Dr Van Nostrand wrote:for the further adventures, unseen was all sp1200, madvillainy was pretty heavy 303 i think, i wouldn't doubt that he still uses it alot to make rough beats and loop up simple loops like in this vid, but i've felt like he uses something else for his drums, at least sometimes when he's gettin busy on the cuts
I love and use my SP1200 all the time, and the more I get to know the sound of it I recognize that more and more of the stuff by Madlib said to be "all" 1200 beats are really not. All of the unseen are not 1200. Most of the joints are. But when you hear hi-res stereo beats with long samples, a ring has got to be ringing. The same goes for Lootpack too, not all there is 1200 either, but a lot. Some beats are even just straight records playing.
I love the beats Madlib did on the 1200 tho', the SP1200-stuff he did on the old Declaime stuff, plus his earlier 7 inches are dope stuff, together with the Lootpack + Quas stuff. It don't sound like he ever turns on the 1200 anymore, and it's a shame, since he was so good with it.
Often it's said that "all" beats on this and that are "all" this equipment or this technique. Like Dilla's Donuts, that were "all" made on a SP303 on the hospital bed right before he died. On some of the beats there you can clearly hear the sound of the 303 and the soundquality of a portable, but some of the beats are on some pretty old beat-tapes, and not made 24 hours before he passed away.