[3] The Roland SP-404 has played a huge role in influencing the sound of popular Hip Hop subgenre known as Lofi HipHop.

Having the traditional features of the Roland Grooveboxes, the 404 has the ability to record audio directly via line/mic, or import/export industry-standard WAV and AIF files via CompactFlash card.

Among the new features were an OLED display capable of showing sample waveforms, 16 GB of internal memory, USB-C and 32-note polyphony.

These include Jel, Odd Nosdam, Alias, J Dilla, Madlib, JPEGMAFIA, Joji, MF Doom, Jneiro Jarel, Milo, Flying Lotus,[6] James Blake, Samiyam, Ras G, Teebs, Grimes, Pictureplane, Four Tet, Beck Hansen, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, Radiohead, Animal Collective, Spindrift, Toro y Moi, Broadcast, John Maus, Ellie Goulding, El Guincho, Illmind, Dibia$e,[7] Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin), Matt Mondanile of Ducktails, Devo, Mad Professor, and many others.

Jan Linton was hired by Roland in 2005 to produce a promotional European sound card for the SP404.