SP950

The SP950 accurately emulates the legendary sound of the E-mu SP1200* sampler in an effect plugin. For good measure it also adds an emulation of the Akai S950* low-pass filter.

Features:

• Faithful SP sound.
• Combined RPM/detune slider.
• Akai* S950 filter emulation.
• Multiple LCD color schemes.
• HiDPI / Retina compatible.
• Free updates.

Detune

If you are familiar with the E-mu SP-1200* workflow, you know the way the device is typically used is with a pitched-up source such as a turntable playing a LP record at 45RPM or 78RPM, and a detune after sampling in the SP-1200* to get back to the original pitch and duration. This was initially done to save sampling time, but the resulting artifacts soon became the signature of the device, and of whole musical trend.

This is exactly what the SP950 effect plugin intends to reproduce in a single slider: the RPM/detune slider combines the pitch of the source (markings on the left side, in RPM relative to 33 and in factors) with the detune of the SP (semitons value on the LCD) to compensate each other. The result is a constant duration and pitch output, with varying detune aliasing and bandwidth artifacts.

Filter

Another well-known workflow is the combination of the SP and an Akai* S950 low-pass filter to isolate a bass line. The digitally-controlled analog 6th-order Butterworth low-pass filter of the Akai* S950 is reproduced here for that purpose, as well as the possibility to mitigate some high-frequency detune artifacts.
The filter can be set from 0 to 99 like in the original S950. The filter is defeated when set to 99 (bypass).

Interface

The minimalist interface is fully compatible with HiDPI/Retina displays for crisp rendering. The LCD color scheme can be chosen among 6 presets using the small button on the right of the LCD. Beside aesthetic considerations, this serves as a visual clue to differentiate multiple plugin instances inside a project.

Video: {See video at top of page}

(*) SP-1200 and SP-12 are registered trademarks of Rossum Electro-Music LLC.
Akai Professional is a registered trademark of inMusic.
The software presented here is in no way affiliated with either of these companies.