Roland SP-404 MKII

What it needs

The SP-404 MKII works at 48 kHz and 16 bit. Import something else and the machine converts it for you, which is a conversion you did not choose and cannot inspect.

Stereo is fine. Unlike the Elektron boxes there is no mono constraint to work around, so material that is genuinely stereo stays that way.

Format         WAV
Sample rate    48 kHz
Bit depth      16 bit
Channels       Mono or stereo

Getting the files there

Samples go on the SD card. You can move them there directly or use Roland's import application, and either way the card is what the machine reads.

Prepared folder on disk
  Kick 01.wav      48 kHz  16 bit
  Snare 03.wav     48 kHz  16 bit

  -> SD card, or the Roland import application
     -> SP-404 MKII

Doing it in Sample Miner

Export Options has a Hardware target dropdown. Selecting SP-404 MKII sets WAV at 48 kHz and 16 bit, leaves the channel count alone and clears the sampler format, because the machine has no instrument file to read.

Doing the conversion on the desktop means you hear the result before it reaches the pads, rather than finding out afterwards.

The MKII is not the SX

The older SP-404SX and SP-404A run at 44.1 kHz. The MKII is 48 kHz, and a lot of advice written for the earlier machines is still in circulation with the old number in it.

If you are following a guide that says 44.1, check which model it was written for before you trust the rest of it.

The limits

The SP-404 MKII is a pad sampler rather than a multisampling instrument. There is no key mapping to carry across, so a chromatic instrument arrives as loose samples you assign to pads yourself.

Pattern and pad assignment live on the machine. Preparing the audio correctly gets you to the starting line, and the arrangement work stays where it was.

Sources

Specification confirmed against Roland SP-404 MKII documentation.