SP-404 MK2 vs MPC One // Are they on the same lvl now?

the sp404 has been stirring up some in the low-fat community for weeks now since its release it's been all the rage and with good reason it is light years ahead of all other sp models and is very affordable for what it can do as more of a tactile performer myself be it like finger drumming or performing samples live my main issue with it was the lack of dynamic control with individual pads you are able to add effects to individual pads so why not velocity well that problem has now been fixed with the latest firmware update the sp workflow is especially unique because of multi-effects but i kind of see where they're going with this they're inching closer and closer to what the npc is able to do which is a tall order because the mk2 is half the price i have a strong feeling that they're not going to be slowing down with updates any time soon it's going to be tough to keep up with them all in this video we'll be making the exact same beat with both machines we'll be comparing them in a tactile fashion so things that a finger drummer might be interested in basic performance based functions of both instruments so pad command and setup mute groups and things like that effects we'll be touching on the physical feel of each instrument as well price build as well as design i think that now is the perfect time to compare these two in light of the new mk2 update that just came out a big thank you to today's sponsor distrokid we'll be taking a look at my streaming income i am by no means even close to making a living off of streaming at this point but it's just interesting to know how much income is coming from what platform so more on that later in the video and spoiler alert spotify is actually not the number one source of income it's kind of weird not what you expected fyi important info for current or soon-to-be mk2 owners the sp 404 mk2 ships with an older firmware so it's missing some features i've included a link to the latest firmware update in the description if you guys want to keep up to date with that let's look at price build and design the mpc one is a thousand bucks and the mk2 is literally split in half it's 500 bucks as listed on perfect circuit so if you're feeling real nice right now and you want to treat yourself you know get yourself a little gift well now you know the price now is the time for me to invite you to use the affiliate links that are listed in the description if you're feeling at all tempted to purchase these instruments in terms of build the mpc one is just clearly a higher quality build than the sp 404 it's bigger it feels sturdier the knobs are definitely a little bit smoother it's twice the size there's more space which means that executing patterns like from a finger drumming standpoint it's a lot easier with the mpc one it just feels beefier overall but it's still small enough to be considered a portable instrument of course it pretty much is a standalone daw it's a very descriptive and well animated screen right there which is clearly why it's double the size of the sp404 the mk2 has a much more descriptive screen than earlier sp models but it doesn't really compare to the npc one not even close but on the other hand obviously the mk2 is a lot more portable it's kind of more fun to travel with and maybe perform with outdoors it's also battery powered which makes it so so so so so convenient a little side note i encourage you to please use rechargeable batteries in fact shout out to my volts they actually sell usb powered batteries so that's even better it's so simple but size really is something to consider when it comes to desk space and the rest of your setup the feel of each instrument so mainly the pads is something that is so so important to me uh and anyone who's a tactile musician in my opinion this is a huge win for the npc there's not really that much of a comparison here the mpc pads are just way bigger they're more elevated they're they're juicier bouncier it's no question why npc is top choice for finger drumming they really got this down to the t [Music] i heard that machine pads are also comparable to npc but i've never tried those out so i wouldn't know the 404 pads aren't bad like they feel nice because it's a smaller instrument naturally you don't have as much space the pads are a little bit smaller unlike previous sp models there's 16 pads so that's better than 12 or 8. but depending on the beat that you play they get a little bit wonky so like if i play a house pattern like what i just did check out the kick lose the kick sometimes whereas if i do the same thing here i'm not losing the kick it's still there whereas if i play a more boombappy sort of 16th note groove i don't really have that issue so like i said it really depends on the groove that you're trying to play it almost feels like there's a capacitive touch thing going on meaning that the sensor of the pad activates before you actually touch it which makes it a little bit more glitchy if you're using the mk2's pattern sequencer and maybe you're just plugging one thing at a time in then it's not really that big of an issue but if you're more of a tactile performance-based player you're playing in grooves and stuff like that this is a problem now let's get even more hands-on and make a beat from scratch with both of these machines i'll walk you through some differences pros and cons so we'll start with the sb404 the first thing we'll do is just upload some sounds to these pads personally i like to go kick snare hi-hat open hi-hat maybe some toms here and a sample on the top left so we're gonna do that i'm gonna drop a kick snare hi-hat open hi-hat and then the toms as well and then of course the sample will drop that on the top left so these are all the other kits that are saved in this project and i this is the one that we're currently on so i'll hit i [Music] i'll take the gate off of all these [Music] and then we have a kit almost all of the drums from this kit are from my meat and potatoes acoustic drum sample pack i've left a link to that in my bio if you'd like to hear some more examples of that i have to say that for this function specifically the 404 software is so easy to use i'm connected here via usb and transferring directly from the app to the 404. it's instant and like i said before all the other kits and banks are lined up here super self-explanatory love it talking about the npc software honestly it's something that i haven't really gotten that into yet it's an expansive daw within itself which i'm not too interested in exploring at this point because i already use a daw that i'm comfortable with to me it feels a little bit redundant to learn a whole new expansive daw software when i could just export from standalone into logic the daw that i use on top of that i have so many other synths and softwares to keep on top of um for the purpose of this channel that's where i'm at at this point that being said i'm not discouraging anybody from using the npc software i'm sure it's great but it's it's like i said it's not where i'm at so i guess i just do it old school style i upload everything onto this sd card we'll go to assign samples we gotta do some basic menu diving here places head over to kits npc drums use these kick goes here snare goes here hi hat that's the open hi-hat so this is the closed one we'll go here open will go here toms so i think the higher pitch one i put here on the other kit so load it low one goes here and then we'll go back to the melodic sample which was that one so that one will go up there all right so now we have the exact same kit on both machines it's interesting how the dynamics are a little bit different from one machine to the next like the snare seems a bit quieter on this one and that's something we'll be doing later we'll be mixing the drums on both machines let's look into chopping this sample now which is pretty much just as easy on both machines we'll go through the whole process on the 404 and one thing to take note of is that when you upload something through the software it auto detects the tempo which is great so it knows that we're at 80 bpm we're going to hit shift chop hit enter auto mark i'm going to chop this into eight pads and just go for it now we're chopped kind of a noisy sample i'm sort of cheating here because i chose the tempo of the sample for the sake of this video so let's go back and this time i'll do it manually i'm going to choose where i want the chop to happen so totally messed that up that wasn't great but it's no problem we could change the starting point of each chop i'm going to zoom in here with enter right so now i have those two chords for example we're gonna go enter and if we want to assign this to pads we can right we'll go back to the auto chop though with the npc you have a lot more options of reassigning to pads but it's different coming to think of it it might have actually been quicker to start with the sample on the mpc and then add the drums later but in any case let's try it with this setup so edit samples we'll go to this one here stop it shift trim into regions so it's going to automatically trim into however many regions that you want we're currently on eight you could also go with manual which is a very easy way to change the start and end points of the samples so we'll go back to regions and chop it into eight we're gonna go shift convert assign slice to pad and we're gonna assign to these pads up here right shift convert assign slice to pad do it let's go to the second one now shift convert and we'll go to a11 do it go to the third pad now shift convert a 12. so this is this is a longer process like we should have started by chopping the sample and then adding the drums afterwards so looking back at this particular chopping workflow the sp404 was actually a lot more time efficient there's this very easy and efficient exchange option on the 404 so shift exchange let's say i want to move these two toms around i'm switching them so i'm switching h11 with h12 just flipping them there we go so now we have high to low tom let me show you how you do that with the npc one so luckily we have two empty pads here i'm gonna go copy copy the low tom over to this pad right so now we have two of the same thing now i'll copy this one over to this pad here right and then i'll copy this one again over to this pad so now we have the hide-a-low tom thing going on too now we have an extra tom if you want to get rid of it shift delete get rid of it this is a complex instrument and i'm always learning new things about it so if there is a way to exchange pads like on the 404 that i'm just not aware of comments dynamics and modulation this is where the mk2 update comes in very handy and it brings it a step closer to the npc first off shift and pitch and speed which is envelope so now we have adsr control [Music] a bit of a swell maybe and if i just hit pitch and speed i can control the speed of the sample the pitch as well volume so let's check out the drums that kick is pretty loud yeah i want that snare to be more up front [Music] with the volume control this was a much needed update so glad they did this this is a cinch to do over on the npc as well let's do it kick snare is just super low so let's bring the snare up warp samples master there we go [Music] so a very similar process here everything else is so easily accessible here samples you could change the start and end point envelope so same thing a dsr lfo modulation uh effects effects is something we'll touch on a little bit later as well now we'll take a look at mute groups which once again is very easy to set up with both instruments with these types of setups i usually like to use two mute groups so one for the open hi-hat and snare and one for the melodic samples as well for those of you who don't know what a mu group is it's when you choose a group of pads to sort of gate each other meaning that when you press one pad it'll stop the other from playing but within specific groups in that kit like i said open hi-hat and snare let's go over to warp samples master mute group we're gonna select these two and we'll call that mute group one so now let's deselect that i'm gonna go with all of the melodic samples and we'll call that mute group two so now they're going to cancel each other out so within this group everything is monophonic within this group it's also monophonic but if i play the group separately [Music] it's polyphonic one very convenient thing with the npc is that you could change the volume of the entire mute group so let's choose this bring it all down so now all the pads in that group are quieter [Music] with the 404 there's a mute group pad right here choose all the melodic pads so that's one mute group go over to e two mute groups [Music] so the melodic pads are clearly too loud let's go pitch shift bring all those down i wonder if there's a way to choose all them at once um doesn't look like it in terms of pad setup these kits are pretty much ready to go but we still need to take a look at effects in my opinion the 404 really shines here personally i just think that the 404 effects are completely unique there's nothing else quite like it while effects assignment isn't quite as expansive and intuitive as the mpc one there's just something spontaneous and lively about the mk2 effects something that's clearly geared towards live performance there's like a dj quality to it in fact that's how i've used the 404 a bunch in the past just simply uploading a full-on track onto each of these pads and then playing through it like a set adding effects to it while it plays there's even a dj mode on the mk2 which i've been exploring while yes there is way more flexibility with effects on the npc one it's basically like a daw that's how you apply the effects for the most part they just don't have that spontaneity and character that the 404 effects have i think there's a reason why the lo-fi community just goes nuts over the mk2 effects [Music] there's 37 effects in total so you have the easy to access one so filter drive resonator delay isolator dj effects looper and then multi-effects so this button here there's 32 extra effects to choose from the mk2 also has four buses for effects so two that are very easy to access with the push of a button you could just jump back and forth between these add an effects jump to the next one and if you head over to effect settings you have two extra buses here for effects as well buses three and four these are more master effects you'd have to menu dive to change these ones if you'd like to do a deep dive there's a lot more to say about the mk2 effects i've actually done a full video on that for this sort of tactile setup if you're finger drumming your hands are going to be occupied anyways so we'll just add something simple 303 vinyl sim turn that compression up you can turn the noise up as well [Music] let's really boost the 303 vinyl sim [Music] and we'll turn that noise back down now with the mpc effects is a whole different story like i said it's essentially a daw you've got an option of bus effects and a lot more buses than on the mk2 i've actually done a video on my favorite npc standalone effects there it is but with the 404 you're a bit more detached from that daw mindset which i love the effects are what you get and they're built right into the instrument that being said though i'm sure there's going to be so many uh new effects updates with the fk2 that's something that i guess we're just going to have to wait and see one thing that the mk2 can't touch yet side chain compression you cannot do this sort of thing with the mk2 there's some effects on the mk2 that sort of get side chainy like the compression if you really blast the attack and turn down the sustain let's try that it's not the same as i mentioned before go back to warp samples and there's an effects tab i could add four different effects onto all of these individual pads so i'd love to hear what you guys think of this comparison are you team npc one or team mk2 and for what reasons if you've got the budget maybe the best answer is to combine the slick fat pads tactile npc one with the effects of the mk2 so now let's get back to my streaming income and which platforms it comes from spoiler alert spotify is not a top earner so here are some streaming services or platforms that bring any sort of income i don't get like a ton of streams so these numbers are nothing to brag about but still it's kind of just interesting where the money's coming from apple music 12.75 itunes 2.37 spotify 195.58 no surprise there amazon unlimited 2.67 cents and then there's kk box which is 320.37 kk box is not even available in north america and it's my highest earnest distrokit kind of just swoops in and distributes my music to platforms that i'm not even aware of i don't even know they exist and they're not even available in the place that i live they take care of all that on top of that they keep up to date with all of the up and coming platforms and distribute my music to those as well clearly a lot of these up and coming platforms are brand new so they're not going to be big earners but then every so often you have something like kk box that randomly brings you income i highly recommend distrokid the starting rate is 20 a year as an independent artist and that's to release unlimited music by the way if you haven't signed up yet there is a 7 discount link in the description of this video and so there you have it it's been great thank you guys so much for watching this was a really fun video to put together hopefully you guys have a bit more insight between these two instruments consider subscribing if you're into this sort of content and maybe even hit the notification bell if you want to be notified when i release a new video i've left affiliate links for the npc one and the mk2 in the description of this video so if you purchase using either of those links i actually make a small commission from that sale at no extra charge to you so it's one of the best ways of supporting this channel i think my job's done here see you guys soon

Channel: Liam Killen

Views: 26,442

Keywords: liam killen, SP-404 MK2, MPC One, liam killen MPC, liam killen SP 404, sp-404, sp-404 mk2, sp-404 MK2, sp 404 mk2 vs mpc one, sp 404 mk2 vs mpc, sp 404 mk2 vs, sp-404 mkii vs, roland sp 404 mk2 vs, roland sp 404 mk2 vs mpc, mpc one vs sp404 mk2, mpc one vs sp 404, mpc one vs sp404 mkii, MPC, MPC one, mpc one sp404, mpc one sampling, mpc one finger drumming, akai mpc one finger drumming, sp-404 mk2 finger drumming, sp 404 finger drumming, sp-404 mk2 finger drummer, akai

Id: w7N_EX37qds

Length: 20min 48sec (1248 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 22 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/okaytoo]

They're completely different machines?

[u/nachoiskerka]

One thing bothering me- how many tracks can you have? Because with the mpc if the inspiration hits me(and it rarely does) i can lay out a bunch of beats, layer them up to unmixed tracks and then arrange them but i definitely would like something cheap, quick and portable to do the same...

[u/ndguardian]

So I have to say, I really was liking how immediate everything was on the 404. I can see that leading to a lot of inspiration.

[u/AHitmanANunLovers]

NICE this is the type of comparison I was wanting to see

[u/likillen]

This is a thorough comparison coming from a more tactile approach, so things that a finger drummer would be interested in