boss dr-770 or alesis sr16?

T

tony moore

New member
hey folks, the subject says it all. what do you think? i need a bunch of different sounds for original music. need to use it live as well. any input appreciated. thanks!

tony
 
I asked the same thing about two weeks ago. No one really answered.

To me it came down to this

Alesis SR16 for $199
Or
Boss Dr5 or 770 for $389.

I chose Alesis because of price and I only heard good things.

that being said, it is good. It was made in 1990 so I'm sure the Boss's are much better (just a guess) but they still update the chip in the Alesis periodically (at least I think they do.)

The alesis is good versatile and cheap.
That's my 2 cents.
 
hi, did you get a chance to listen to both? from the specs, it seems the alesis has better midi options, but it 'seems' the boss has more sounds and memory for programs and such. i wish i could hear both...

thanks!

tony
 
I bought a dr recently and have not regretted too much yet besides the one individual output instead of 2 but hey this is a drum machine and I dont think that this thing will go live (at least not for me)Ill wait and get an MPC2000 (or is it MCP?) that thing will do everything! I use it mostly as an idea box
I bought an electribe er-1 and had to take it back because I needed more sounds for my style of music, I sure wish I could have had both though it was just so damn fun to use!
later
 
tony-
I don't have any experience with the alesis, but what I like about the boss is the internal effects(which works on each sound individually, I think) and the ambience setting(effects that work on a pattern as a whole) & it does have a stereo l/r out.Personally, I'm trying to decide between the dr770 and the dr202. I'm going to go mess with them today, and I'll take a look at the alesis too. I'll post again if I have any more to offer.
take it easy
cricketking
 
I bought the Boss DR-770 after looking at the SR-16 and the ZOOM 234. I thought the Alesis was a great buy for the price, but ended up with the Boss mostly because of the amount of memory it has. You can store 400 user-defined patterns and can specify (I think) 10,000 patterns in 100 songs. I don't know if there's a shop nearby that will let you haggle a bit, but I got my Boss for $349, which was $30 lower than the sale price they were advertising.

I have no way to use the MIDI in and out yet so I can't comment on that. If you really intend to use this for playing live then the amount of memory in the Boss may be a good enough reason to buy it over the Alesis - unless you buy TWO SR16's. :D

I thought the individual instruments in both sound pretty good but I liked the Boss's a little better, plus you can do a rediculous amount of tweaking of each instrument. There's way more editing capability than I would use regularly, but I was able to build 6 kits (you can build 64) that get me through everything I play. I tweaked them like crazy to get them to sound the way I wanted but I'm really happy with them now.

[This message has been edited by DaveO (edited 02-08-2000).]
 
One important question to ask is what style(s) of drums are you looking for. I have an Alesis SR-16 and would say it's great for realistic drum sounds, but not so great for the electronic kits. If you plan on doing techno, house, hip-hop, or basically anything that relies on good electronic kits, you might steer away from the SR-16. I've found their electronic kits a bit limited and sometimes a little weak for my tastes.

Just my 2 cents.
 
wow, thanks for the great replies! i'm gonna go for the boss dr-770. i checked one out at my local gc over lunch today and it seemed to the most versatile in sounds, memory, etc. pretty much what all you have just said :-) the only thing i couldn't by just demoing is if it can SEND midi time code. i'd like to synch it with my digi 001, dr sample 202 (tho ' i don't think it can read midi time code) and my oberheim echoplex digital pro. again, thanks for all the advice! it really helped. oh, btw, as for the sounds, i tend to use more techno, house, whatever and then blend in some real trashy authentic drums with the dr sample. i was doing it all on the dr sample and feeding the tracks seperatlt into the digi 001 and then synching things up manually. a major pita! i'm hoping by synching up the dr770 and sp202, it'll be easier and more fun :-) tho i think the best i can do is match the bpm between the two, we'll see. take care!

tony
 
good choice man I hope u have fun and if u ever come across a SysEx dump program that
works with the dr-770 post the addy here
(Ive been looking for one forever) that way
you can back up your machine I think hey maybe we could trade patterns heh
later have fun
_Syn
 
you got it syn! i was surfing looking for drum/rythmn mac software and i did run across one that could duplicate a drum machine pattern via midi, but i'm not sure if you could ouput that midi info from the 770. this whole midi thang is new to me, so i'm off to the shed :-) i'll let you know. thanks again!

tony
 
Hi,

Iv'e had the SR16 for quite a while. It will hold 12 average lenth songs, and it's out of memory. The crash cymbal is not so good, I usually try not to use it any more than I have to. Ride cymbal is good. Toms are fair to poor. Kick is good. Hi hat open and closed are good. Nothing is as good as the real thing. But you can have a lot of fun with it. I would also check out Zoom machines.
 
hey gt,

i owned a 234 for awhile and didn;t really like it. seemed a bit hokey. the alesis is cool but the sounds are very dated (and not in a good way :-) to my ears. i REALLY like the sounds and the tools for changing them with the 770. thanks for the input!

tony
 
To GT:

Do you record the SR16 in with EQ or do you pump the low end in when mixing? I can't get low end if I record that shit.


Maybe it's because I'm stupid.
 
Hey Ree,

I don't have eq. I have my drum machine plugged straight into my mixer. Like I said before I don't expect great sound from a drum machine, but it does keep one hell of a steady beat, unlike myself.
 
DR-770 sucks, but just this one thing!!

I have recently byed the DR-770, and I have to say that the sound is excellent. I use it just for live gigs, and I have one problem that I really don't like. I'll try to explain:

I know that with the Alesis SR-16 you can connect 2 pedals. If I have understood correct, you can use the 1. pedal to tap (use the foot to make the tempo), start/stop the rythm, AND to make a fill from A to A. With the 2. pedal you can make a fill from A to B.

You can also connect 2 pedals to the DR-770...BUT...you have noe tapping function and the 1. pedal is just for start/stop and the 2. is just for fill from A to A OR A to B.

WHY!!!! Is there somehow, a way around this problem??? My DR-770 would be perfect if this was possible. Is it patended by the Alesis??

Please answer, it bothers me a lot :-)
 
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