E-mu SP-1200

Price Paid: US $900 used

Ease of Use: 8
Like the SP12 is quite easy of use,much more than an Akai MPC60.
just put some sample on it and u're ready to go!
You program it "à la" Linndrum style,the timing is cool,very intuitive,you'd be able to work with it after 20 minutes since the first time you put your hands on it.

Features: 7
Ev'body knowk it.
It does few things,but it does 'em GREAT!
Pretty reliable even MIDI slaved.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
Magic,magic,magic.
Sample something into it,and u're gonna get a totally different sound.
Dirty,crispy,ultradynamic.The best.

Reliability: 9
I've never had any crash with it,and hope I won't.

Customer Support: N/A
Never needed any.

Overall Rating: 9
It is one of the best piece of stuff I ever owned and played.
A total pleasure for musicians,djs,sound designer.

Submitted by Luca at 04/07/2003 05:05

Price Paid: US $1000 used

Ease of Use: 10
This is the easiest sampling drum machine I have ever used. The manual is available on-line (since most of these lost thier manuals eons ago) and it is very easy to get up and going on this machine in minutes. I dreamed of owning one for years and after years of MPC 60, SP 12 and (lol) Drumulator it was cake to learn the SP. The SP has no presets but some of the old software disks have sounds on them...they are ho-hum and of no use to me.

Features: 8
plugging a keyboard into the SP does nothing for me. I use a G3 w/keyboard or a live bass player. With 8 outs and 10 seconds of sampling time I use the SP for 1. Drums and 2. I run all my samples through it first to get that nasty sound. The filters are fun for some things (put your kick on channel 2...wooohooo!) but I find that I need to go to other gear to filter bass lines and samples the way I want. The MIDI interface works great and it makes the SP very flexible. I have dragged it into countless studios and never had a problem getting down to business.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
The SP does not do much but what it does do, it does the best! It has the old school gritty hip hop sound. You just can't get that sound without an SP. If you are like me and you love the grimy, gritty, chunky sound of old EPMD, Showbiz, etc... type records the SP is essential. If you are a trance producing techno weenie then this piece of gear will collect dust in your closet until you decide to sell it to me.

Reliability: 7
I am glad everyone else has had good luck with the SP. In my circle of friends we have three of them and a channel has gone out on every machine. My channel 5 has been out for two years. I also lost a channel on my old SP 12. I dont know how to fix it without mailing to someone so I just work around it (pain). I would love to have all 8 channels working...I am keeping my eye out for a second one so I have a back up.

Customer Support: 10
I do not want to part with it long enough to get it repaired in a different state. The EMU website is good and that is why they get a 10 but other than that I have not dealt with them.

Overall Rating: 10
This little gem is worth twice what I paid for it. It is a rare, essential hip hop production tool (for traditionalists anyway) If it was stolen I would track it down and kill the thief (or find a new one). I have been making beats since 1991 and owned about every serious "hip hop" machine you can think of (except mpc 3000). It is simple, intuative, easy to use, and sounds incredible! I use it with a digital 8 track recorder and it is like having a pile of SP 1200's all working together. I plug it in at the studio in front of all types of musicians and thier jaws drop at the sonic quality of the sound coming out of a box that looks like a rejected video game console from the early eighties (to be fair, my definition of sonic quality may vary from yours). I also have to use an MPC 2000 or Logic software for filtering, effects, long samples, precision truncating and composing basslines because the SP is inadequate in those areas, and thats ok. It is only a piece of my studio but it is the heart.

Submitted by Ben at 02/15/2003 10:53

Price Paid: US $1500 used

Ease of Use: 10
The SP is very easy to use if you've been around drum machines at all. It doesn't get much easier than this. You'll be creating beats and tracks in no time at all, which makes it funner to use.

Features: N/A
This is the department where the SP feels most dated. It's only 8 notes of polyphony (one voice per output). No built in effects. Only 10 seconds of sampling time - TOTAL. It's not velocity sensitive. It's only 12-bit with a really low sampling rate.
The tuning of the instruments isn't as flexible if you're triggering it externally via midi.
The sample trimming is not very 'fine'. It's akin to lopping off the ends with a butcher's knife.
By looking at the SP's specs, you'd wonder why people would still use a machine with specs from the stone age........but there's a reason

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
The sound of the SP is THE reason people drool over these things. The pre-set sounds on the factory disks are pretty silly and 80's cheesy. Throw those out. If you're into sampling breaks or chopping breaks onto a drum machine, this machine is the sh*t! The 12-bit resolution gives a gritty, crusty, crackly sound to drums or anything else you sample. It's not great if you're going for a crystal clear hi-fi radio-rap sound, and it's not good for trying to sound like a real drummer, but if you want that early ninetys hip hop grit, track down a SP. Why else would someone pay $1500 for only 10 seconds of sampling time?

Reliability: 10
It's never crashed on me yet.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A
I would go into shock if something happened to my SP. It's worth to me what I paid for it, even though it was a lot. It wasn't easy to find though. I have an Akai S3000 for when I need higher fidelity and more sampling time, so I kind of have the best of both worlds.
The SP is great compared to a lot of electronic instruments because it's so simple...it's not capable of anything fancy, but it's really direct and quick to use - no BS to wade through. This makes riding waves of creative inspiration really easy.

Submitted by sev at 03/04/2002 19:14

Price Paid: $2500 (AUS) used

Ease of Use: 10
How much more simple could it be...not too much more. The easiest of the "Real" dru,m machines i have used. The presets sound average, but running any sample through this thing livens it up. editting patterns is extremely easy.

Features: 9
OK - it has some great features, and yet being slightly older (87ish), it lacks some features of the modern synths. There is such great output options (8+some more and these outputs have different filtering on the different assignable outs). The MIDI and SMPTE timecoding options that this thing can fit in just about anywhere, in anyones studio.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
Sounds that come with some of the original disks are dated (this both good and bad). but it makes everything sound great, especially in hiphop and dance music (even more so if you effect some of the outs with external processors). It is possible to adapt the pitch/decay and mix amongst other things on the fly for complete control of the sounds too. Obviously it wasnt made to react to velocity...so use the sliders to change your velocity. If you want realistic sounding instruments i think you are better off getting a real drummer or a clean cut sound from a studio/sample cd and keeping it in 24 bit digital. But I love this things sound

Reliability: 10
This thing is a tank...Like I said 1987 or thereabouts I believe and this thing is going strong in its hard metal casing. I would use it at a gig or as a blackbox recorder in a flight without a backup

Customer Support: 10
never had to use support ...however they are kind enough to keep info on their current pages - so I am guessing they might be kind enough to help...but like I said I have never had to use them

Overall Rating: 10
Not so mucha case of if...IT WAS STOLEN...and yes I want a new one. It is worth more than what I paid for it to ME. others may find they would rather stay computerbased and digital...good luck to them. I just know I loved this machine and my computer based sounds and my current (latish 90s ) sampler, and my lame late 90s drum machine just cant get the naturally nasty drum sound I want in quite the same way. Plus this thing is just so easy to use and manipulate.

Submitted by Leo William at 06/11/2001 09:26