E-mu SP-1200

The E-mu SP-1200 is a sample-based drum machine used by Phil Collins, which replaced the E-mu SP-12, its predecessor.

On the ...But Seriously album, Phil Collins sampled drum sounds from the Roland TR-808 into the E-mu SP-1200, which he tried out on "That's Just The Way It Is". He continued use the TR-808 sounds sampled into the SP-1200 on tracks on We Can't Dance (with Genesis) and Both Sides. As well as trying out different sounds on the machine.

Quote
"'The original working title for ['Living Forever'] was 'Hip-Hop Brushes'. I had gotten some new disks for my [E-mu] SP-1200. One of them was a jazz kit, and while the regular drum sounds didn't interest me, the brush concept did seem original. I tried to make it sound like what a drummer would actually play. Then we started playing off to that.'"

"'['Driving The Last Spike'] was basically written on the 1200. That same drum machine worked at various stages of loudness throughout the whole song. Bit by bit, we took each section as it came once we put real drums on it, then started working out what to keep from the original drum machine. We replaced the machine cabassa with two live cabassas. It's nice to have certain elements of the drum machine in there but at the same time to make it human.'"