SP-6? That's wack son...well...maybe not

Although this feature has been out for some time now, I feel that people don't get the power of using it in their sets and it is often overlooked.  From ad-lib drums to dropping vocal samples to using it for instant doubles on a currently playing track to free up a deck, it's quite useful.  Now since SSL doesn't sync to a master clock like Traktor's sample decks, the SP-6 can fall out of time with pitch changes if you're mixing looped tracks in it and changing speed, so be careful, there's a nudge feature for that.  The great thing about the SP-6 is that you have six slots that essentially have full deck control on them.  You have a volume fader, pitch slider, multiple play modes, overviews, multiple banks, output selection, and more features that I will delve into as we go.  This isn't a complete example of all features, but you'll get the idea.

The real value that I see in it is the fact that a DJ can be much more creative with a midi controller and decks that just limited to using the keyboard shortcuts for triggering samples.  Now the list of gear could get pretty extensive if you want hands on control of ALL features of the SP-6 and all channels, but I'll just focus a bit on how I have mine set up.  I mapped my Akai LPD-8 to control the SP-6 on one of the scenes available for it (there are 4 altogether).  Since the LPD-8 only has 8 pads and 8 knobs, I decided that the first 6 pads will trigger samples and the first 6 knobs will control the volume of the samples.  It's just a quick and dirty method of being able to cue up an additional track once you have them in sync.  When you drop the currently playing track on the deck to the sample player, it will instant double and match the trackhead position and playback speed.  NOTE: if you don't have instant doubles enabled, this doesn't work so make sure to check your setup options!  You also want to make sure that the output selector is then on the currently playing deck so that you can start to cue another track and make sure it's not cueing live.


With the ability to change the volume of the SP-6 sample track with the knobs on the LPD, you can still mix with the controller.  The other thing I use the SP-6 for is to drop snippets of vocals and drums.  For these I'll use the one shot mode and drop individual drum samples (or airhorns haha) into the slots and drum during a breakdown or whatever part you want.  It's all up to you what you want to do with it, but that's my quick suggestion.  Be back for more news on ish soon!