A Rack Mount SP-1200?
DeeRock
1,836 Posts
My man out here around my way scooped this from DJ Eddie F. I guess he had it custom made for him and there are two in existence! 
DeeRock
1,836 Posts
My man out here around my way scooped this from DJ Eddie F. I guess he had it custom made for him and there are two in existence!
Comments
f*ckin crazy, but It's prolly tough to sequence on it. Need an external midi thing, like an mpd16
Amazing.
I think I'd still prefer the actual desktop sequencer but that's f*cking cool as shit.
Never heard anything about there only being 2 ever, I thought he had made a couple more than that...
I would hope it was Armen that made them, because it says "by Armen" on it.
Looks cool. I wonder if he just took an SP's guts and reshaped it.
Ha! Yeah, I heard it was a little side hustle for him, didn't realize he got so official with the printed face plates and whatnot...
The SP sound isn't due to a grounding problem, it is due to the aliasing which occurs when you pitch down a sample.
My dude in NY sent me a celly pic of all the custom racks in Armen's and there was a grey SP rack amongst the racked Juno 106 and 909 rack, etc. Being the SP1200 nerd that I am, I asked him to see what Armen wanted for it but he wasn't selling. He told my pal that it wasn't functional and that racking up all that gear is what allowed him to finance his escape from Rogue Music so he could open his own shop (in the same building as Rogue). He was attached to it, and it drew attention / interest for his shop. Unfortunately for me, he was not interested in doing another one.
Then a few months later I scored this piece from Eddie F. You can actually still see it in his myspace studio pics. About a week after it was in my hands, I read the Wax Poetics interview with Pete Rock saying he got his first SP from Eddie F., who was Heavy D's dj at the time.
I had my NY friend talk to Armen about the unit I had and he said that there may only be 1 or 2 red ones in existence. There are definitely more than 2 SP racks on the planet, not sure how many though.
The rack has all the functionality of a normal sp1200 plus an HD disk drive (bought disks at Rite-Aid yesterday), E-Mu E3 style round buttons (much better), and a trim for the screen angle accessible from the front panel.
If you are up on your SP game, you know there are essentially 2 boards in the SP1200; the control panel, and the motherboard. In this unit, the motherboard sits in the rack's bottom as usual, and a custom PCB was made for the control panel. It looks very clean inside, almost identical to a normal SP. I was worried it would be nest of wires in there, but thats not the case at all. Luckily for me, it was very lightly used and in perfect condition. The added patch bay lets you access all ins/outs from the front of the rack. Awesome for a quick n' dirty SP sound in the mix.
There are several reasons the SP sounds the way that it does. Generally speaking, the quality of digital recordings (samplers included) is largely based on converters. Analog to Digital (A/D) coming into the sampler and Digital to Analog (D/A) going out. The 12bit / 20khz sampling rate has a lot to do with it. The Akai mpc60 has a much cleaner sound, but samples in 16bit, before compounding sounds into 12bit for storage. The SP has a very distinct sound even when the samples are not pitched down. The SP also has SSM2044 analog filter chips, as well as various other filter components. SPs do tend to have power supply issues, but this is mostly due to age. As far as I know, grounding doesn't interfere with the sound. If a voice goes down, or is out of calibration, you can get a constant buzz that sounds like a grounding issue.
I also have a couple of Emaxs in my posession and while they can sound close with the proper settings, there are lots of differences. The Emax was built to be a sampler/synth, the SP is a sampling drum machine. The Emax has adjustable sampling rates and filters. The "scratch pad" sequencer is unusable, and the floppy is accessed constantly. The Emax is a giant sound module, the SP can make beats start to finish. I find there is a punch and loudness to the SP I can't duplicate with the Emax. That being said, the emax is a champ when you need a sample longer than the SP can handle. The feel of the sequencer and the intuitive lay out of the machine are important aspects of the SP.
I'll try and get some better pics up so you guys can see the matching red flight case and all the lights on.
I'm entertaining offers on this piece, please PM and we can discuss details. My wife and I recently got property in Japan and we're gearing up for that adventure.
Thanks for sharing.
Sayin. I don't think you'd really get any aliasing from pitch shifting, but using 12 bit processing and a low sampling rate definitely creates aliasing issues. Aliasing occurs when you record a sound using a sample rate less than twice the frequency of the sounds in the recording. Essentially waveforms that occur at intervals too small to be captured by a 20k sampling rate (anything over 10k) will be distorted.
The boss SP202 is a great piece of gear to explore if you're into the sound of aliasing (so is your DAWs sample-rate-conversion feature).
I've yet to hear many lo-fi sounds I appreciate in the same way I do the sp1200. Sample rate conversion is available in many software and hardware samplers, but they don't sound like the sp1200.
The best pieces of gear are a synthesis of many factors, plenty of pieces do some things well, few are as all around wonderful as the sp1200.
The SP is a special piece, there's nothing quite like it, and probably never will be. Big nasty breaks dwell within. The SP also has the magic power to homogenize sounds with its distinct character. Put a jazzy break with a distorted guitar and they can sound like they were played in the same room. I find I have more trouble with combining sounds in 16bit stereo.
That is merely my opinion, I know some hate the sound of the SP.
Thanks for sharing your gear and your knowledge.
Property in Japan?
Holla at cha boy!
Yes, but those people are morons.
The ASR rack is ill because it comes with the 8-outs and SCSI standard.
Not aware of any other differences, though....
I still use the ASR rack exclusively as far as samplers go. Best sampler EVAR
That's right, I forget the keyboard needed the output expander. I thought I heard that the filters were a little different on the rack.
I've never noticed a difference. Learned on the keyboard unit, been through two of those, and now the rack...
I'd like to get an SP1200 back in my life, but they're too rich for my blood these days.
Yes they are!! I've had mine since '92. I've had it repaired a few times and that shit even made my pockets hurt.
SP HEADS !!!
http://fredfades.goodshitradio.com/?p=216
PEEP PEEP !!!