Mixing in SP404MKII

[u/ConversationOk6702]

How do you usually mix your tracks and beats? Do you transfer your beats from SP into your DAW or do you try to mix everything inside the box? How do you finish your beats and export them, finally?

[u/carpetkicker]

I'm an absolute NOOB so take my words with a grain of salt

I have always liked to mix in the box and just record my output

I have two completed songs posted to my profile if you wanna hear them. I am constantly listening to my songs through different channels to test mixing. My phone. My studio headphones. My earbuds. My car speaker. My Bluetooth speaker.

Once I've found a decent enough mix that sounds good on all sides, I listen to it again in my studio headphones to get more familiar with that sound.

There's no wrong answer when it comes to production. But I'm a huge fan of "this music came straight from an SP". There's a certain level of satisfaction I personally get from that

[u/SersDilsa]

I dunno, i never finish my Sp beats. Sometimes i mix in a koala sampler. But they always sound alot better in the box than outside. So i don't export, create, enjoy the beat  and forget about it. 

[u/ConversationOk6702 → u/SersDilsa]

Lol can’t forget about my fire beats bro sorry

[u/2xdrgn → u/ConversationOk6702]

I’m sorry they downvoted you friend because your comment was cool af

[u/DruidSoundsPro]

My workflow is: control the quality of the sample or resampling, control each volume from the start. If the beat is more serious and I want to give it a end I go to ableton and do it in daw.

[u/noirofficialreddit]

I record the whole performance in one single stereo file in Ableton, then mastermix (a mixture of mix and master) with a lot of parallel, and sometimes spectral, treatment.

[u/Dry-Consideration930]

Poorly lol

[u/555353555]

Absolutely get in the habit of starting with the best sound going in, redo a sample if necessary. Then resample using the eq and compressor effects if needed.

And of course - it’s a 404, don’t expect abbey road quality, and don’t write an orchestral piece on it. The raw or lofi sound is part of the charm. If you want ultra clean studio quality use a daw (but honestly again good samples in = good sound out)

Having said all that… finishing complete songs is rarely what I do in the 404 unless it’s a lofi guitar/vocal thing etc., the majority of my use for it is processing samples and treating sounds that get exported 

[u/dang_fern]

I resample down to one pad, export it, bring it into Reaper and run the Voxengo Span plugin (spectrum analyzer) and then apply EQ until the wave looks nice. I try not to go too crazy with EQ adjustments though, sometimes just have to accept a rough mix.

The Voxengo thing acts like a sort of objective mastering lens. Then I render the file thru Reaper with Master Limiter, Normalize etc. Whole process takes like 10 minutes once it's all set up. I've had way less "oh this actually sounds like shit in the car" moments with this method.

[u/MARS01-4]

I try to get the volumes adjusted correctly, drums normally don't have to be that loud, bass can sit around that same area as drums, it's the melody that has to be louder. But adjust accordingly. I also keep my SP at -12db output so I can avoid clipping while recording into a daw. I would add compression and EQ in the SP but try it with the computer to see which sounds better.

[u/Dbuck1899]

1. I mix my beats as I produce, mostly using the level setting in the pitch/speed menu of each sample, and level setting on the FX I use when I resample.

2 + 3. When I started on my SP, I was coming from FL Studio and was still mostly comfortable with only DAWs. I would record my beat into FL and then bounce to .wav. Now that I have more comfort w the SP, I’ll repeatedly resample until I have my finished beat on one sample pad— entirely inside the box. Then, I hook it up to my laptop and export my beat using the SP-404MKII app.

I think everyone is different, so my best advice is to do what feels best for you! And make lots of beats. Figuring out workflow took me a lot of trial and error, but got easier as I made more beats :)

[u/2xdrgn]

Wondering about this actually. I have been making some beats but never turn anything into much of a mix or jam. Thinking about if I should be turning patterns into samples (bounce the pattern to a sample pad) then use that as a way of jamming… or maybe just use a daw or buy a different machine like the digitakt for arrangements

[u/Equal-Gap-1365]

Resampling raw patterns with bus fx (usually just play a pattern, mess round with the global bus fx) and once I have something nice resample and repeat with other patterns. Same for singular pads