In addition to shredding your samples into digital oblivion, you can process them with a ton of different effects like reverb, delay, a multi-mode filter, and most importantly, a vinyl simulator for that real 404 flavor. The six sample pads on the front They are not velocity sensitive, but they are large and sensitive enough to do some finger tapping.
Unfortunately, cutting a sample spreads it across the smaller keyboard at the bottom, rather than the larger sample pads. Those keys are small, soft and unpleasant to touch. Still, if you want something small to mix up lo-fi or boom-bap beats on the go, the P-6 isn’t a bad choice.
A small tool kit
When creating a beat, you have many tools at your disposal. You can manually place steps using the step sequencer or play them live to keep things off the grid. You have 64 steps to work with, plus probability, substeps, microtiming, and motion recording to add complexity and variety.
Then, once your loop is ready, you can use various effects to create builds, breakdowns, and fills on the fly. In particular, there is Scatter, Step Loop and DJFX Looper taken from the SP-404.
The dispersion is divisive, to say the least. Add stuttering and glitch effects based on pre-programmed patterns. It can sound good when used sparingly and with the right settings, but it’s far from subtle and can turn more complex, melodic beats into unlistenable chaos.
Step Loop simply repeats the steps you hold down on the sequencer. It’s a more flexible and interesting version of the kind of beat repeat effects you can find on other devices like the Teenage Engineering PO-133. It’s great for creating live variations and fills while you play. It’s truly one of my favorite performance roles on any musical team and I’d love to see it in more things.
Photography: Terrence O’Brien