DUST.1200 · MK II
AUDIORECLOADING
EXPANDED · SAMPLE MEMORY00:00
SEGMENT 00 / BANK AREADY TO PLAYTAP A PAD TO UNLOCK AUDIO
MEM 0.00 / 120.00 S
8 VOICES
01 / SEQUENCER

Build the groove.

PLAY · RECORD · REFINE
A1 · BASS DRUMBAR 1 / 2
Tap a step to add or remove a hit; hold it to shape velocity, pitch, chance and ratchet. Record live while RECORD is on; HiRes keeps your timing unquantized.
02 / SOUND LAB

Shape the sound.

A1 · BASS DRUMTR-808 · MICHAEL FISCHER
Import a file or record a source to get started. Your recordings stay on this device.
03 / ARRANGEMENT

Make a song.

Arrange segments in any order. Edit the segment selected above.
04 / SESSION

Keep the spark.

DEMO PROJECTS

Five editable beats for the current sound model: real TR-808 recordings with a tuned 808 sub bass and conga hook in F minor, 808 sub bass under 909 punch with a cowbell hook, a C minor half-time groove on 909 / 808 recordings with a tuned 909 tom bass, a jazzy F minor session with upright bass, piano chords, vibes and brass (CC0 SESSION kit), and a D minor boom bap flip of chopped soul piano, strings, sax and horns over acoustic drums (SOUL CHOPS kit). Each is a full song of several parts with swing, relative notes and alternating hat channels. Loading replaces the current session; Undo restores it.

The SP sound engine stays the same. Classic adds the original memory limits.
CHANNEL PAIRS / DYNAMIC ALLOCATION
SAMPLE SOURCES, LICENCES & MODEL STATUS

TR-808 recordings: Michael Fischer; hosted by TidalCycles. The repository declares CC0; the original 1994 README describes them as free. TR-909 analog recordings: Janne G:son Berg, shared by altemark on Freesound under CC BY 4.0; these bundled conversions by 5up-okamura were limited, faded and reduced to 22.05 kHz. CC0 SESSION and SOUL CHOPS instruments and the SOUL CHOPS acoustic drums: Versilian Studios, VSCO 2 Community Edition and Versilian Community Sample Library, CC0; the soul phrase is an original DUST composition played from those single-note recordings and then chopped. DUST resamples every source to a 12-bit nominal 26.04 kHz model. The 909 hybrid uses 808 cymbals because rights to 909 ROM-based cymbals and hats are not cleared. This model has not been calibrated against a physical SP-1200. Full notices.

05 / OUTBOARD

Rack it up.

Outboard gear after the SP-1200 outputs, saved with this project. Each output keeps its own SP sound; sends feed the plate and the echo, whose returns come back in stereo. The bus compressor and the limiter work on the whole mix. With no gear switched on, DUST sounds exactly like the bare machine.

PAD MODETR-808 ORIGINAL
CHANNEL CONTROLLEVEL
BPM
TAP TO PLAY · HOLD TO EDIT
12-BIT / 26.04 kHz NOMINAL8 CHANNELS · EXPANDED 120 S
QUICK START · DUST 2.20.1

Make some noise.

Tap a pad to unlock audio. PLAY starts the segment; RECORD captures your hits. Choose bank A–D and edit its 16 steps. Hold a pad to open its sample editor.

Your project saves automatically on this device. Import audio opens the sampling editor: choose a region, capture at 1×, 1.35×, 2× or 4×, then restore pitch on playback. Use manual markers, equal slices or transients to chop onto pads. Undo restores the whole assignment. Project export includes samples and original sources; WAV export uses the same audio engine as playback. Import older DUST projects here; your original session data is preserved during migration.

CHOP slices the sample on the selected pad. Hold a step to shape it: velocity, pitch, chance and ratchet. NOTE REPEAT retriggers a held pad on the sequencer grid; TOUCH LEVEL makes hits lower on a pad stronger; CLICK is a metronome that never reaches the WAV export. SOLO and MUTE affect playback and export. Pads on the same channel cut each other, like the SP-1200, so put open and closed hats on one channel and keep that pair off in Project for a choke. New projects follow the firmware: a pair set to dynamic allocation alternates its two channels on every hit, whichever sound is played and whether or not the other channel is busy, so the third hit cuts the first. New projects also follow the SP-1200 sequencer clock: hits sit on a grid of 24 per quarter note and swing only delays the off-beat eighth by 1 to 5 ticks, so the sixteenths stay straight; at Auto Correct 1/32, 1/32T and HiRes swing has no effect, as on the original. Older projects keep their previous allocation and swing.

Earlier sound profiles: DECAY has 32 SP-1200 settings, 00 to 31. FULL plays the entire sample. Shorter settings use the hardware hold and stepped fade. Saved decay percentages keep their previous sound until you move that slider.

MULTIPITCH presets are +7, +6, +4, +2, 0, −1, −3, −5 semitones from left to right. In earlier profiles, choose PITCH or DECAY under MULTIPITCH; new projects use the separate SOUND PARAMETER setting. Choose OFF to return to ordinary pads; tapping the active MULTIPITCH or MULTILEVEL button also switches it off. DECAY plays eight decay lengths; FULL uses a centre setting of 16. MULTILEVEL runs from soft to loud through eight SP level codes. Recording and NOTE REPEAT keep these variations. Older saved hits keep their sound; reselect a pad mode to adopt the new presets.

New projects use firmware MIX steps. TOUCH LEVEL maps the gesture to hardware levels; dynamic hits override MultiLevel. In SOUND, choose TUNE or DECAY, set INIT 00–31, and use MIX → TUNE / DECAY for relative key offsets. INIT changes already recorded relative notes. DEFAULT DECAY affects all tuned sounds. FULL LENGTH bypasses decay as a DUST extension. MultiPitch has its own OFF/ON selector. Older projects retain their earlier controls. PROJECT → DEMO PROJECTS loads one of five editable beats; Undo restores your session.

RACK adds outboard gear after the SP outputs, like a studio around the machine: a plate reverb and a tempo echo fed by a send from each SP output (a dynamic pair shares one send), plus a bus compressor and a limiter on the whole mix. The rack is part of the project: it is saved and exported with it, Undo covers its changes, and every demo opens with its own settings. A new beat starts from the rack you last set up; projects saved before 2.19 open with that rack too. It reaches the WAV export, which then runs on until the reverb and echo have faded. With no gear switched on, the sound is the bare SP-1200 engine, bit for bit.

Mode keys switch the editor in the middle: SEQUENCE for steps, SOUND for the selected pad, MIX for pad modes and sliders, SONG, RACK and PROJECT. Pads and transport always stay at the bottom.

Keys: 1–4 and Q–R play the current bank, A–F and Z–V the next bank. Space plays or stops, Shift+R records, Esc stops, Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes.

DEVICE CHECK

Measures how fast this device computes the current project, with and without its rack, and lists the audio, screen and storage facts that help fix problems on a phone. Nothing leaves the device unless you copy the report. It cannot hear clicks or dropouts in live playback.