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. With the newest sound model each segment has its own swing and time signature (beats per bar over the beat unit), like the SP-1200; AUTO CORRECT then only quantizes what you record.
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.

SONG 00

SONG STEPS

STORED MIXES

A song is a list of steps, played like the SP-1200 song mode: BEGIN REPEAT and END REPEAT play the steps between them that many times (1-99; a repeat inside a repeat runs only the inner one), END stops the song, LOOP SONG restarts it, LINK continues with another song (00-99), TEMPO CHANGE adds or subtracts BPM at that point (40-240), MIX CHANGE switches to a stored mix for the segments that follow. Songs without END keep looping. A link starts the other song at the project tempo. Tap a step to select it, then move, duplicate, delete it or set a repeat's count; new steps go after the selected step (or at the end). Pick the song with the arrows above; PLAY SONG plays it.
04 / SESSION

Keep the spark.

MY BEATS

DEMO PROJECTS

Seven editable beats, each a full song of several parts: 808 CONCRETE (real TR-808, F minor), BOOM BAP SELECT (909 punch, 808 sub), 909 MIDNIGHT (C minor half-time), CELLAR SESSION (upright bass, keys, brass), SECOND HAND SOUL (chopped soul phrase), LATE DONUTS (a flipped Wurlitzer phrase behind the beat) and SLIDE IT OUT (fan made, from the DUST author's own track). Loading replaces the current session; Undo restores it.

Stored on this device. Producer adds editing tools; the sound engine and your beats stay the same.
Eight banks need format 5 (2.30 and later). Channels, cuts and filters stay the SP-1200's eight.
The SP sound engine stays the same. Classic adds the original memory limits.

BOUNCE TO PAD renders the current segment (or the song, if PLAY SONG is on) through the SP engine and opens it in the sample editor; capturing it puts it on a pad as a new sound.

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, the echo and the spring, whose returns come back in stereo. The mixing desk balances and shapes each output in stereo; tape, the bus compressor and the limiter work on the whole mix. Pick a preset below or add gear. 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 3.1.0

Make some noise.

QUICK START

Tap a pad to unlock audio and hear it. PLAY starts the segment, REC records your hits, STOP stops. Banks A–D (A–H with eight banks) choose which eight pads you play.

SEQUENCE: tap a step to add or remove a hit for the selected pad, hold it to shape it. SOUND: the selected pad: import or record audio, chop, tune. SONG: chain segments. MIX: pad levels and modes. RACK: outboard effects. PROJECT: your beats, kits, demos, export.

Everything saves on this device as you go. Undo (↶) covers every change, including chops and kit changes.

SEQUENCE AND STEPS

Hold a step to shape its hit: velocity, pitch, chance and ratchet. In STEPS a tap next to a hit that sits off the grid opens that hit instead of adding a second one beside it.

Segments hold 1–16 bars; with the newest sound model each segment has its own swing and time signature. COPY / PASTE / CLEAR BAR, DOUBLE SEGMENT, COPY SEGMENT, HUMANIZE (velocity) and CLEAR SOUND work on the shown segment.

The clock is the SP-1200’s: hits sit on 24 ticks per quarter note and swing only delays the off-beat eighth by 1–5 ticks, so sixteenths stay straight. At Auto Correct 1/32, 1/32T and HiRes swing has no effect, as on the original. NOTE REPEAT retriggers a held pad on the grid; CLICK is a metronome that never reaches an export.

SOUND AND SAMPLING

IMPORT AUDIO or RECORD MIC opens the sample editor: choose a region, capture at 1×, 1.35×, 2× or 4× (sample fast, play down) with RESTORE PITCH, and chop with markers, equal slices or detected hits onto pads in one step. Tap a slice, or the slice in the waveform, to hear it. The original source is kept, so EDIT SOURCE can capture again.

Every capture goes through the SP input path: anti-alias filter, 26.04 kHz, 12 bit. INPUT GAIN sets the level going into the converter.

SOUND PARAMETER chooses whether a pad’s relative notes change TUNE or DECAY; INIT sets its centre, DEFAULT DECAY all tuned sounds. DECAY has the 32 SP settings, FULL LENGTH is a DUST extension. MULTIPITCH and MULTILEVEL spread one pad across all eight pads of the bank.

CHANNELS, CUTS AND FILTERS

Like the SP-1200 there are eight voices on eight outputs. Pads on the same channel cut each other, so put open and closed hats on one channel for a choke. Outputs 1–2 have the dynamic filter, 3–6 fixed low-pass filters, 7–8 none.

A pair set to dynamic allocation in PROJECT alternates its two channels on every hit, as the firmware does, so the third hit cuts the first.

SONG, MIXES AND BOUNCE

SONG chains segments with repeats, END, LOOP, LINK to another song, instant tempo changes and MIX steps that switch to a stored mix. Name segments; the LCD shows them.

BOUNCE TO PAD renders the segment or the song (mix, dry mix or one output) and opens it in the sample editor, so you can sample your own beat back into the machine.

RACK

Outboard gear after the SP outputs: PLATE and ECHO (sends per output), SPRING, MIXING DESK (balance and shelves per output), TAPE, a bus compressor and a limiter, with factory and your own presets. The rack belongs to the project and reaches every export; NEW BEAT starts from the rack you last set up. With nothing switched on you hear the bare SP-1200 engine, bit for bit.

PROJECT, MY BEATS AND EXPORT

MY BEATS lists every beat on this device: open, copy, rename, delete. NEW BEAT and IMPORT PROJECT add a beat and keep the open one. DEMO PROJECTS open the factory beats; Undo restores your session.

EXPORT PROJECT writes a .dust file with samples and original sources. EXPORT WAV and EXPORT STEMS (the mix, the eight SP outputs, the rack returns) use the playback engine and take songs up to 10 minutes. On iPhone the share sheet can hand the file on.

MEMORY MODE: EXPANDED gives 120 seconds; CLASSIC adds the original four 2.5-second zones.

PRODUCER TOOLS

PROJECT › WORKFLOW: CLASSIC keeps the SP-1200 tools; PRODUCER adds modern editing. The sound engine is the same in both, and nothing runs until you use a tool.

SEQUENCE › TICKS: rows of step cells, every hit a block in its cell, moved inside it by its ticks; its height and brightness are its velocity, a hit off the grid shows its offset (−3) and the outline of its step, and a green bar under a block shows where swing plays it. Tap a cell to add a hit, tap a block to remove it, hold a block to select it, drag it to move it by ticks; nudge with the buttons or the arrow keys, snap it, shift or humanize a lane. M and S mute and solo a lane’s pad. LANES shows one bank or only the pads in use, BARS one, two or four bars (PREV / NEXT move by the view). STEP SHAPE also sets this hit’s own DECAY and START.

SOUND › TRUNCATE: sample-accurate START and END with a snap to zero crossings, LOOP and FADE OUT, and APPLY TRUNCATE to keep only that part. NORMALIZE PAD / BANK and the editor’s AUTO GAIN (whole or each slice) bring chops to full 12-bit level. PAD SENDS give one pad its own plate, echo or spring send and, with the desk, its own pan; stored mixes keep them.

Sample editor: DETECT DRUMS or TONAL starts each slice just before its attack; GATE or FIXED slice ends with fades; FREE PADS; MAKE PATTERN writes the chop as a playable segment; CHECK SLICES warns about BLEED and LATE starts and names each slice’s note or chord. TUNE SOURCE (±50 cents) is the turntable’s pitch fader before the SP input; MATCH A440 measures a record that runs flat or sharp and sets it.

Every pad shows the note or chord it plays, with its tune through the SP table (a chord or a tone marked ? is a guess). SOUND › PAD PITCH: FINE moves one pad by cents, a DUST extension past the SP-1200, whose table steps are up to 13 cents apart; TUNE TO NOTE sets FINE so the pad lands on the nearest note. PROJECT › BANKS A–H gives 64 pads. A project using hit shapes, loops, fades, pad sends or eight banks is saved as format 5, which DUST before 2.30 cannot open; with FINE it is format 6, which DUST before 3.1 cannot open.

KEYS

1–4 and Q–R play the shown bank, A–F and Z–V the next one. Space plays or stops, Shift+R records, Esc stops, Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y redoes. In TICKS the arrow keys nudge the selected hit (Shift: a sixteenth).

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.