E-mu SP-12

The E-mu SP-12 is the sampling drum machine that set up the SP-1200. Announced by E-mu Systems of Scotts Valley, California, in 1985 (the Smithsonian dates its first release to 1986), it combined 24 built-in 12-bit drum sounds with user sampling, one of the first affordable machines to do both.

History and specs

The SP-12 samples at 12 bits and about 26 kHz with eight voices, 100 patterns and 100 songs. A stock unit gives only about 1.2 seconds of user sample time; the SP-12 Turbo upgrade raised that to about 5 seconds. It uses plastic buttons rather than rubber pads. E-mu replaced it with the SP-1200 in August 1987, which makes the SP-12 the rarer machine today. One sits in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History collection, filed under hip hop.

Who used it

The SP-12 was the machine of the first sampling wave in New York: Marley Marl, Mantronix, Paul C, Ced-Gee of Ultramagnetic MCs, Prince Paul, Matt Dike and Rick Rubin, who used it on “Rhymin & Stealin” from the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill. DJ Premier started sampling on an SP-12 after meeting Large Professor in the late 1980s. Ced-Gee has described chopping sounds on it rather than just looping them, building full sounds out of fragments.

Buying one today

SP-12s are collectible and less common than the SP-1200. Check whether the unit is a Turbo, test every button and slider, and confirm it loads and saves. Many listings for “SP-12” are actually SP-1200s or the 2021 Rossum reissue, so read titles closely.