In the market for an SP/ member Introduction

[ShawnL]

Peace yall!  First post. Over the last month I've been scouring the internet for an SP-12 turbo with disk, or an SP-1200 (at a reasonable price) Tried Ebay, Craigslist, google searches- So far I've had no luck in finding either for even the price they were going for as few years ago.  If an SP12 turbo was still going for 3-5 hundred I'd have scooped it up right away.   It's a piece of gear I'd really like to use to help add some soul to my current Maschine/macbook Pro setup- If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.  I have stumbled onto this forum more then once so I decided to post a request-

I'm sure everyone here has a story about why the E-Mu gear or the SP series is so important to them.  I grew up using an MPC 60-2 in my dads studio (he recorded local commercials and hip-hop in Trenton, NJ from 88-94) But my encounters with both the SP-12 Turbo and the 1200 were numerous- there was always gear being borrowed or traded back in the day.  I also had the honor to learn first hand with a lot of the producers of 80's/90's Jersey Hip-Hop. It's a piece of gear I need- it won't get re-sold for profit or collect dust in my hands!  Thanks if anyone knows where I can get a decent deal- Shawn
 

[Elmbeatz]

Hi!

I think prices are shooting high these days.
I bought my 12 two or three years ago for half the money they go nowadays...

[ShawnL]

Peace!  I ended up buying a restored SP-12 Turbo for $925. plus shipping.  A little steep but it is pretty clean and works well for the most part. I forgot how amazing this made drums sound- Now I'm convinced I need a 1200!  Is there any way besides using a 5 inch disk and comm drive or an old mac to even save sounds or sequences?  have a Macbook pro- probably a better place on these forums to ask those questions- I'll check. 

[Elmbeatz]

...

Is there any way besides using a 5 inch disk and comm drive or an old mac to even save sounds or sequences?

...

Unfortunately - No. 

[gertie]

you can save the sounds&sequences onto your mac or pc using the cassette out of the sp12 and an audio cable...

[Elmbeatz]

you can save the sounds&sequences onto your mac or pc using the cassette out of the sp12 and an audio cable...

Very cool idea!!

Have you tried that already?

[ShawnL]

Hi!  I tried to record through the cassette output, into my mbox2 soundcard, into protools, but it doesn't really have any signal... is there an easier way, (or any known way that works) to record into a macbook pro?  That would be an amazing solution... Even with the 5 second limitation, drums and sounds are so much nicer coming out of the SP... I have a friend coming to show me how to midi it from my Maschine to use the sequencer- much nicer swing on the SP. Thanks
Shawn

[gertie]

yes it works, i use it.....the main issue i had initially was my cassette out recordings were i guess, distorted....so couldnt load them back into the sp12....once i turned down the record volume it worked....be sure always to test the recording with the cassette in to the sp12 in order to avoid disappointment.

great resource for sp users: http://sp1200.myfastforum.org/index.php

[Elmbeatz]

Am I right when assuming that saving / loading that way still takes a lot of time (as long as using a cassette / commodore disk drive)?

[gertie]

yes unfortunately it is very slow .... about 5-10 mins depending in what you save

[Futureman]

I'm toying with the idea of butchering a C64 drive, removing all the drive mechanism & extra crap (To save space & weight) and installing HxC in the drives place.

This is a bit backwards, but probably the only way as the C64 drive uses an internal CPU.

In theory, this should work.

I got a drive with mine (Ex Eurogliders) and a lot of their disks, but man is that drive big.. almost as big as the SP12T!! I'd love to cut it down to something slightly more manageable.

[Elmbeatz]

The hxc will load and save at the same speed... won't it?

[Futureman]

The hxc will load and save at the same speed... won't it?

At the same speed as a floppy drive? Yes, of course.

Faster than cassette?. Hell yea. (for my SP12turbo.. Ughhh 10 minutes audio dump..)

It will mean I won't need to lug around a massive floppy drive if I want to load / save.  (it'll be big, but not as big as that massive C64 drive)

It means I won't have to rely on floppies.
It means I'll have 100% reliability for loading and saving.
Oh, and the ability to store a stupid amount of floppies on a SD card.

I'll report back when I'm done.

Cheers
Mike

[esynthesist]

You probably know that the HxC has never been tested with the SP12, nor with 1541 commodore drives ?

Reverse engineering and firmware changes will be required for sure...
...but there are rumours that this will in fact never work due to the missing Shugart interface in those 1541 drives.

Good luck 

[Futureman]

Thats not good for my plans then.. (Lack of Shugart interface)

Oh well.