Making a lofi beat with the sp404sx pattern sequencer *full walkthrough*

In this video I make a lofi beat on the SP404sx with the pattern sequencer. I have been using this method for making most of my beats over the past few weeks and have been really enjoying the process. I hope this is useful if you are planning on giving it a try.
If you have any questions feel free to ask below. Don't forget to leave a comment and hit 'like' to help out my channel!
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#sp404sx #lofi #patternsequencer

[@costisbeats9824]

People hate on the pattern sequencer too much. It’s so much easier to make full songs and beats for rappers on it.

[@spvidz]

Agreed man. I used to be one of the haters until recently when I finally sat down and worked out the quirks! Thanks for watching 👌

[@glizzyhendrix]

you are such a resource and a pillar of the sp community, thanx bro

[@spvidz]

Appreciate that man, thanks very much!

[@BodieMoto]

Best SP youtuber and it's not even close

[@spvidz]

Yo man appreciate that! Thanks so much. Glad to be in this community 🙏

[@YamiTheCreator]

this is definitely more familiar looking than the resample was of making beats as a MPC guy, i might get into the SPs if they all got this

[@gamefantasticcuz]

Fam yes we will keep liking your stuff you keep dropping quality. Shoutouts to you my guy.

[@spvidz]

Appreciate it man! Thanks so much for the support 🙏

[@mattchewmusic9233]

I just picked up my Sp404sx a couple weeks ago. I haven’t put it down since. I’ve watched and learned soo much from your videos. Just wanted to say thanks and keep up the good work Sensei! Lol

[@spvidz]

Nice man really glad to hear that! Welcome to the sp gang too!

[@BillGarcia312]

Maybe make a video on how you prep your music and get it on Spotify?

[@spvidz]

Thanks man yeah thats definitely one I've had on the list for a while. I'll get round to it soon!

[@HAPPYsamc]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Beautifully explained. Thank you friend.

[@spvidz]

No problem man! Glad to have helped you out ✨

[@necronomicron5367]

Nice.... Another trick for the sequencer is resample drum samples with a length of "air" before the sample sounds. Then you can add "swing" by changing the Sample begin point. Move things back and forth to fit your melodic samples,

[@spvidz]

Interesting! i'll have to have a look into that. I've seen something similar where people resampl3 e a drum loop then looking at the BPM - matching the pattern to that and recording that in by holding the pad. That way you get a much looser feel

[@AgateDaimyo]

ino this is nearly 2 years old, but i understand the algorithm grind lol. sommert ive always found funny is those pads on your SX, they are so worn down, its so dope mate. youre really helping me out with my 404A that i got a couple months ago, my ego was getting in the way of making beats on hardware, but i realise i just need to crack on init lol appreciate you and all your vids, ty

[@AgateDaimyo]

that dilla technique is crazy smart tf

[@spvidz]

Gald to hear I'm helping you out bro. Had to end up changing those pads because they broke haha. The fat pads feel a lot nicer

[@AdamMundok]

Some solid tips in this video.🙌🏼 Cheers!🎛🎶

[@spvidz]

No problem man! Thanks for watching

[@GarrettGrimm]

Great video thanks, inspiring me to experiment more with the sequencer!

[@spvidz]

Good stuff man, I think its pretty dope once you spend a bit of time with it!

[@danieljohnmorris]

Love your videos!

[@spvidz]

Glad you like them man! Thanks for tuning in!

[@gusboon713]

Bro i just commented on your ig page for p.s and you upload this vid a day later. Youre a saint haha

[@spvidz]

Haha gotta help the people out 🙏 thanks for watching man!

[@sw0ne]

Great video, like the choice of sample with this one 👌

[@spvidz]

Cheers man yeah something a bit different. Need to get back to being more diverse with the samples!

[@noblewhitneyIII]

Thank you again for the vids✊🏽

[@spvidz]

Appreciate it man. Thanks for tuning in 🙏

[@straightedge_eli2062]

Just here to drop a helpful comment .. Hopefully picking up my SP in a few weeks .. Thanks for the videos

[@spvidz]

Np man. Glad you found the channel. Hope you get your hands on one soon 🤞

[@TheOutliersOfficial]

You're really pumping out these vids man, amazing👌😍

[@spvidz]

Cheers man! Appreciate all the support 🙏

[@culturemax234]

Thanks a lot this video was very helpful for me

[@spvidz]

Glad to hear it! ✨

[@NautilusGoth]

Sp 404 A E S T H E T I C S forever :3

[@spvidz]

haha definitely :)

[@MLNDY360]

Thanks for the vid bruv!

[@spvidz]

Np man, cheers for watching!

[@JacobScott0000]

Very very nice, man. I'm a re-sample guy, that's how I've always made beats on the sp. I'd love to see more pattern seq beats knocked up by you. inspiration to maybe start using it!

[@spvidz]

I’m really curious on how people make full beats with resample. Do you just make one loop and if you want to make pauses how do you go about those kind of things? Do you just have to know where to stop playing drums etc? I’ve only really ever got as far as making 2/4 bar loops with resample and using that as a full beat

[@JacobScott0000]

@@spvidz I'll have a loop starting on the 1 and a loop starting on the 2 (snare, to be clear). Then I merge them together. So just a wee bit of preparation.

[@spvidz]

@@JacobScott0000 ah ok makes sense. Yeah I was thinking different loops resampled down to different pads and then played in order would be the way. Cheers for the info man!

[@toastyghosty489]

Glad to see you digging into the sequencer! Any updates on the new pads? Looks like they are holding up well

[@spvidz]

Yo man, not really much more to say after they review I did, way way better than the stock ones, love playing them now!

[@stereoripe7337]

This is my preferred beatmaking method. I still find there is a lot of trial and error. I rarely get the timing and transitions right 1st time too 🤣

[@spvidz]

Haha yeah man that’s one of the main things that has made me enjoy it a bit more - realising it can take a couple of attempts to get things right! Just learned to be a bit more patient and keep trying. I always pray for the first try luck but it’s rare 🤣 thanks for watching!

[@riddim7774]

Sick one bro! Been neglecting the sequencer meself. Gonna get on it tonight. Peace! 👊

[@spvidz]

Nice man enjoy! It’s fun as hell if you make sure you don’t get mad at it haha

[@riddim7774]

@@spvidz really liked this beat too bro! Keep coming with the dopeness! Love from Ireland! 🙏

[@spvidz]

Blessing my man!

[@laragabrielle6716]

game changer.

[@spvidz]

Thanks for watching! 🙏

[@jackgulla4030]

dope

[@spvidz]

Nice one man, thanks for watching!

[@felipetroccoli7809]

you are the og

[@spvidz]

means a lot man thanks! 🙏

[@luke-costelloe-music857]

Niceeeee

[@spvidz]

Cheers for watching man! 🙏

[@W6rr10r21]

Great vid. Ever used the MPC to sequence your SP404?

[@spvidz]

I’ve not actually no! Is there much to it aside from a midi cable?

[@W6rr10r21]

@@spvidz Have to make an MPC midi program that corresponds with SP pads. Set both machines to the same midi channels and you'll have the best of both worlds. But it requires you to use the MPC's pads for programming though. Up side is that you benefit from the MPC's velocity sensitivity. Another big plus is track mute that enables you to track out each sound individually. Let me know if you can make it work it not.

[@spvidz]

@@W6rr10r21 Nice man I shall have a look into this over the weekend, sounds like a lot of fun!

[@tom22333]

Yessir. Such a powerful combo with so many workflows!

[@murmur8360]

Amazing video as always man! I liked this one a lot as I want to try the pattern sequencer really badly but I’ve always put off learning it but it looks quite great and fun actually! I do have 2 questions though! 1. How, if possible would you go about doing something like having a 2 bar drum loop but with say 4 bars of the sample playing? Would you have to just record 4 bars of the drum loop? Can two patterns be played at once or do they always queue? 2.With FX do you have to be careful to have all fx recorded with resample to the samples and drums first before recording pattern in? Does it also work to use the remain button on the samples and drums to apply one effect like compression on them even after the pattern has been made? Thanks again man!

[@spvidz]

Point 1, it’s one pattern at a time yeah you can’t overlap them so whatever you want to do you will have to punch it in to a pattern somehow. Also yeh you can use mfx. Jump out of the pattern sequencer use remain and apply it to the pads you want and the fx will be applied to those pads in the pattern too!

[@murmur8360]

@@spvidz awesome man thanks! I just had a play around for the first time using it. Actually really enjoyed it and managed to get it going without pauses at the end. The quantise trick really helped! I think I will try and use this method from now on as I’ve just not been perfectly happy with my work flow and this seems to of opened up many options. Do you time stretch your samples first on Ableton at all or just use the chops straight away? It’s one part I don’t enjoy doing much when I do bother. I only learned about the time stretch mode on the sx just there using the tempo button with pattern selection off but it seems a bit rough.

[@spvidz]

@@murmur8360 yeah highly recommend using anything but the sp to time stretch lol. I do indeed use ableton first and then record the bits I want straight from there. I could use the 202 but doing it from ableton gives me the whole song to choose chops from as there is no meme key restriction!

[@That125Kid]

Thanks for sharing didn't know you could erase while the beat is playing on the sp404sx if you know anyone with a fa06 i would love to see a video of them together sp404sx sampling and fa 06 sequencing.

[@spvidz]

Glad the video helps man. Not sure of anyone near me with one of those but looks interesting

[@That125Kid]

@@spvidz i hope you get a chance to check one out it has a 16 track sequencer and dope effects man it's pretty slepped on.

[@oulivier]

Very didactive. What is the following of that pattern method when adding some effects ?

[@spvidz]

You can still add FX to the pads but you have to go out of the pattern sequencer and then back in again once they are applied, and you will have to resample if you want to use more than one, or have different FX on different pads

[@manucontrovento]

Great job as usual! I'd like to make this question: what happens when we remove from a pad a sample , which is involved in patterns? I expect that nothing happens, so the pattern will simply be played without the missing sound. The use case is: I create patterns with drums and bass. They will be my backing loops while playing other instruments. When all the patterns are finished, I save to the sd card the current setup (=backup). Then I want to have the same patterns without bass, for a different situation, when I'll play bass live, but I don't want to edit each pattern erasing one by one the bass notes or loops, so I'd simply remove the bass sounds from the related bank, and then save this setup (backup) to the sd card as well. Is it ok? Then I'll recall the proper backup, according to what I'll need (with or without bass). thanks!!!!

[@spvidz]

I think of the pattern mode as a just data. Its a saved sequence of which pads to play when. its not storing the actual sounds, they are on the banks and pads. If you delete the bass it will still play but without that sound. In terms of the back up I don't know off the top of my head. Why not just try it? Its the easiest way to find out..!

[@invaderx3]

Can you trigger pads 5,6,7 without being in the pattern sequencer? So that you don't get the pad waiting for the measure to trigger?

[@spvidz]

Don’t think so no. If you are in PS they will queue and only play after the previous pattern

[@miseryloveseverything]

I still hate the sequencer for sure compared to my MPC but I have been using it the last couple of days for some basic samples and doing the drums on my MPC. I think the thing i dislike the most is you can only have 1 pattern play at a time so bringing in another element to the beat you would have to prepare for it rather than doing it like like I would using track mutes on the MPC. also I broke the ctrl1 button on my like 2 month old brand new sp it still works but it feels horrendous and makes me sad if you know of a fix that would be noice...

[@spvidz]

Yeah man no way can it compete with the butter of the MPC sequencer. Valid points about the track muting too - it is a bit tedious having to make a new pattern for each variation and then if you find theres something you don’t like you have to redo them all. Not without its flaws the SP! I do actually need to work with my mpc more and see what things sound like going out to my tape deck. I’m afraid I’m not sure about a fix for that. You would most likely have to open the unit up and get a replacement

[@FortyNightsMusic]

Which custom knobs are these? And where did you get them?

[@spvidz]

they're in my shop - spvidz.com

[@RogerontheKeys]

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[@spvidz]

Cheers for watching bro! 🙏🙏🙏

[@5UPERENGINE]

sp, where do you have the SP connected to that we are able to hear what you play as you speak?

[@spvidz]

Both my voice and SP go into an audio interface and I monitor from there

[@5UPERENGINE]

@@spvidz Not to be a pain in the a$$ but if an audio interface only has 2 inputs which are mic inputs, how are you able to connect the sp plus the mic from the interface?

[@spvidz]

I've got a phono to XLR cable

[@danny5699]

So when ur recording your vids is the audio coming straight out of your monitors to the camera?

[@spvidz]

No I’m recording everything into ableton then I dub it over the video in my editor

[@danny5699]

@@spvidz gotchu thanks 😊

[@_samtaylorrr]

Thanks for the tips man ! Gonna try more with the pattern sequencer. Have you tried the 99 bar method with the pattern sequencer? I've heard about it but not sure why I'd want to do it that way ... Curious if you've messed with it

[@spvidz]

Hey man no problem! I have tried the pattern hack a couple of times but its very tedious and time consuming. If you make a mistake you have to redo the whole part but its definitely something I'll do a video on soon! Thanks for the reminder

[@robertrodak8311]

Hey man great vid you sold me on the sp! Do you think the sp can work on its own without a daw? I’ve seen people link it up with other machines to trigger stuff. I’m unsure if I’d be better buying a drum machine and then a sampler or just the sp! Fed up of staring into a computer screen!

[@spvidz]

You can yeah but you’ll have to record the tracks out or ‘master’ them on a computer most likely. It will severely limit your time at a computer though which is good. I’m with you I spend most of my life staring at a screen so it’s nice to have a break when I’m beat making

[@robertrodak8311]

@@spvidz cheers man, appreciate that! I think all signs point toward an mpc one then! Also got your drum packs which are sweet. You should drop a sample pack 🕺😎

[@spvidz]

thanks for the support man! Appreciate that. I'm eying the live 2 at the moment!

[@trking92]

Is this the same technique as resampling?

[@spvidz]

Nope, resampling is completely different to this. I've done a video about it before and planning to do another one soon. Here's the vid I've uploaded in the past - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqmnZXSmjaitibM

[@PhlaymzTV]

That gap was fire tho. Too bad you deleted it.

[@spvidz]

Thanks man, I hear that gap used a lot to good effect. I need to mess with the Pattern Seq more

[@eastwestdj8640]

How to access effect bank of Sp404 A / SX ?

[@spvidz]

I'm not sure what you are refering to by the FX bank? If you are trying to use the FX you just press the MFX button

[@eastwestdj8640]

@@spvidz thanks bud , I got it

[@tom22333]

Step #1 buy 404 Step #2 study spvidz Step #3 make beats

[@spvidz]

Thats the path 🙌