E-mu SP-12

Developed as a successor to the Drumulator, SP-12 was initially advertised as “Drumulator II” by E-mu Systems at the NAMM Winter Music & Sound Market and Musikmesse Frankfurt[3] in February of 1985 before being launched officially at that summer’s NAMM International Music & Sound Expo.

[5] E-mu made a “Turbo” upgrade available which increased the total memory for user samples to 5 seconds.

SP-1200, featuring an integrated disk drive for storage and more RAM allowing for more total user sampling time in place of the preset ROM drum sounds, replaced SP-12 in E-mu’s product line in August 1987.

Dynamics can be performed using a piezo sensor on the circuit board listening for the button’s impact, a technology invented by E-mu co-founder Scott Wedge.

[2][7] SP-12 uses a 12-bit linear data format and the same 26.04kHz sample rate E-mu previously used in Drumulator and subsequently reused in SP-1200.