Sr-16?

[YeshuasFan]

Has anybody tried the SR-16 drum machine? Has anybody A/B tested it in comparison to Zoom and/or Boss drum machines?

[MadAudio]

Seeing as how the SR-16 has been around for something like 20 years, I'm sure a few people have tried it.

It's a decent and easy-to use machine, excellent for getting ideas down. But the samples are a bit dated. Can't say how it compares to the others you mentioned, though.

[kojdogg]

Originally Posted by YeshuasFan

Has anybody tried the SR-16 drum machine? Has anybody A/B tested it in comparison to Zoom and/or Boss drum machines?

i had the ion drum kit which featured a rebranded sr-16 for a "brain." i'd def agree with madaudio about the sounds being dated. i also had a boss dr-550 mk 2 (?) back in the late 90's/early naughts. i found it to be less dated for whatever that's worth, but if it's an option to a get a cheap dxi, vsti, or other plug in drum machine, you might be better served.

[travelin travis]

if you like eighties drum sounds, the sr16 might be for you. unless you're gonna slap a fuzz across the output or something funky like that, i'd skip it. the one i had a loooooooooonnnnnnnngggggggg time a go worked well as a fancy metronome and i only paid like $50 for it. if you happen to be using a computer for recording there are free options that would probably give you better results for acoustic drum sounds than any drum machine.

[sajs]

I've posted this before that I use this editor program connected by midi to the SR16. With a few mouse clicks you can program any drum sound you want and assign the parts to any of the 4 outputs of SR16. I really like this program, it's so simple to use and cheap.

http://www.namesoft.biz/sr16editor/index.htm

[The Green Hornet]

Yo YES.....:

If you give a listen to the Boss 880 drum box, you won't want the SR-16--as mentioned in the other posts, it's OLD technology; that's why there are "deals" on the SR-16. I had one and when I plugged in the Boss 880, I put the SR 16 in my vault with the "other" old gear stuff.

A nice feature of the 880 is a bass line. You can use the bass line, change its key, or just shut it off and use the drum patch. Of course you can program the box if you want to take the time.

Some of the patches just "make" you play something. [I do keys.]

Give a listen to one at a vendor.

Green Hornet

[YeshuasFan]

Thanks for the input. I downloaded the manuals for Boss and Zoom units and they seem to have more going for them than the Alesis--at least on paper--in terms of flexibility and variety of sounds. Having had some customer service issues with Alesis on other pieces of equipment I'm a little leery of dealing with them but wanted to be fair.

[soundchaser59]

The drums on the Boss DR880 blow the SR16 outa town....

However, the SR16 is very affordable, and is best used as a sound module because of it's small size. It wont hold up to a lot of button tapping, it's better to play it by using a controller keyboard. You'll get more believable tracks that way, since the buttons only give you 8 levels of velocity sensitivity, but the keyboard gives you 128, and you'll need that to get anything believable out of the SR.

[travelin travis]

Originally Posted by soundchaser59

The drums on the Boss DR880 blow the SR16 outa town....

However, the SR16 is very affordable, and is best used as a sound module because of it's small size. It wont hold up to a lot of button tapping, it's better to play it by using a controller keyboard. You'll get more believable tracks that way, since the buttons only give you 8 levels of velocity sensitivity, but the keyboard gives you 128, and you'll need that to get anything believable out of the SR.

I can attest to that. A couple of the pads on mine died after little use and the sensitivity was pretty much non-existant. I had an old casio that I used as a controller, which worked pretty well.

[ez_willis]

The sr-16 makes a great click track.

[Reel Recording]

yes it does.

[travelin travis]

so does a click track.

[ndutle]

When I was looking at drum machines, I checked the sr-16, boss dr670, and dr880. I ended up getting the dr 670 because it was affordable and it had more of what I needed. I thought that the sr-16 wasn't going to be enough for me, and the 880 seemed like feature overkill for what I needed....like on the 880, the 670 does basslines too. I never really used it for that, but it's there if you want it. It's a solid machine.

[andyhix]

We use the SR-16 as a click also. I'll use a basic rock beat, or even program in something specific if there is a meter change, or something. Pan all drums hard L, and add a cowbell on the 1/4 notes (or whatever is appropriate) panned Hard R. That gets uploaded to the computer, on 2 tracks. We can then add scratch tracks while listening to the drum tracks, and the real drummer can come in and add real drums to the cowbell click and the scratch guitar, bass, and vox.

So far, it seems to be working.

To answer the Q, though, no, I'd never use the Sr-16 as my primary drums. Just like everone else said, very 80s reverby sound. Not cool for most styles.