It’s been a dynamic 20 years for the iconic SP-404. Since its 2005 debut, the magical box has taken root in sample-based live music performance, hip-hop, and myriad strains of beat culture. Much as the Roland TR-808, TR-909, and TB-303 saw entire movements emerge in their wake, the now-ubiquitous 404 ushered in lo-fi and other genres. The difference is that, unlike its forbearers, the 404 achieved its popularity while still in production, amassing a passionate fanbase that expands year after year. The 404’s functions and capabilities continue to deepen in much the same way as its fervent following.
Original SP-404 designer Kenji Yamada and current project leader Takeo Shirato are key figures in the 404 engineering legacy. The former was on hand in the earliest days, while the latter is ushering in its current era of rapid-fire development and updates. The pair discuss the original 404 product concept, the instrument’s widespread popularity, and more in this exclusive conversation.
The Concept
What were the initial product concepts and planning behind the original SP-404, MKII, and SX?
Kenji Yamada: SP-404 was a succession of the SP-303, the standard at the time. The SP-404SX was the successor to the SP-404, with expanded sample capacity and improved sound quality.
Takeo Shirato: The initial product concept for the SP-404MKII was to keep the format and workflow of the SP-404. Since it had been 12 years since the SP-404SX, we needed to analyze our accumulated user feedback and determine what was truly important. Incorporating all the ideas would have been too much work, so we proceeded with development while consulting with Yamada-san many times. Also, since the SP-404SX had increased the number of beatmaker SP users, I had a strong desire to release the MKII as an answer and a way to return the favor.
KY: Although we have not said so publicly about the SP-404, it is a project where we secretly thought about whether we could include a customization element.
TS: The SP-404 had a strong lo-fi hip-hop image, but we developed the SP-404MKII in the hope that people of various musical genres would come to know and use it. The sound quality and effects are designed to match house, techno, and other types of electronic music. We would be happy if the SP-404MKII instrument provided an opportunity for our customers to encounter new cultures and music that they have never experienced before.
Guiding Lights
Who are some of your mentors at Roland or elsewhere in your engineering career?
KY: The general manager when I was first assigned to the Development Department after joining the company. He led development with a very warm personality. He gave me, still a young man, opportunities to take on various challenges, asked for my opinions on product development, and was the first person to show me his attitude toward development.
TS: During the development of SP-404MKII, I had many mentors. I consulted with Yamada-san on various matters, including why the original SP-404 was designed this way and whether we should change it. Thanks to his explanation of the story behind each of the specifications we had decided on at the time, I remember that we could clarify the parts that could be changed.
When developing the SP-404MKII, my department superiors Yamasato-san and Minowa-san gave me a lot of advice. Their advice was extremely valuable to me at the time, as it taught me how to think about planning, promotion, and business.
"I feel that my own musical interests have expanded through the development of the
SP-404."
Riding the 404 Wave
What are your thoughts about the SP-404 and its place in modern beat culture—did you expect it to gain such popularity?
KY: I had not imagined it at all, and I had no idea everyone would celebrate it with 404 Day.
TS: When I first learned about the SP-404 in 2005, I honestly did not expect it to be as popular as it was. The public had the perception that it was a supplementary tool for DJs. I think it was around 2010 that I became aware of the new community for the SP-404. At the time, Japanese music magazines such as remix and ele-king featured Low End Theory and Brainfeeder. In those articles, I learned about the existence of overseas artists using the SP-404, such as Samiyam, Teebs, Ras G, and TOKiMONSTA. I was very interested in the SP-404.
At that time, Low End Theory was touring in Japan about one to two times a year, and I went to a few of their events. One of the most memorable was Ras G’s show at Daikanyama UNIT in 2012. The addictive psychedelic beats, interspersed with sounds sampled from Sun Ra’s music, made me feel like I was in outer space. The impact of his divine live performance is still burned into my mind 10 years later. Witnessing the growth of this beat culture in real time changed my sense of values.
Influences and Interests
How have your musical interests influenced the development of the SP-404?
KY: Influentially, it is the opposite. I feel that my own musical interests have expanded through the development of the SP-404. I was very interested in musical instruments and their sound principles, and I was always conscious that the SP-404 had to be a musical instrument to be viable.
TS: Going back in time, I first encountered the Roland SP series at a dancehall reggae event I attended when I was in high school in 1999. At that time, Japanese reggae music, mainly Mighty Crown, was popular in Japan, and dancehall and dub selectors (DJs) were using samplers (SP-202/303) as tools (machines to play siren and pistol sounds) to enliven the audience between songs. This may have been a peculiar Japanese usage. Also, although this usage may be unique to Japan, it was used for a wide variety of purposes, such as sound effects for variety shows and stage plays, as well as radio jingles. It was becoming the standard for one-shot samplers.
In the 2000s, as a university student, I spent most of my time going to a record store, Vinyl Machine, in my hometown of Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, every week to absorb knowledge of sampling sources used in dance music. At the time, there was no Shazam or Discogs, so I collected information on music by traveling back and forth between record stores and clubs on my own. The variety of music inspired me by experiencing the genre-less club culture unique to regional cities in Japan.
"Going back in time, I first encountered the Roland SP series at a dancehall reggae event I attended when I was in high school in 1999."
I became deeply absorbed in the SP beat culture in the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, Madlib and J Dilla revealed themselves as power users of the SP-303, and hip-hop milestone albums such as Madvillain’s Madvilliany were released. With the development of social media like Instagram, casual and impactful posts using SP-404 have increased dramatically over the past 5-6 years, creating a worldwide SP community. We have also seen the transition from underground subculture to mainstream in real time.
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Digging for Feedback
Has that culture influenced product development?
TS: The SP series has had a tremendous impact on the music scene, and I have been very strongly influenced by it. Therefore, as the developer of the SP-404MKII, my mission was not only to add functions and improve usability but also to inherit the history and culture that the SP has cultivated and to evolve it into the next generation of beat culture by utilizing my own experience.
In the early stages of development, I went through almost every post in the SP community around the world. Fortunately, the SP community was very active, posting requests for additional features and improvements in anticipation of the next new product. Sixteen years had passed since the release of the SP-404 in 2005, and there was a vast amount of information in the community.
Like digging through records from one end of a record store shelf to the other, I made a list of SP users’ requests in the user community, analyzed them, and incorporated them into the product specifications of the SP-404MKII.
We also worked with Product Planning Manager Peter Brown to interview SP-404 power users directly to make sure that the direction of the product specifications was correct on numerous occasions before starting the design process. This was not difficult, but it did take a lot of time to get to the starting point of the design.
"Like digging through records from one end of a record store shelf to the other, I made a list of SP users' requests, analyzed them, and incorporated them into the SP-404MKII."
Have you ever been surprised by the different ways artists use the SP-404?
KY: I had imagined that the main use would be sample playback, but unexpectedly, one of the surprises was seeing real-time performance, such as hitting the pads and actively using effects as much as drum play.
TS: I often visit nightclubs and live music clubs on weekends. One day, I saw the artists RAMZA and duenn mixing songs alternately, fading in and out, using two SP-404SXs and a DJ mixer. Generally, DJ mixes using the SP-404SX are all cut-in/cut-out. However, they used multiple SPs to smoothly mix more experimental electronic music, and I was inspired by their approach, which led me to the idea of the DJ mode on the SP-404MKII.
The SP-404 is also used in various ways as a versatile sampler, especially in Japan. It has been used by many different types of users over the past twenty years, and we are amazed every day at how many different types of users it has served and how it is being used in ways we never imagined.
"We are amazed every day at how many different types of users it has served over the past twenty years and how it is being used in ways we never imagined."
Keeping it Fresh with Updates
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in the ongoing design and production process of the SP-404 and its many updates?
KY: For the SP-404 and SP-404SX, which I was in charge of, one of the issues was that the SP-404 should be able to express the same performance with the same operation and feeling as the SP-303 and the SP-404SX should be able to express the same performance as the SP-404.
TS: The biggest challenge for the SP-404MKII was keeping costs down while keeping the SP-404SX and SP-404MKII in the same price range and still showing significant evolution. Since it had been sixteen years since the SP-404SX was first released, the rising cost of raw materials was a significant barrier. Even if we designed the product with the same configuration as before, we would have to raise the selling price.
We reviewed the parts one by one and renewed the system configuration to achieve a significant cost reduction. We relied on various contacts and consulted with semiconductor manufacturers regarding the adoption of parts. The SP-404MKII uses an OLED display, which is also an expensive part. So, I ran around the company asking, “Why don’t we use this OLED?” As a result of all these efforts to reduce costs, we were able to achieve this price range.
I also had my own ability problem. Before I started developing the SP-404MKII, I could barely speak English. However, I managed to experiment with the sampler in terms of elemental technology development by communicating in English with a software engineer living in Italy, who is now my biggest partner, with whom I initially struggled. The marketing manager is an overseas member named Matthew Chicoine, who also works as an artist called Recloose. Various synergies across the sea made the SP-404MKII a reality.
What do you think has been the most exciting update since the launch of the SP-404?
KY: The release of the SP-404MKII was an exciting event for me. I never imagined that the successor to the SP-404 would ever appear, and what I could not achieve with the SP-404/SP-404SX, what I wanted to do, is now possible.
TS: Even after the release of the SP-404MKII, we have continued to make major updates regularly and evolve the product. We have also continued direct dialogues with users worldwide to obtain feedback, reflecting the ideas we received in major updates.
v2.0 was released in July 2022. v3.0 was released in April 2023, v4.0 in April 2024, and v5.0 in April 2025. We also work with collaborators like Stones Throw, KDJ Records, Koala, Melodics, and Serato. It was also a very exciting experience to work with many collaborators in the development process.
Roland and Musical Subcultures
Do you see any other Roland instruments developing subcultures like the SP-404 has?
KY: I think the groove gear group, starting with the MC-303, originated the culture of playing tabletop electronic instruments and the emergence of such instruments from various companies.
TS: For me, it started with the TR-808, TR-909, and TB-303. It is no longer a subculture, but without these products, all of today’s dance music culture would not exist. Nightclubs worldwide are filled with the sound of these machines every weekend, all night long, and audiences around the globe get bombarded with the sound of these machines. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much of this equipment in my life. And then there is the RE-201. While the RE-201 did not directly create or develop a subculture, it is indispensable to many different genres of music.
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Advice and Achievements
If you had to give one piece of advice to an aspiring musical instrument engineer, what would it be?
KY: The goal is not to make musical instruments but to make the customers who use them enjoy playing them and the people who listen to them happy. The key is to have a goal that is an extension of the dialogue with various people.
TS: The most important thing is to be interested in music, the culture behind it, and the people involved in that music and culture. Next, it is essential to communicate with these people, understand their diverse values, and acquire the ability to give form to new ideas (to develop musical instruments) that emerge from this communication.
What other Roland instruments have you developed that you are proud of?
KY: The FANTOM-S series was developed through repeated discussions by the development team on how to incorporate sampling into workstations for customers to use.
TS: The FANTOM was released in 2019. It was my first product after I joined Roland. I was previously a hardware and FPGA engineer for inkjet printers and digital cameras. FANTOM is a workstation-type multifunctional synthesizer that incorporates multiple custom and additional chips, making it a complex system.
"The goal is not to make musical instruments but to make the customers who use them enjoy playing them and the people who listen to them happy."
However, the synthesizer and inkjet printer architectures are so similar that it took only a short time for us to understand the entire system. Using the skills developed in printer development, we found points for improvement to maximize performance. Reducing startup time is a common challenge for printers and electronic musical instruments. Printers must print as soon as they are turned on, and electronic instruments must be able to start playing immediately. Therefore, we minimized the time required to load a large amount of waveform data at startup to maximize the performance of FANTOM.
The sampler implemented in FANTOM, which I was also involved in the development of, was also very interesting. It was very difficult to maximize its performance, given the limited CPU resources available. Without this challenging experience, I could not have developed the SP-404MKII.
Dreaming in Sound
What are some of your dreams for future instruments?
KY: I want them to have a certain degree of clumsiness. If it evolves too much, there will be no room for people. I want the instruments and people to complement each other to create something new.
TS: Just as the TR-808 and TR-909 created and developed house and techno and the SP-404 created and developed lo-fi hip-hop and other musical cultures, I want to continue contributing to designing and developing new musical cultures created by musical instruments until my death.
New musical cultures and genres are born from musical instruments, and the technology of musical instruments is brushed up by getting feedback from them. For example, the lo-fi hip-hop community was born from the SP-404, and the SP-404MKII was born from the feedback. By repeating these efforts, we hope to continue the evolution of musical instruments and music culture and enrich the lives of all people who love music.
