E-mu SP-1200

E-mu SP-1200 is a classic drum machine and sampler released in August 1987 by E-mu Systems, Inc. as an update of the SP-12, which was originally created for dance music producers. It became famed for its gritty texture and ability to simulate the "warmth" of vinyl recordings.

The SP-1200 became an icon of hip hop's golden age, due to its ability to construct the bulk of a song within one piece of portable gear—a first for the industry. This resulted in reduced studio costs and more creative control for artists. In an article published in New York City's The Village Voice in November 2007, Ben Detrick explains, "The machine rose to such prominence that its strengths and weaknesses sculpted an entire era of music: the crunchy digitized drums, choppy segmented samples, and murky filtered basslines that characterize the vintage New York sound are all mechanisms of the machine." Designed to be used as both a drum sequencer and sampler in one, the SP-1200 features a 26.04 kHz sampling rate (roughly half the fidelity of a compact disc) and 12-bit resolution. Those audio qualities, combined with the idiosyncratic SSM2044 filter chips with which these machines were fitted, make for a dirty, gritty sound. One of the attributes of the SP-1200 is its extremely small amount of memory—roughly 10 seconds.