Know the panel

Our own schematic · not to scale · Shift jobs shown for every key, though the unit prints only some of them

The areas of the panel

Reading the labels

• On our map, the word under a key or pad is what it does with SHIFT held. Everything on the Shift button lists them all.
• The real panel prints those words under the pads, but under only some of the keys. It also prints two that aren’t Shift jobs in Roland’s lists: DJ MODE under D/I and E/J, which you press together to enter DJ mode, and CURRENT PAD under REMAIN, which the manual doesn’t explain.
• The small orange labels on the pads, such as CUE and SYNC, are for DJ mode.
• VALUE has PUSH ENTER printed by it, because you press it to confirm as well as turn it.

The top screen

Moving around

• Turn VALUE to move a cursor, pick an item or change a value. Press it to confirm or to carry out what’s selected.
• Turn CTRL 1–CTRL 3 to edit the parameters on the current screen. On tabbed setting screens such as SYSTEM, CTRL 3 picks the tab.
• Press EXIT to go back a screen or back out of what you’re doing.
• Hold REMAIN to see the settings of the sample on the selected pad, or how long it has left while it’s playing (What the Remain button does).

What the lights mean

If the screen seems to misbehave

• The effect screen keeps disappearing. It goes back to the previous screen after a few seconds without input. Hold REMAIN and press the effect button to pin it (Edit an effect and keep your settings).
• A knob doesn’t change a value straight away. In Catch mode, a knob only takes effect once it reaches the stored value. The Edit Knob Mode and EFX Knob Mode settings choose how knobs behave, though DJ mode always uses Catch (Every system setting).
• Pop-ups get in the way. Pop-up Time shortens them or turns them off (Every system setting).
• An icon appears in the lower-left corner. Live mode is on, and some buttons won’t respond (Lock the risky buttons for a gig).

Shift with a pad

SHIFT + PAD 1

Pins the sample’s velocity at 127, however hard you hit the pad (FIXED VELOCITY). See Control how hard the pads hit.

SHIFT + PAD 2

Opens 16 VELOCITY, so each pad plays the selected sample at a different level. See Control how hard the pads hit.

SHIFT + PAD 3

Sets the balance of what you monitor in PHONES (CUE). See Preview in your headphones.

SHIFT + PAD 4

Enters chromatic mode, so the pads play the selected sample at different pitches. See Play one sample across the pads in key.

SHIFT + PAD 5

Swaps what’s stored on two pads, samples or patterns (EXCHANGE). See Swap and copy pads and banks and Swap, copy, extract and delete patterns.

SHIFT + PAD 6

Puts the selected sample’s settings back to their defaults (INIT PARAM). See Check a sample’s settings, or reset them.

SHIFT + PAD 7

Links pads into groups, so one pad fires the whole group (PAD LINK). See Trigger several pads from one.

SHIFT + PAD 8

Groups samples so that only the last one you played sounds (MUTE GROUP). See Let samples cut each other off.

SHIFT + PAD 9

Turns the metronome on or off. See Every system setting for how it’s set up.

SHIFT + PAD 10

Steps through the count-in choices for sampling or pattern recording. See Give yourself a count-in and Get a count-in and a click.

SHIFT + PAD 11

Opens TEMPO SEL and turns on tap tempo, so you can tap the beat on SUB PAD. See Tap in a tempo and Choose and set the bank or project tempo.

SHIFT + PAD 12

Jumps to the GAIN tab of UTILITY MENU > SYSTEM. See Every system setting.

SHIFT + PAD 13

Opens UTILITY MENU. See Find your way around UTILITY.

SHIFT + PAD 14

Opens the import and export menu. See Bring audio in from an SD card and Save samples to an SD card.

SHIFT + PAD 15

Opens the pad settings. See Every pad setting.

SHIFT + PAD 16

Opens the effect settings. See Find your way around the effect settings.

Shift with a button or knob

SHIFT + BUS FX

Cuts the audio feeding the bus, leaving only what the effect is still putting out (MUTE BUS). See Cut the audio and leave the effect tails.

SHIFT + HOLD

Pauses the samples that are playing; do it again to resume. See Stop or pause everything.

SHIFT + EXT SOURCE

Opens the input settings screen. See Plug in a synth, mic or guitar.

SHIFT + SUB PAD

Opens SELECT PROJECT. See Switch between your 16 projects.

SHIFT + MARK

Stores the main settings of the BUS 1 and BUS 2 effects. See Edit an effect and keep your settings.Hold for at least three seconds

SHIFT + PITCH/SPEED

Opens the envelope screen, for fades in and out. See Fade a sample in and out.

SHIFT + START/END

Starts chop, which cuts the sample at its markers and deals the pieces out to pads. See Chop a sample across the pads.

SHIFT + PATTERN SELECT

Takes back what you just recorded. See Record a pattern as you play.While recording a pattern

SHIFT + ROLL

Steps to the next roll interval, which decides how fast a roll repeats. See Repeat a sample with rolls.

SHIFT + REVERSE + PAD

Mutes or unmutes that pad. See Mute a pad on the fly.

SHIFT + REVERSE + REMAIN

Latches SHIFT and REVERSE, so you can mute pads without holding them; EXIT cancels. See Mute a pad on the fly.

SHIFT + LOOP

Sets a ping-pong loop, which runs forwards and then backwards, over and over. See Loop forwards, backwards or both ways.

SHIFT + GATE

Flips GATE for every sample in the selected bank. See Gate and hold: what letting go of a pad does.

SHIFT + BPM SYNC

Flips BPM SYNC for every sample in the selected bank. See Lock a sample to the tempo.

SHIFT + REC

Drops into TR-REC, so you can add a sample to the running pattern. See Program steps with TR-REC.While a pattern plays

SHIFT + BANK

Opens BANK VOLUME, to balance that bank against the others. See Balance one bank against another.

SHIFT + REMAIN

Turns live mode on or off, which locks DEL, REC, RESAMPLE, COPY and MARK. See Lock the risky buttons for a gig.Hold for at least three seconds

SHIFT + COPY

Protects the selected bank’s samples and patterns against being changed or deleted by mistake; repeat to lift it. See Protect banks and delete samples.

SHIFT + VALUE

Chooses whether MARK calls up skip-back sampling or the looper. See Save what you just played with skip-back and Build up a loop live with the looper.Press the knob

SHIFT + RESAMPLE

Enters sample merge mode. See Merge samples into one.

SHIFT + RECORD SETTING

Enters sound generator mode. See Make your own sounds with the sound generator.

SHIFT + EXIT

Brings everything to a stop, samples and patterns alike. See Stop or pause everything.

Hold Remain and press

Hold REMAIN + PAD

Changes which bus that pad’s sample feeds. Each press flips between the bus selected with BUS FX and DRY. See Send each sample to a bus.

Hold REMAIN + BANK

Sets the bus for all of a bank’s samples in one go. See Send each sample to a bus.

Hold REMAIN + EXT SOURCE

Chooses the bus for INPUT and LINE IN. The button lights for BUS 1, blinks for BUS 2 and goes dark for DRY. See Decide where external audio goes.In sample mode

Hold REMAIN + EFFECT

Pins the effect edit screen, so it doesn’t time out; EXIT or REMAIN lets it go. See Edit an effect and keep your settings.

Hold REMAIN + BUS FX

Trades the effects on BUS 1 and BUS 2, and their settings go with them. See Turn an effect on from the keys.

Hold REMAIN + VALUE

Scrolls through the selected sample’s details, such as Color, PROJECT and NAME, ready to edit them. See Colour-code your samples and Rename samples and projects.Turn the knob

What you can edit across a bank

Edit a whole bank at once

Hold REMAIN + CTRLS

Changes that knob’s parameter for every sample in the bank.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold REMAIN + BPM SYNC

Changes BPM SYNC for every sample in the bank.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold REMAIN + GATE

Changes GATE for every sample in the bank.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold REMAIN + LOOP

Changes LOOP for every sample in the bank.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold REMAIN + REVERSE

Changes REVERSE for every sample in the bank.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Other jobs for a plain press

Hold Value and press

Hold VALUE + PAD

Picks a sample silently, or picks a pattern without starting it when PATTERN SELECT is lit.

Hold VALUE + EFFECT

Makes the effect button momentary, so the effect is on only while you keep it pressed. See Apply an effect only while you hold its key.

Hold VALUE + CTRLS

Edits the effect’s sub-parameters, on effects that have them. See Edit an effect and keep your settings.

Hold VALUE + BUS FX

Takes BUS 3 and BUS 4 out of the sound for now, without changing your FAVORITE setting. See Set the effects on BUS 3 and BUS 4 and Load a saved BUS 3 and BUS 4 set-up.

Hold VALUE + SUB PAD

Evens out the tiny timing gaps when you trigger several samples together.

Hold VALUE + GATE

Turns one-shot playback on or off. See Play a sample through without interruption.

Other buttons that team up with the knob

• Hold MFX and turn VALUE to choose a multi-effect (Pick any effect from the MFX list).
• Hold REMAIN and turn VALUE to scroll through a sample’s details (What the Remain button does).
• Hold ROLL and turn VALUE to shorten a roll that’s playing (Repeat a sample with rolls), or to set the root note in chromatic mode (Play one sample across the pads in key).
• Hold SHIFT and press VALUE to choose what MARK calls up (Everything on the Shift button).
• While the effect edit screen is pinned, press VALUE to move between main and sub-parameters, on effects that have both (Edit an effect and keep your settings).

Hold Del and press

DEL + EXIT

Opens DELETE BANK, to clear all the samples or patterns in a bank. See Protect banks and delete samples and Swap, copy, extract and delete patterns.

DEL + MARK

Wipes the effect moves captured with EFX MOTION REC from this pattern. See Automate your effect moves.On the pattern edit screen

DEL + REVERSE

Wipes the pad mute moves captured with PAD MUTE MOTION REC from this pattern. See Automate pad mutes.On the pattern edit screen

Hold Copy and press

COPY + EXIT

Opens the bank copy screen, to duplicate a whole bank of samples or patterns into another bank. See Swap and copy pads and banks and Swap, copy, extract and delete patterns.

What you can edit across a mute group

Edit a mute group at once

Hold COPY + CTRLS

Changes that knob’s parameter for the samples in the mute group.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold COPY + BPM SYNC

Changes BPM SYNC for the samples in the mute group.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold COPY + GATE

Changes GATE for the samples in the mute group.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold COPY + LOOP

Changes LOOP for the samples in the mute group.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

Hold COPY + REVERSE

Changes REVERSE for the samples in the mute group.On the pitch/speed or envelope screen

One more held button: MFX

MFX + DJFX LOOPER

Shows the MFX list from effect 17 onwards, so the pads can pick those. See Pick any effect from the MFX list.

MFX + ISOLATOR

Shows the MFX list from effect 33 onwards, so the pads can pick those. See Pick any effect from the MFX list.

From samples to the mixer

1. 1A sample plays on a voice. The 404 has 32 voices to share among the project’s 160 samples.
2. 2The voice applies the sample’s volume, pan and envelope, along with its pitch shift and speed.
3. 3The sample’s bus setting sends the sound one of two ways. BUS 1 or BUS 2 leads into BUS FX, and DRY goes around BUS FX to the mixer.
4. 4The output of BUS FX joins the mixer.

From the inputs to the mixer

1. 1INPUT passes through the MIC/GUITAR switch and GAIN. LINE IN joins after this point, so those two controls only affect INPUT.
2. 2The combined signal passes through the Attenuator, when it’s on, and then the Noise Gate.
3. 3USB audio joins here if the USB IN setting is LINE IN.
4. 4Everything goes through INPUT FX, then a LEVEL control, then the EXT SOURCE on/off switch.
5. 5The INPUT BUS setting sends it on. BUS 1 or BUS 2 leads into BUS FX, and DRY goes straight to the mixer.

From the mixer to the outputs

• USB audio joins the mix just after the mixer if USB IN is MIX OUT, so it skips INPUT FX and BUS FX.
• The mix then splits into three feeds, and VOLUME sets the level of all three.
• LINE OUT goes through a Limiter, its own gain setting, then a Clipper.
• PHONES has its own Limiter, gain setting and Clipper.
• USB only has a gain setting. It takes the mix from before USB audio joins, so audio arriving through MIX OUT isn’t sent back out over USB.

Putting this to use

Error messages