Emu SP12 Disk Drive and Cable

[XHipHop]

I just picked up an SP12 Turbo for cheap but I don't have a disk drive or the cable for the drive. If anyone has info on what cable I need and drive, that'd be amazing!

[Fredrik]

You will need a commodore 1541 diskdrive or 1541 II, connection is done by a
6 pin din serial cable.

There is a lot of useful info about the sp 12/1200 at emulatorarchive, and a list of compatible diskdrives.


http://www.emulatorarchive.com/DrumM...2upgrades.html

[XHipHop]

thanks for the link and info!

[tengu]

Be careful with the 1541 drives. Make sure it works b4 you buy it. If the person says it lights up and looks good but I have no way of testing it, this usually means it is broken.

I have been lucky enough to be given about 5 of them unfortunately none of them work. You will need either single density or double density disks. The high density ones will not work.

If you get a "disk error #21" when trying to format this mean the drive heads are gone and you need patience along with the c64 console to realign them.

[Eemo1]

welcome to the club. :D

personally i don't own a disk drive for my sp12. i sample stuff to it, then sample it back to the mpc OR just track to pt. i've synced the sp12 to my mpc so i don't really use the seq on the sp12 either.

the disk drive takes a long ass time to save btw (12-15 minutes).

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by Eemo1

welcome to the club. :D

personally i don't own a disk drive for my sp12. i sample stuff to it, then sample it back to the mpc OR just track to pt. i've synced the sp12 to my mpc so i don't really use the seq on the sp12 either.

the disk drive takes a long ass time to save btw (12-15 minutes).

juts bought EMU SP12 Turbo on ebay , waiting for arrival...
wonder what route to take for saving sounds.....

1. or commodore floppy drive... but have to find a working one first, than where would i get floppies for it?

2. read somewhere that there is a faster way to save and load sounds from a classic Apple Macintosh computers like Mac Plus or SE30 .. or maybe other Apple Computers too? with some legacy Mac software called Drum File Software 1.12 .... or i've found this Macintosh Classic app called SP-12 Librarian that claims to work on any classic mac with MAc OS6, 7 or 8 + serial port ..... any ideas about that?
SP-12 Librarian

3. or maybe there is a chance for a HxC Floppy emulator ...like this one?
HxC2001 HeadQuarters : HxC Floppy Emulator


sorry for a complete newbe questions
and thanks in advance for any help

[new bee]

in order to load and save samples u dont even need an external drive.....you just load and save them as a long wav file.....using the cassette functionality. bear in mind it takes about 8 mins to save a full 8 samples, and to load them

i dont think HxC2001 HeadQuarters : HxC Floppy Emulator will work as its a floppy emulator the sp12 dont have not floppy, it does however work with the sp1200 since that has a floppy drive

[vintagefreak]

thanks for your reply ,
sorry for my ignorance
but how exactly the "saving or loading from tape" works...
I do have a Techiques double cassette deck.. how can I use it
for load/safe SP12 sounds?

[new bee]

you dont even need a tape desk

line out from your laptop into cassette in at back of sp
then you need to press 15 or something like that...middle button on top of sp...use low volume on pc from what i remember.
same for saving samples...cassette out from sp into line in of laptop
(please be aware this method creates one sound file soundling like old computer games which were loaded via cassette desks....so you cannot load your own wav files....)

heres a dedicated forum:
dxarmy.com sp1200 forum :: Index
a guy on there is selling eproms in case youd like to have different sounds on the first 3 banks

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by new bee

you dont even need a tape desk

line out from your laptop into cassette in at back of sp
then you need to press 15 or something like that...middle button on top of sp...use low volume on pc from what i remember.
same for saving samples...cassette out from sp into line in of laptop
(please be aware this method creates one sound file soundling like old computer games which were loaded via cassette desks....so you cannot load your own wav files....)

heres a dedicated forum:
dxarmy.com sp1200 forum :: Index
a guy on there is selling eproms in case youd like to have different sounds on the first 3 banks

"cassette out from sp into line in of laptop" ? i am confused here....
does it goes into audio IN of audio card of any Computer or is it platform related Mac or PC ... or is it MIDI in?

"a guy on there is selling eproms in case youd like to have different sounds on the first 3 banks"
i don't want any sounds inside SP12 ... need to be able to free all ( microscopic) built in memory for own sampling... i've read somewhere that its possible to erase the stock sounds... to increase the memory?

[kazper]

The SP-12 has 2 ways to save sampled sounds.
#1) Via the Commodore Disk drive.
#2) Via a recording device recording audio (Like listening to a modem)

Both take way to much time... I did like another poster and just resampled everything.

I place all the samples as hits on the daw. Make a note on how I did the sequencing and be gone.

I 'm using a Sp-1200 now, so I'm sporting the floppy seconds. (Old EMU EMAX Pun)

The new Rom's are a good idea if you are not happy with the stock drums.

[LeeYoo]

A not working floppy drive can just be dirty heads.
It will sometimes clean itself by trying to read over and over.

Or use a floppy cleaner (a floppy disk with a cleaning disk inside).

[new bee]

1. sp12 comes with 3 banks of sound....you only have one bank for your own samples....the sp1200 have four banks for samples,no internal sounds
2. the samples you record in your sp12 remain in the machine even after you turn it off..in the sp1200 each time you turn it on there are no samples in it, you need to load via floppy
3. anything recording audio will do - cassette desk, notebook(windows, liynx, mac)...use any audio recording software like soundforge, audacity.....the benefit of using a notebook is that you can archive your sounds in a safe format than tapes which can get chewed...

as the last person just said.....its actually much much quicker just to record the samples directly into the sp12...but if you want to save songs, patterns and the associated sounds, I would go the route of saving the cassette audio to your laptop

Originally Posted by vintagefreak

"cassette out from sp into line in of laptop" ? i am confused here....
does it goes into audio IN of audio card of any Computer or is it platform related Mac or PC ... or is it MIDI in?

"a guy on there is selling eproms in case youd like to have different sounds on the first 3 banks"
i don't want any sounds inside SP12 ... need to be able to free all ( microscopic) built in memory for own sampling... i've read somewhere that its possible to erase the stock sounds... to increase the memory?

[Studio507]

Man I've owned a SP12 for probably about 10 years...I have the disc drive and plenty of discs but I've probably used it once. As mentioned, it takes a lifetime to save/load from it...I find it makes much more sense to set up a kit for it that you can kinda use for anything and just rock with it, and dump right to ProTools...

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by new bee

1. sp12 comes with 3 banks of sound....you only have one bank for your own samples....the sp1200 have four banks for samples,no internal sounds

interesting... is it possible to completely or temporarily erase the internal sounds....
that would make SP12 Turbo memory almost as SP1200 ..?

[Studio507]

There is a way to move your sounds over the preprogrammed ones, but if I recall correctly, it doesn't free up any more sample time, but you could conceivably fill up most of the banks with your own sounds depending on what they are (a lot of drum 1 hits average in at about 1/3 of a second x 5 seconds (?) and there's 24 pads? Works out well with a s950 setup where you need some pads to control the samples anyway....

[kazper]

Just assign the sample to any of the pads in banks 1-4.

Your still limited to the 2.5 or 2x 2.5 memory banks.

With the turbo (5 Seconds) you can easily do drums.

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by kazper

Just assign the sample to any of the pads in banks 1-4.

Your still limited to the 2.5 or 2x 2.5 memory banks.

With the turbo (5 Seconds) you can easily do drums.

so if I for example sample :
kick, snare, closed hihat, open hihat, snare roll, rimshot, ride
at 45rpm and tune samples down
how many seconds from 5 it would use... just wonder how many drum samples could be fit into 5 sec using this sampling method?

read on DXA SP1200 forum that there is a hack with custom EPROM chips to erase stock sounds and replace them with your own... how difficult is it to do?

[kazper]

More as long as there all under 5 seconds total... and no sound is longer than 2.5 seconds... 1X in a SP-12, 2X in a SP-12T, 4X in a SP-1200.

It's honestly really hard to say based on the sounds you have... but everything you listed would probably only eat 0.5-1.5 seconds, sampled as described.

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by kazper

More as long as there all under 5 seconds total... and no sound is longer than 2.5 seconds... 1X in a SP-12, 2X in a SP-12T, 4X in a SP-1200.

It's honestly really hard to say based on the sounds you have... but everything you listed would probably only eat 0.5-1.5 seconds, sampled as described.

so if I sample that way ( speeding up-pitch down) than I might be able to fill up all 4 banks - 32 sounds in total,
right?

[new bee]

dude, if you want 32 samples you need the sp1200
sp12 can only store 8.

[Studio507]

Originally Posted by new bee

dude, if you want 32 samples you need the sp1200
sp12 can only store 8.

Dude, no. You're wrong.

[new bee]

32 different samples in a sp12


so how many different samples can your sp12 store lol

i wish i had that bronx hack

[Studio507]

32. As long as you can make all 32 fit in that 5 second timeframe of course....

[tengu]

Originally Posted by Studio507

32. As long as you can make all 32 fit in that 5 second timeframe of course....

This is correct. You can delete the inbuilt sounds and save that set of sounds, but I think they will reappear when you clear memory if MY memory serves me correct.

[Studio507]

Yea they will...^

[new bee]

so where do i get the hack to store 32 samples? and overwrite the eproms

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by new bee

so where do i get the hack to store 32 samples? and overwrite the eproms

I totally second that,
anyone?

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by vintagefreak

I totally second that,
anyone?

wow, just found that tread on Sp forum, donno if it's real but here it is!
http://sp1200.myfastforum.org/archiv..._t__t_342.html

[new bee]

yeah its real
but it only means it replaces you can replace the internal sounds on banks a,b,c
wont do anything to increase your sampling time