samplers: mpc500 vs roland sp-404sx

so i want to get a sampler to use in my live shows, so that i can load in wav files from my tracks (drum hits, piano chords, vocal samples), play them with the pads, and mess with pitch/effects/timing/etc.

it seems like these two samplers are what's out there at budget end of things, anyone have experience with either? the roland one is cheaper and can use an SD card, but has 1/8" jacks instead of regular 1/4". the mpc is well-reviewed and looks cooler, but doesn't have seem to have as much in the way of live performance effects.

heavily leaning toward the sp-404 btw, from what i've read it seems better for live performance.

mpc500 has bigger buttons. Would sway me.

i have an mpc500 but use it quite differently to how you're intending - mainly as a sequencer/controller. it's pretty useless at live parameter editing tbh. i don't even bother with the effects. i guess if you're just using it as a sample player and not engaging the sequencer it might be more responsive to live tweaking

does it have to have big pads? the korg electribe samplers have much much better live editing capabilities than both of these and are fairly cheap. you can tap stuff out on the smaller buttons pretty easily. also has a step sequencer. takes sd's i think

i guess the main argument against the mpc500 as a live tool is that there's a fair bit of menu diving and no single button parameter controls. for example, if you wanted to change the pitch of a sample whilst playing it, you'd have to complete a combination of button presses before even getting to the program edit menu, then scroll through a few parameters until you're finally able to edit the pitch with the wheel. there is a stepped slider that you can assign parameters to but it only effects note on events so is pretty useless

thanks for the info, that doesn't sound like it would work for me.

i guess the way that a lot of dudes do it is to use a controller like <a href="http://www.akaipro.com/mpd32";>this</a> connected to Ableton, but i don't know that i'm ready to make that leap.

oops

just at a glance it looks like it would be really hard to play the electribe live with all the buttons in a horizontal row like that, and from what i can tell it only has a tiny amount of memory to load your own sounds.

so i went with the roland, and messed around with it for the first time the other day. it feels pretty nice and i think it will work for my set, although some of the preset sounds were behaving oddly. all of the kick drums were really quiet compared to the other sounds, and when i slowly turned up the volume they would become audible at a certain notch, then drop out again when i turned the volume up higher. weird, but most of the sounds acted fine.

since i'm not going to use any presets anyway, i should be fine as long as it plays nice with the samples i load from the computer (fingers crossed).