which can be both a good and a bad thing
I love your videos but I don’t think you have a good understanding of series and parallel so bus fx 3 and 4 seem frustrating to you. It almost seems like for processing samples (resampling) or overall mix on a full beat you should use bus 3 and 4 and alternatively use 1 and 2 for performance oriented fx. I’m not saying there are any rules but based on what you’re showing that’s what I’m feeling. Just for clarification parallel doesn’t mean “stacked” it means that both effects affect the audio source separately. Series means that both effects are running into each other so in a delay and reverb series chain the delay would be affected by the reverb. The same effects chain in parallel you would hear the delay and reverb without the delay mixing into the reverb.
Thanks for the info. I have most likely used the wrong wording there then. the two settings for BUS 1 & 2 are just basically the option to have them stacked or completely separate where you can choose which pads each one applies to. And yes 3 & 4 are definitely for the overall sound, I would not be using those slots to do 'on-the-fly' fx as its way too fiddly in that area.
two things they should add to the bus fx is an ability to save default fx parameters so i dont need to set them every time i start up(or just to pull up the last ones used) and when using the mute bus, after reactivating it have the bus fx actually stay on
I think there are a few issues with BUS still. I've got a video going live this week about things I don't like. These are good observations though. In general I really don't like how 3 & 4 work at all
The practical use for swapping position of Buses 1 and 2 is that it makes a big difference on the sound of your effects. Say you have Tape Echo on bus 1 and Hass Doubling on bus 2. Swapping position of buses 1 and 2 will give you a drastically different sound. It’s just changing the direction of the fx chain. It won’t always make a huge difference - like when you have Vinyl Sim on one bus, for example. But it’s an essential feature.
This video helped me. I will have to go back and rewatch many times. Im old and learning this sampler is complex
There is a lot to learn. I'm glad to help you out!
Are you used to it yet? (I’m also old and familiarizing myself with the unit is still a struggle and that’s after a few weeks)
With Bus FX Type A you can still choose if a sample is effected only by Bus 2. it's either Bus 1 + 2 (Bus 1 / orange) or just Bus 2 (green) - there is a diagram in the manual. Cheers and thank you so much for all the great content on this topic.
Yeah you can also turn the MFX off by using remain and making it white!
TY TY Ive had my sp404 for 6 months and ive been looking for the SOMEONE to explain this .... im a fan
Scooped up your new kit! My mkII arrives tomorrow - couldn't be more stoked and no doubt your videos have prepared me (I had a 404A previously) so I'll be able to hit the ground running - great samples in the kit, will be the first I load up!
my friend can i asked when you placed your order? and where from? i ordered mine end of october and i just waited 6 months for my s2400 so i’m more than patient, just thought i would ask
@@trifource I ordered from Sweetwater 20 minutes after pre-orders opened. They got less than 100 units in their first batch, and my order luckily landed in that batch. They originally told me January as Roland got massively hit by the chip shortage and is only able to make so many to launch with.
Thanks a lot for the support man. Hyped to hear your unit is almost with you!
I heard somewhere that effects are universal for the machine and not saved per project. I guess favorites is possible workaround if you wanted to do a live set with multiple projects, and you could have your different effects chains for each projects saved as a favorite. It would of course be better if effects saved with the project (assuming I’m understanding correctly that they don’t).
Also, I imagine that there are probably only so many “always on” effects combinations I’d want, so once I work those out, having them as favorites seems handy. As you said, Bus 1 and 2 will work better as performance effects slots.
Great video! It seems that BUS FX will take some time to learn……..
You convinced me to order one, let's see how this turns out once I get it, at the moment it's back ordered at Guitar Center so lets see how long it takes to eventually get to me. I'm 100% positive I'll be back here to watch your videos again as a guide 😅🙇♂️🙏 thank you for making these videos, please continue the tutorials if you can.
Its going to be a while. I pre-order the first day. Just talked to the guy at Sweetwater and he said its delayed till "early 2022"
Thanks for watching! Hope it gets to you soon!
Your videos are really helping me get to grips with this 🔥 sampler … thanks 🙏🏾
Glad to hear it 🤙
thats how i would describe it. getting grips That bux fx is a royal pain in the ass and this video seems the best at describing it.
I don't know if it's something new, but the dry (white) bus can be sent to either bus 3 or bus 4 in the settings. They DON'T have to be favorites. Very handy if you'd like a "general " reverb, for instance, for the whole mix.
A fourth send would have been nice though...four effects...four sends.
how?
need2know :3
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. This is exactly what I was trying to figure out on the mk2. 🐐
🙌
I totally understand why you don't like bus3&bus4 - for me a lot of my music work revolves around mixing & mastering - I love having a mix bus chain as a separate layout etc.
I am getting more used to the workflow now but yeah I would still prefer to just have access to all 4 in the same place even if the functionality was the same. Interesting to hear you like it separate though! Thanks for watching!
@@spvidz Having it both ways would be ideal, of course. haha.
I think I need to wait until mine arrives to experiment with the buses. Great video. 👍🏻
Thanks for explaining this pretty much exactly what I needed to know.
Glad it was helpful!
Ace demo as usual. Top notch insights. Cheers!!
Mine came in today!!!
I'm glad I found your videos I was on the cusp on shipping the thing back lol, learning curve.
Yeah there is a bit of a learning curve but its worth battling through it!
Thank you. Nice breakdown.
New user here with a question I haven't seen posed yet - is it possible to resample a sample with an effect on, save to a new pad, and then turn the effect off, will the affect be recorded in the new resample? This way you could leave the pads "white" to avoid the other busses but still have a singular effect on a singular pad. Viewing the routing in the manual, there seems to be only 4 total bus routings: bus1+bus2 stacked with 3/4 off, bus1/bus2 parallel with 3/4 off, and both of those scenarios with bus3/4 on. Is this correct?
Super helpful video to get started with the BUSFX. I am currently at work otherwise I would test these theories, hoping to have an answer by the time I get home and start experimenting again. Cheers!
thank you for putting these videos together! one thing not clear to me is how buses 1/2 are scoped. are they per sample? per bank? per project?
Without sounding rude I think it would be best to check the online manual for that as there are a lot of different scenarios for the BUS. One thing I can share though is that you can have them applied over multiple banks at the same time.
I can answer my own question because my unit arrived. Buses 1 and 2 are global. Pads can be assigned to different buses if they run in parallel. Hope that helps the next person who wonders.
The graphic explaining the bus Fx… is it the wrong way around? Because it deffo looks like it showing a graphic for parallel when it’s working in series and a graphic for series when it’s working in parallel. 🤔🤔🤔
Apologies but I think my mic audio was out of sync there!
@@spvidz nah I don’t think it was you, the way it was working when the screen showed series is what I was expecting parallel to be unless the edit got mixed up.
Hi, thanks for your beautiful video. I wanted to ask you if it is possible to assign different effects to the external source compared to the effects intended for the pad or for the master. If it can be done can you explain how!? A thousand thanks !
Awesome. Thanks homie. You been chewing on that blue knob??
I have only one request, if you can say something to roland, ask about sampling during playback or other samples. It would be so awesome to record guitar to a live track than to "sample" to a metronome. Big up ;)
Two different ways to do this, easiest is by setting input to external, then using the skip back function. Other way is to resample your beat to pad, play it then sample your guitar onto another pad.
Good info and thanks for posting.
Appreciate the comment!
been trying to find a work around for this, is there really no way to save an mfx setting to a pad (or a bus to a bank or project even) without a resampling? reverb and delay don't really translate to resampling very well. i feel like the old 404 i used to have would just keep the mfx setting until told otherwise.
trying to build a live set without having to remember too many settings lol.
ordered one a while back but god knows when i'll actually get it. 404 og still getting it done!
Quick question: If you have a pad that is bypassed {White} does it also bypass Bus 3 & 4? I thought that Bus 3 & 4 applied to everything. Also, I want to point out that, even though I don't have a mk2 yet, I have looked at the manual online, and I believe the manual's diagram of the effects routings is completely wrong.
Hey man yeah missed that in the video but if you make the pad white is does appear to bypass ALL the BUS FX
thanks you for this video ! do you know if there is a way to quickly assign or anassign a bus to a whole bank?
Go inside the bank you want to apply it to > choose the BUS > hold remain and then press the bank button
thanks a lot!! i coudn't find this @@spvidz
This is super helpfull!
Do you have a gain staging video tutorial? I can’t find a decent video about properly gain staging the SP. There is the volume of the source, there’s all the various input levels (attenuator, dB, noise, etc.) and there’s the main volume out of the SP. All have to be calculated to get the optimal levels for performance (using as an fx unit) and to avoid clipping when sampling. Any tips? Thanks!
Well after lots of experimentation I’m happy to say I figured it out! Still with all the videos out there I think this will be one of the most helpful and yet there’s very little about. it. There’s the level of your speaker, there’s the main out level volume level, gain level, blah blah blah. Lol. So yeah to get to where everything works smooth, takes some adjustments. BUT, it’s SOOO WOTH IT once you get it right! I’ve not been able to make music this quickly with sequencers.
Just 1 question for the expert:
you can play many samples in parallel but I was not able to play any 2 patterns at the same time. Is that a limitation of the machine or is there a hidden switch that I did not discover until now?
Thanks!
You can’t play multiple patterns at the same time no
@@spvidz Thanks. That's a pity!
i like the idea here i guess. feel like i'll just have Bus 3 or 4 on vinyl sim all the time tbh, but we'll see once i get one. appreciate you
lol thats pretty much what I'm doing! That and 303 vinyl comp are the only 2 FX I really want on my beats regularly!
Thanks for the detailed explanation on the effects! Is there a way to adjust the amount of send level to effects on BUS 1 and BUS 2? Say, I want some pads/samples have lots of reverb while others just a bit, both sent to same reverb but with different amount. Is that possible?
I dont think thats possible. A hack would be to have reverb on both BUS 1 & 2 and then edit the parameters of each one to be different. Thats the only way I can think of doing that
How do I save my Bus/MFX parameters (Bus 1 & 2)? I notice that once I turn off the device, the Bus FX/Parameters reset.
Don’t think you can man no. I find it really annoying that it removes them both after you record something as well
@@spvidz thanks for the reply, I've resorted to taking pics via my phone of the parameters if I have unfinished projects... Better than nothing.
lol not a bad idea to be honest!
Is all of this covered in a user manual? This is going to be my first sp404 so just wondering if I'll actually have something to use that gives this info rather than trying to learn it for the first time lol
Theres an online manual available but its not very detailed. You may learn some extra tricks and tips through my videos - static.roland.com/manuals/sp-404mk2_reference/eng/index.html
Hi again man, have you an idea why when I push enter in the EFX settings, nothing happen ? the bus aren't switching of position :0
Well, I reset factory settings and updated to 2.0 version, and now it's working :D
I was going to suggest making sure you had the latest software. Glad you sorted it out 👍
There's only one situation where i would actually use bus 3 and 4. When you have effects on 3 and 4, and you resample something, does it resample with the effects from 3 and 4? If it does, I'll never use it. If 3 and 4 are only on the output, and resampling doesn't include those effects, then I'll probably have like one thing on the master but like some subtle 303 comp.
When you resample it does include BUS 3 and 4 yes. Whats annoying is unlike BUS 1 and 2, they stay on after you have recorded, so in order to listen to what the resampled pad sounds like you have to go into the EFX settings and turn it off otherwise you hear the resampled pad with BUS 3 and 4 stacked on top again. Its not that bad but just adds to the overall fiddly nature of it imo
@@spvidz see, i assumed 3&4 weren't resampled. I though of them as master effects seperate from that. If they do get resampled then i will literally never use them 😂 that's kinda weird haha
You can quickly turn off/on BUS 3 & 4 (without having to go into the efx settings) by holding down ENTER and pressing BUS FX. Thanks for the great videos.
Thanks yeah I think that might have been introduced in 2.0 so that’s why I didnt mention it here. Can’t remember exactly. It’s very useful!
@@spvidz anything changed with the busses in the 3.0 update? Or did you cover it in one of your videos
Not that I’m aware of. All the release notes are here www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/sp-404mk2/updates_drivers/4a177d90-4d6f-44d4-b4f2-7536980ab313/
Were do yo get your knobs frm?
They are DJ Tech Tools 'fatty knobs' 👍
pre-ordered and been told ETA to be in spring of 2022..... that's quite a bummer
Same. Just found out today. So bummed. I ordered first day too. It sucks
sheesh wtf!
What's the name of the song in the beginning of the video?
Its just something I knocked together for my videos, its not available anywhere :)
Bro, there is a shortcut to turn bus 3+4 off: push enter + press bus fx. Enjoy:)
That wasn't introduced until 2.0 which was about 6 months after this videos was recorded. I'm glad they updated that though its really useful
@@spvidz I'm happy they did that. It's much useable like this
It's a good video, sometimes it's too fast to follow, especially when pressing the buttons...
Slow it down using the TH-cam player if you are struggling 👍
A year a go we were content with our sp404's limitations. Imo If you love the sp404 then there is nothing to moan about here. We basically have a sp404 on steroids that will keep on improving with updates and all for basically the same price.
Agreed that this is a massive improvement, that doesn't mean that the features can't be or shouldn't be better or easier to use just because they didn't exist previously
why not have a shortcut for each pad to assign its own effect, just like envelope, this is so complicated
Yeah that’s the dream. This isn’t too bad once you get into it. 2 assignable BUS and 2 for final mix. The SPs will always have limitations which can be both a good and a bad thing
I love your videos but I don’t think you have a good understanding of series and parallel so bus fx 3 and 4 seem frustrating to you. It almost seems like for processing samples (resampling) or overall mix on a full beat you should use bus 3 and 4 and alternatively use 1 and 2 for performance oriented fx. I’m not saying there are any rules but based on what you’re showing that’s what I’m feeling. Just for clarification parallel doesn’t mean “stacked” it means that both effects affect the audio source separately. Series means that both effects are running into each other so in a delay and reverb series chain the delay would be affected by the reverb. The same effects chain in parallel you would hear the delay and reverb without the delay mixing into the reverb.
Thanks for the info. I have most likely used the wrong wording there then. the two settings for BUS 1 & 2 are just basically the option to have them stacked or completely separate where you can choose which pads each one applies to. And yes 3 & 4 are definitely for the overall sound, I would not be using those slots to do 'on-the-fly' fx as its way too fiddly in that area.
two things they should add to the bus fx is an ability to save default fx parameters so i dont need to set them every time i start up(or just to pull up the last ones used) and when using the mute bus, after reactivating it have the bus fx actually stay on
I think there are a few issues with BUS still. I've got a video going live this week about things I don't like. These are good observations though. In general I really don't like how 3 & 4 work at all