Have any of you used the Alesis SR-16 Drum Module?

J

jimmy_LD

New member
I haven't posted to the BBS in quite a while.
It's good to be back, rid of the ex-wife, and back in the swing with the home recording.

My question is this:
I have the opportunity to get an Alesis SR-16 for next to nothing.
Is this a wise idea? Have any of you used these things and gotten good results?

Thanks in advance, and I know I could check Google - I value your opinions first.

Jimmy
 
The samples are kind of cheesy compared to what's out there but it's probably the easiest to learn to program. Like Bruce said it's great to sketch out ideas with and when you need a quik click track and such.
 
I use it and I think it's pretty good. I usually use the dry drums and add the verbs to my tastes. It is user friendly but, it takes time and concentration to get all your ducks in a row. Plus it's been out for years and still holds it's value. It's been around $150/$200 new forever. I use it for click tracks too. Godsend in that dept. Bottom line is... it is versitile and usable and for a couple of hundred bucks, it beats putting up with a half-witt drummer that can't play and has no idea what sounds good.

It's got my vote.
 
Yeah get it. It doesn't have the best acoustic samples, but for electro drums, it performs quite well. Only beef I ever had with the SR-16 is its lack of a headphone jack. So a mixer is a must, and 4 outputs is nice (I do mine 1Kick/2Snare/3+4 everything else Stereo). The pads are nice with a good tactile feel, good for MIDI control of triggering soft-synth samplers. A breeze to program (for it's age anyways). SR-16 is starting to enjoy the legendary status that has long been enjoyed by the old Rolands.
 
Sr 16

I use one for building drum tracks. I don't try to program it for anything. If you have enough tracks, it's great for this. For example, kick on 1, snare on 2,
hat on 3, etc. Lots of voices in it.I just midi it thru my midi keyboard and lay
each voice seperately. Gives it a good human feel, also.

Chaplainbob
 
I'm even doing some recording with it, and so far I'm happy. It's not great, but for what I paid it seems to do just fine. I'm playing semi-industrial music though. Luckily, I don't have much interest in "human-sounding" drums for this particular project or I'd be pretty screwed--like everybody says, you're not going to find decent acoustic samples on this machine.
 
Amazing what you can learn on this forum! I've had an sr16 for probably 10 years, and have done the kick on 1 , snare on 2 thing to guide drummers along... but I never realized you could put anything else on 3 and 4!!!!!! Thanks guys.
 
:D Yo Jim of James:

From a Yam to the SR16 to the Boss 770 is where I've been. I found the SR16 to be all right in the Bear's paraphrase. But each 90 days sees gear improve overall.

I did my first programming on the SR16 which had a fairly decent manual. Seems like drum machine manuals are much better than synth manuals.

I think you'll find the SR16 worth your time. You can always update when you're ready.

I'm looking at the Boss 880 and will probably go for that AFTER Jan. 1. I did get a very good price, though, from my main vendor.

Merry Christmas
Green Hornet :D ;) :o :cool: :D
 
The SR-16 is my all time LEAST favorite drum machine. My advice is, unless you get it for $20, avoid it. I spent hours trying to get decent drum tones (realistic or synthestic) from that box of crap and never got anything I liked out of it.
 
I like it. You just need to learn which drum sounds to avoid. Some have a distinctly 80's hair metal sound to them. You can highlight the ones you liek on the list (or cross off the definate bad ones), and you will still be left with some good sounds, and an easy to use machine.
 
Jimmy_LD didn't mention how he wanted to use the machine. You can program drum sequences in the machine itself and use it for rehearsals and such. This will yield acceptable results - for the price anyway.

You can also use it as a MIDI controller to program drum parts in your software sequencer (Cubase, Logic, etc). Once you've programmed the MIDI drum track, you have a choice - use the SR-16 as the sound module, or use a VSTi sampler (sampletank, battery) and import sounds from sample libraries.

Either way, for the money you really can't go wrong with it.
 
The SR16 is a fricking excellent click track in the studio. I use it all the time as a click track for tracking real drums. I think it's one of the best drum machines made, simply because it's so easy to program. The sounds kind of suck, but they are pretty useful, especially for demoing stuff. I just think it's so easy to use, that it doesn't get in the way when you're on a creative kick.
 
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