A hip-hop legend: Everything you need to know about the new Rossum SP-1200

Following a series of social media teasers hinting at a new version of the iconic SP-1200 hip-hop sampler, E-MU co-founder and pro audio pioneer Dave Rossum has revealed that a brand new reissue of the system – the Rossum SP-1200 – will be hitting shelves in January 2022 and is available for pre-order now. But what will the new iteration of the SP-1200 have to offer? Headliner finds out…

The original SP-1200 percussion sampler was released back in the mid-‘80s and achieved legendary status among hip-hop producers. Renowned for its gritty sound, it was a firm favourite of Biggie Smalls and became a staple part of the hip-hop sound of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Last year, a 35^th anniversary SP-1200 Renovation version of the sampler was released, taking the original unit and adding an assortment of new features, including a 3.5” disk drive and SD card floppy emulator integrated into the original SP-1200 software by Rossum; manual filter cutoff frequency control sliders for the SSM 2044 analogue filters for channels one and two on the rear panel; a new metal chassis and new panel overlay; new LCD display and buttons; and a number of additional aesthetic updates.

But what about the new Rossum SP-1200 reissue?

After much online speculation, we now know that it builds once again on that 2020 Renovation model, with virtually all original components used and the original analogue and digital electronics of the original duplicated as closely as possible. Sampling memory has increased to the maximum capability of the original sound engine, while a brand new memory card storage solution with multiple new functions is integrated into the operating system, meaning users can save, rename, and delete files and folders, and it also supports importing vintage SP-1200 disk images in the.HFE format.

A 3.5” floppy disk featuring modified software for original vintage SP-1200 units is also included and adds a new Set-up Special function, enabling users to transfer all sounds and sequences from an original SP-1200 to the Rossum SP-1200 reissue over a MIDI cable.

Meanwhile, the rear panel comes with new dedicated jacks for filtered and unfiltered channel outputs, along with a new sample input monitor feature. Four sliders enable users to tune the initial cutoff frequency and the resonance of the SSI2144 analogue dynamic filters on channels one and two by reaching just over the edge of the front panel.

Elsewhere, the Rossum SP-1200 offers the same 12-bit linear data format and 26.04 kHz sampling rate as all vintage SP-12 and SP-1200 units. Users can also monitor the input to sampling (the output of the SP-1200’s input filter and amplifier) at the mix output, or can be switched out of the mix output by plugging a cable into the new dedicated monitor output jack.

In a first for the SP-1200, this reissue offers 20 seconds sampling time. When Rossum designed the initial models back in 1984, the sound engine of the SP-12 and SP-1200 was able to accommodate up to 20 seconds sampling time, but hefty prices at the time for the RAM prevented the full 20 seconds from being integrated during the production run, meaning only 10 seconds sampling was available in vintage models. With this new sampling time, vintage users can transfer their work via the new software floppy disk or import.HFE disk images from the memory card. Compositions that maxed out the full 10 seconds available in a vintage unit can be revised and remixed with an extra 10 seconds of sampling time.

One feature from the original run that cannot be fully transferred to the new Rossum SP-1200 reissue is the SSM2044 analogue filter, which was an integrated circuit designed by Rossum in the early ‘80s based on improved ladder filter topology. Now, in conjunction with Sound Semiconductor, Rossum has designed the SSI2144 IC, reprising the same analogue circuit using modern day IC processing and packaging.

To pre-order and find out more about the Rossum SP-1200 reissue, click here.