just ordered a new drum machine

[Oldrottenhead]

i was going to buy the boss dr3 for about £149 uk sterling, when i saw an alesis sr16 for £70 uk sterling. had to go for the alesis, used to have an hr16 yonks ago, recall it costing a couple of hundred but it was easy to programme hope the sr16 is as easy. will probably be looking for assistance with it when i get it so if anyone knows of a good forum or site that can help me learn to use it please let me know.

[guitarron]

I always liked the alesis drum boxes -liked how you put fills in on the fly-
had a drummer who used a DM5 with triggers-sounded great-try
http://www.synthzone.com  for some links
http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/alesissr-16.cfm

[64Guitars]

You can get a head start by going to the Alesis website and downloading the manual and other documents:

http://www.alesis.com/sr16

Also, this page (and a few others I saw) suggests that you can get a free instructional DVD by contacting Alesis.

http://www.studiotrax.net/forums/showthread.php?t=31445

Here's their UK contact info:

ALESIS UK LTD
Unit 9 - The Christy Estate
Ivy Road
Aldershot GU124TX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1252 341 400
Support: +44 1252 353 850
Fax: +44 1252 353 810

Finally, there are two Yahoo! groups for the SR-16.

http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=alesis+sr-16&submit=Search

You have to join before you can read any messages, so I don't know if they're any good. I hate it when groups and forums do that. Where's the harm in letting any and all visitors read the messages, while only allowing members to post? Could be all spam and porn links for all I know.

Good luck, and let us know what the SR-16 is like after you've had a chance to explore it a bit.

[Oldrottenhead]

thanks guitarron and 64guitars.

You can get a head start by going to the Alesis website and downloading the manual and other documents:

good idea, help me with my impatience awaiting delivery.

[Pedro]

That must be very fun, that drum machine. This thing was made in the 80's! I found a video of a drum solo on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UDCRFMP4KU&NR=1

It doesn't sound bad, is it possible to add other drumkits and to control a single note volume? For example, change the snare volume randomly to make it sound more organic.

64Guitars: I hate that as well, I have never registered in a forum or a group that has that rule. The only thing I can't remember that makes them do that is harvesting our email adresses for SPAM.

[guitarron]

Hey Pedro
You sure thats not you in that video?lol

[hewhoiscalledj]

Very cool; I hope you enjoy it. I just happened to trade my old Korg Pandora PX4R (newly replaced with the MicroBR) for a Boss DR-3. After becoming familiar with Boss' interface on the BR, the DR-3 actually feels somewhat familiar. Sounds good but I'm still climbing the learning curve and it's almost as steep as the MicroBR's...

[Pedro]

Hey Pedro
You sure thats not you in that video?lol

Ahaha, that video as far better quality. In fact, I don't use a video camera, I use a normal photo camera that has a video recorder function. But the background and the way its recorded looks like the ones I do, indeed.

I've never used a drum machine, though. I bet it is easier than playing drums...

[waynesan76]

Oldrottenhead,
I think you'll be pleased with your purchase. I have the SR-16 and I love it! It's very easy to program once you get used to it. To answer some questions, you can program the volume of different drum beats to sound more natural, the machine comes with a lot of different "kits", and the pads are touch sensitive, although I can't seem to master tapping lightly on a pad! All in all, I think it's great for the price, and you can go mini-plug to mini-plug into the line in of the MBR.

[Oldrottenhead]

you can go mini-plug to mini-plug into the line in of the MBR.

will that give me a stereo recording, i was worried that i would need to buy new leads. reading the blurb it says it has 2 guitar like  outputs use 1 for mono 0r 2 for stereo, i thought i would then have to get something that converged the 2 leads back into 1 input.