Rossum Electro-Music 40th Anniversary SP-1200 Limited Edition: Celebrate Sampling With This Gorgeous Reissue
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Rossum Electro-Music 40th Anniversary SP-1200 Limited Edition · Source: Rossum Electro-Music
Dave Rossum takes it back to 1985 with the 40th Anniversary SP-1200 Limited Edition. There will only be 100 units available, so you’ll have to act fast!
Rossum Electro-Music 40th Anniversary SP-1200 Limited Edition
Where were you in 1985? I was 13 years old, living in the San Francisco Bay Area, and head-deep in hip-hop, a genre of music that hadn’t quite broken into the mainstream yet. Not too far away, on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Dave Rossum and his company E-mu debuted the SP-12, a sample-based drum machine. He followed it up with the legendary SP-1200, which was to have an outsized influence on not only hip-hop, but sampling in general, with the Akai MPC60 following soon after.
In 2001, Dave re-released the SP-1200. Now working under the name Rossum Electro-Music, the new SP-1200 doubles the original memory to 20 seconds, offers an SD card slot instead of 3.5” floppy drive, and has new filtered and unfiltered channel outputs, a sample input monitoring feature, and filter controls.
Wait, the 40th Anniversary?
Some of you may be building up a head of steam, getting ready to hit the caps lock to let me know that the SP-1200 came out in 1987, so how is this the 40th anniversary? I wondered that myself. The announcement for this new SP-1200 Limited Edition version dropped on Instagram, and while the text doesn’t specify, I can only assume that it’s a reference to the SP-12, Dave’s first sampling drum machine, which he released in 1985.
SP-1200 Limited Edition Details
The new Rossum Electro-Music 40th Anniversary SP-1200 Limited Edition machine will sport a very lovely black and gold colorway, as you can see in the pictures here. What a beaut! It will be limited to 100 units worldwide and will cost $4999. (The limited version appears to be technically identical to the general Rossum SP-1200. No announcements have been made to the contrary.)
The sampler will also come with a numbered, limited-edition 40th Anniversary poster printed in gold foil on acid-free paper.
Better start digging around for spare change, because preorders open at open on 2 September at 10:00 am PDT at the Rossum Electro-Music online shop (link below). Judging by the reaction on the Instagram announcement, it’s probably going to sell out in minutes if not seconds.
If you miss it, Rossum is also taking preorders for the regular edition SP-1200.
ISLA Instruments’ take on the SP-1200, the S2400, is available at Thomann*.
More Information
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One response to “Rossum Electro-Music 40th Anniversary SP-1200 Limited Edition: Celebrate Sampling With This Gorgeous Reissue”
would love to have one, blessings the memories