EMU Sp1200 User reviews -Page 11

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Average rating: 4.2 out of 5

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mike a professional user writes:

Im glad i bought th sp12turbo instead of the sp1200 for one reason alone the sp12 retains samples after power down another thing you get emus drumulator sounds too i bonus i think,i have only had it a few days but i think 5 seconds of sample time is well enough just yesterday i managed to sample 14 drum sounds with it and still have 1.0 second of sample time left. I know some people who would laff at that but do you really need a sampling drum machine to have 32mb and 32 note poly,personally i think the lack of features on a machine like the sp12/00 makes you use your imagination more and that cant be a bad thing surely can it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Sunday-Feb-03-022 at 08:20

mago a part-time user from USA writes:

Will...

The SP-12 TURBO is the EXACT SAME machine as the SP-1200. The ONLY differences are that the SP-12 requires an external Commodore 64 floppy drive (about $15), and only has the 5 seconds of sampling time as compared to the 1200's 10 seconds.

You can erase the onboard SP-12 sounds if you want, giving you ALL 4 banks to save your sounds. I've done it. It tells you how on page 39 of the manual.

The '1200' stands for $1200 MORE than an SP-12 TURBO...

Peace, all...

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Jan-29-022 at 04:20

Greg Kite a professional user writes:

I would just like to say I appreciate the all the loveletters you girls wrote to your sp1200's, they were really touching, especially the one about Chuck D saying he liked the SP cos it could truncate. I'm not really being that sarcastic because I actually did enjoy peoples reviews but there are a few points I would like to add just to make things clear:

1. Having 2.5 seconds of sampling time is limiting, there's no way around it, if you play the record fast and pitch it down on the SP it can have artifacts like a high pitched squealing sound.

2. The Mpc2000xl doesn't sound quite as good but it still thumps if you make it, and you can alter the attack based sound of drums by putting the attack between 2-5 depending on the decay setting, for a fuller sound.

3. For cutting up samples for what I call "advanced phrase sample sequencing", the 2kxl is way easier and better(slice function), better sequencer as well.

4. you can make the Emax1 sound almost identical to the SP, save for one filter setting that is hardwired to the outputs of the SP, that is hard to duplicate on the Emax1. But aside from that the sound generating components are the same(correct me if I'm wrong).

5. The biggest myth of all is that you can sample ANY drum sound into the SP1200 and it will "MAGICALLY" transform into some raw hip hop sound that will sound like DJ Premier and Showbiz. WRONG! Digging in the crates is how you find the illest drum sounds, you can't sample some wakass drum sound into the Sp1200 and expect it to sound that much different, although the sp does add a warmth and gritty punch that is hard to duplicate exactly, but some people like the gritty punch of the s900 and s950 more then they do the SP, I know for a fact DJ Premier and Showbiz prefer teh S950 for most of their drum sounds, while the SP is like for special occasions, not to mention Premo has an Mpc60 for sequencing and uses it for drums occasionally. So it's more about the sounds you put into your sampler then it is the sound of the sampler itself.

With that said, I'm know for a fact it's possible to make dope hip hop traks with the SP as a standalone, but it is more difficult and limiting then using an MPC2kxl alone or sequencing another sampler.

Rating: 2 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Nov-28-011 at 05:56

mago a part-time user from USA writes:

Save your dough. For way less than half the price of an SP1200 you can get an SP12 TURBO. Differences? 1)The SP12 TURBO has 5 secs of sampling time compared to the SP1200's 10. 2)The SP1200 has a floppy drive, and the SP12 needs an external Commodore 1541 floppy drive (I got mine for $15...) THAT'S IT. You can erase the onboard SP12 sounds anytime you want, giving you all 4 banks for samples, just like the SP1200. If 5 seconds of sampling time and a $15 floppy drive is worth $1000 to you, then buy an SP1200 instead of the SP12 TURBO.

Rating: 2 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Nov-28-011 at 03:37

Rube a hobbyist user from Mpls, MN, USA writes:

After reading all the hate reviews about the SP1200 I felt I had to put my review out there. I first bought a used SP12 in 1991 in a tiny little Music store in Missoula, Montana. The folks at the place had it in there for 6 months and couldn't give it away. I had read an interview with Chuck D and he said it was his favorite machine because you can truncate, reverse and filter your sounds with it. That was enough for me to be a believer. I bought it for 500 bucks. It got stolen, but I had it ensured for the price of an SP1200, so I got a free, new SP1200 that I've been faithful to ever since. If you're the type of artist who wants to replicate a long loop from some funk record the exact way as it is on the record than the machine is problably not for you. You'll be frustrated from the begining because you can only sample 2.5 seconds at a time on both the SP12 and the SP1200. If that's the case, I suggest you take your wack ass to the local Corporate Music Store chain of your choice and buy some lame Loop CD and plug that into your Friggin' CD Rom and make some realy polished, unoriginal, watered down, lifeless music with all kinds of dreamy effects to go with watever smoked out dreams you might have. On the other hand, if the idea of making original music from sampled sources is your bag, the SP1200 or SP12 might be just what you're looking for. The machines force you to be more creative. For example, let's say you would like to loop a really tight bassline...Let's say the bassline itself drops really nice on the one, pauses and finishes with a quick fingered, triplet thing on the 3 or something. Yeah, you could flip the RPM of your Tec 12 over to 45 and capture it that way, slow it down on the SP to a head nodding b-boy tempo, and call it done...OR...You could sample the first part, trim it down to save memory (Always want to trim down to save your SP's precious memory), then sample the second part, trim IT to your liking and make your rythm pattern that way. What would the advantages of having it chopped up into two separate parts be? Well, THAT'S when the real creative music making proccess begins. You can flip that bassline in crazy different styles...YOUR styles, bruh. ...And THAT'S why I love my SP1200 and my SP12 (R.I.P. SP12)

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Nov-06-011 at 23:20

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