Monthly Archives: December 2009

Introducing the Roland SP-404SX: Roland Updates SP-404 Sampler

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Roland SP-404SXThe Roland SP-404 portable sampler is a battery-powered phrase sampler with a built-in mic for mobile sampling and resampling–perfect for DJs who love to throw in some extra oomph into their sets with tabletop gadgets above and beyond what Tracktor or any other laptop software or mixer-bound hardware gives.

Now Roland has released the Roland SP-404SX, the update to the SP-404. It has 29 DSP effects (filter, delay, subsonics, looper features and vox FX). You also get a dozen trigger pads, three control knobs, and a Sub Pad. The sequencer offers new shuffle features and 16-bit linear sampling.

The SP-404SX is priced well under $500, so this is not out of reach for a working DJ. Got turntables? Mics? Laptop and software? Add this to the mix for your secret weapon. And could you pre-load this with a pile of vinyl samples and hit the club with a pre-programmed plan of dancefloor attack? Oh yes.

P.S. Electronic Musician has an in-depth review of the Roland SP-404SX here…if you’re tempted, have a go.

Mackie D2 DJ Mixer Demo

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Yes, the name of this blog is TURNTABLING, and while vinyl records get much of the love here, our job is to cover all aspects of using vinyl including the industry responsible in part for keeping it alive over the last ten years–DJing.

In a recent blog post we covered the Mackie D4 production mixer, but if you’re budget-challenged and are considering the earlier Mackie D2 instead (or a used Mackie D2), you should have a look at this demo video from Mackie on all the features of the D2–including the firewire in/outputs, optical contact-free fader, backlit EQs and other features. Brand new, the Mackie D2 DJ mixer runs well under $1000 but used you could score quite a deal. Grab an eyeful on the vid, ignore the corny hipster-speak at the front end of the clip and marvel at the glory of all things Mackie.




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