SP-1200 sound with the decimator plugin?

Okay, so it's not exactly the sound of the SP-1200, but I think I've come close...



SP-1200 emulation loop

A drum loop with some bass in it would be better. I have a idea of how sp drums and bass sound, no clue what that sample sounds like before you decimated it.

The compressed character of it is not unlike an SP but like marrelarre said a drum loop and/or bassy sample would make it way easier to check for the distorted crispiness and ring modding the SP's 12 bit sample engine causes on the aliasing.

It's also good to actually rev the sample up to 45rpm and then pitch it back down after processing to simulate how Pete Rock and Large Pro and other SP users made those sounds we all know.

I'm partial to d16's Decimort (funny on the naming there). It's SP1200 preset is not exactly like the real thing but it's a great general sense of what the SP1200 does to sounds. It's other presets are EPS and FZ-1 and similar throwback stuff.

http://www.d16.pl/index.php?menu=203



And for the record I HATE these fake 3D renders of VST's. It's like if you're going to do that you better actually build a real one and take $800 from me.

Metatron72 wrote:And for the record I HATE these fake 3D renders of VST's. It's like if you're going to do that you better actually build a real one and take $800 from me.

yeah I agree.. it makes it look like real hardware instead of like a pluggin... when the motu bpm first was being advertised it didn't say VST pluggin on the add from what I can remember... it just showed the pic of the way it looks. It had people wondering here on the forums if it was a real machine or not... and then of course someone went and actually built one.

With Decimator Plugin

Without

I tweaked it a little bit...

Parameters ----> [45 33 12]

I didn't resample the drums to 12 bit on the MPC. It's the same loop, just one didn't go through the Decimator plugin.

Nope.

Yeah I hear a little character added but nothing like what an SP does. I don't have one but I'll PM you a link to a few SP processed samples, should help for reference.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying it sounds like an SP1200, but I thought it kind of gave it that subtly gritty texture like an SP1200 would (of course poorly emulated). I thought it was interesting, and could give your samples some new flavor. If you've got an SP 1200, then this is irrelevant.

bearhead wrote:Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying it sounds like an SP1200, but I thought it kind of gave it that subtly gritty texture like an SP1200 would (of course poorly emulated). I thought it was interesting, and could give your samples some new flavor. If you've got an SP 1200, then this is irrelevant.

Oh no that's I think that's understood, certainly by me anyway. Just because an emulation isn't perfect or even close in some cases it's still a texture or character to use.

Most of us don't have an SP or certainly aren't going to drop $2000 on one in 2013, but the closer any emulation is , more the better. NI says they modeled everything but I don't find it that close to the real thing. But it does behave the way you expect on the 45 RPM old school trick and without a doubt affects the sound.

I hope someday somebody goes the UAD route and models and SP down to the last circuit. I'd buy a UAD card just for that. But Creative labs don't fully utilize the fact they own every E-MU/Ensoniq sound and hardware design. They bet the farm on $25 PCI cards no one uses anymore.

But yeah man, the emulation accuracy and the fact that the coloring is still useful have to be separated a bit.

112dB almost answered my prayers a few years back but....



That image was on the coming soon of their site for a year and a half. It just vanished without a word from them.

be interesting to hear the sp ring mode in 1.3 i'm sure there will be a whole thread on
how it doesn't sound anything like sp1200

for distortion and character i like decapitator fabfilter saturn izotope trash 2

I just did a quick search on 112db, and apparently the head developer passed away. That's more than likely why it never happened. But it was a plugin anyway, and you're never going to get the exact sound. That's the thing I hate about emulators, though. Some people treat it like it's the real thing, and it's not. It's a substitute, not a replacement. Not to say plugins aren't valid, because they are.

I think if they created something to the likes of this, it'd be perfect.



This is a tube preamp, but I think if they designed something like this for the audio to go through, you could get that sound since the audio is actually hitting some sort of input, and not being smothered in some audio effect.

It was more a marketing decision I think, as 112dB released like 5 more more plugins after cancelling the SP one. Although maybe that gentlemen was coding it solo.

Yeah I'd choose hardware every time if money and space were no consideration. But something like that Behringer wouldn't even match freeware plugins as far as pleasing sonic characteristics. Yes like you mentioned one is actual electrical processes occurring the other is an emulation of said processes. But Behringer gear that processes audio is generally total shit and known for being a noisy mess in many cases.

If you spend more on external processing then yeah totally you can get what we are discussing likely faster and easier than a plugin. Also that Behringer is only going to give you distortion and added harmonics (good things both), but a filter module would be equally as important.

If you can afford it there's stuff like OTO Biscuit and Moogerfroogers that will shame most plugins. Although if you're buying the top maybe 20% of VST/AU's the software.hardware gap is a lot less. So I feel the cream of the plugin world can replace hardware in the sense that in a mix you can't tell the difference and in isolation the sound is 90-95% there. So to me that is a substitute that gets to basically replacement status.

http://www.otomachines.com/biscuit.html



I would say they aren't a replacement more in the tactile sense and the standalone nature of hardware samplers and synths is just a different often superior experience. But to be clear I'm not arguing semantics, just illustrating how I love all the amazing options we have today.

My 50k of software, hardware and computers over the last 8 years would have cost me half a million dollars as all hardware back in the 80's when I first wanted to make beats.

I can agree that most of Behringer is garbage. BUT, the great thing about tube preamps is that you can change the tube. The original tube is rather noisy, but you put a different tube in there, and it works perfectly! But what I was getting at was something that you could run audio through. Not necessarily a tube pre.

I'm not against plugins by any means, but I don't really like the idea of paying for them. There's some neat synth plugins that are worth paying for, but I think as far as effects go, you can normally get pretty creative with them to create your own sound (provided you don't drown out your mix with effects). However, if it's a certain texture you're after, that's a different story. I'm a huge fan of tape, and all of the tape saturation/simulation plugins I've tried have not come close. The only one worth mentioning is that PSP VintageWarmer plugin. But it's still not tape. And that's the argument I'd make with the SP 1200 emulation. Or any, for that matter. Plugins are fine, but I'd prefer the real thing.

The whole idea behind this post was to try something new. I guess you can't really be creative on these forums without someone giving you shit if you throw something out there like "SP 1200/MPC 60/Casio SK 1" etc.

Yeah man well said. Vintage Warmer is a favorite. I would say in the last 5 years or so the top VST's are getting way closer. Diva/Anything XILS lab does/Omnisphere and a few others. But you nailed it on a lot of FX VST's or more pointedly how it's knowing how to chain FX up in general and use them in a way that maximizes your needs being met sonically.

I have the majority of my $ over the years invested in plugins. (And 6 hardware samplers because I'm just excessive and redundant) But only the top ones make me not miss hardware. But those ones I mentioned and a MIDI mapped controller are great.

Like we've mentioned the SP/MPC/Etc. bringing up emulation always brings out the direct comparison stuff. But you're absolutely right that the simple FX processing/sound design aspect is probably more the point.

In the Studio Environments section most threads are a nice mix of hardware and software and less nitpicking about the 1:1 emulation "grail quest". I am interested in both topics, but the creativity aspect of the discussion usually wins out here on the forum so don't don't be discouraged from posting any and all wild experimenting or machines you use.

Apologies if you thought I was dismissing the creativity aspect of the thread. Again I just like both aspects of FX and emulation.