Has anyone ever modified an alesis sr16 so other pads would work?

B

bobbo

New member
I've got an sr15 drum machine and am wondering if it would be possible to rig it up so that I could make some trigger pads (like they make on that website with remo practice pads and a piezo) and hook those pads up to the alesis drum machine and use those to hit with some drum sticks instead of using my fingertips. I don't really like programming it anymore because it sounds too perfect, so I've just been hitting the keys with my fingers, which sucks almost as much.
I opened the sr15 up and found what appears to be 3 piezos underneath the buttons. I'm not sure how they do this, but it looks like there are 4 buttons for each piezo which is the size of a quarter.
I suppose it might be better for me to just find a used alesis d4 or dm5 for cheap and use that, but I thought I might ask to see if anyone ever modified their sr15 first, and see if there even would be a way to do this. I don't really need a whole drum kit, just something where I can use sticks and make it sound like a human is hitting something. I would just be using it for recording, and use a computer for the recording.
What do you think?
 
You need drumpad midi triggers connected to the midi IN........ problem is finding a contoller that will allow you to control the midi triggers for the entire kit and send it as a single midi signal to the midi input of the SR16.......

As well, what will you do about cymbals/hi-hats.........?

Might as well just get yourself a set of V-Drums or equivalent!!! ;)
 
Yeah, I may just try and save up, but I thought it might be kind of fun to mess around with stuff and see if I can get something working. I just don't really know if anything could work with that drum machine I have. I wish I could just enlarge all the pads on the machine and use drum sticks, or I could just shrink.:)
 
As BlueBear notes, the obvious and simple thing to do is use the MIDI inputs, rather than trying to rewire the pad switches.

Yamaha makes some cheap little units with something like 7 drum pads and a MIDI out. There are also some that don't have the MIDI out, which wouldn't do you a lot of good. There are used ones around -- like the Yamaha DD5 (four pads), which seems to have been built as sort of toy, but has a MIDI out, and was used by some back in the day (mid '80s). You'd need a MIDI merger (or something like a MIDI patchbay that does merging) to use more than one unit at a time.
 
Ok, thanks, I'll look for some cheapie somewhere and experiment.
So, I could get sounds from the sr16 to be played on the pads? I mean on the other devices pads? Would I need to use the midi outs on the sr16 to my soundcard, or could I still use two 1/4 line outs? Sorry, I've never used midi stuff before.
 
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