Alesis SR-16
Released in 1991 at a list price of $399, the SR-16 was a sample playback drum machine that gave new meaning to the expression 'bang for the buck.' The machine featured the following:
Sounds / Creating Drum Sets
Each of the SR16’s 12 pad can be assigned to any of the 233 drum sounds included with the unit, with different volume levels (8 when using the internal sequencer, about 20 different levels when responding to incoming midi velocity data), tunings (only 7 available though), triggering mode (single, multi, group) and choice of routing the sound to the main or auxiliary outputs for each pad. All of these pad parameters are used to create a drum set up. The unit comes with 50 programmed drum kits in ROM (non erasable) and 50 user defined kits in RAM.
As indicated above the unit comes with 233 drum sounds broken into the following categories:
Many of the sounds are in stereo and include effect processing which was recorded as part of the original sample since the unit does not have any on-board effect processing. Certain sounds are made of a single samples and other sounds are made up of up to three samples. This layering of samples becomes more common when a sound is set to play at the maximum velocity level which results in some extra punch to the sound. This results in a more life-like sounding kit since as with a real drum kit since the harder the stick hits the drum the more ‘punch’ the sound will have. The only draw back is that the unit can only play sixteen voices at a time and each sample uses one voice so at times you might be able to fire a maximum of 5 sounds at a time. Unfortunately there no sound editing parameter so what you hear is what you get which is a shame but was clearly done to get this machine to market at a list price of under $400. However what you do hear sounds very good. A lot of the sounds are very life like and unfortunately there are minimal electronic type sounds. Also the sounds might be a little dated as these sounds have been available since 1991 when the unit went on the market and Alesis is still selling the unit.
Creating Patterns
Patterns can be anywhere from 1 - 128 beats long and offer resolution of 96 ppq. Quantization can be adjusted from off up to a quarter note (1ppq). Recording can be performed in real time where the machine will play a pattern over and over and the events are triggered by taping the applicable pad or via midi. The unit also offers a very nice step mode which allows you to step through pattern with the steps size equal to the set quantization level. In step mode you can enter and remove notes and adjust the velocity of a note. One of the most interesting features is the ability to add of subtract beats from the end of beginning of a pattern. The unit also allows you to shift the sound of a single drum that has been entered into a pattern forward or backwards by as many clocks as you would like. Drum parts entered after the offset has been entered will not be affected which is the way offset should work so every note of a particular sound in a pattern does not have to been affected by the offset. Each pattern may be named using up to seven characters. Each pattern is assigned a particular drum kit and so only 12 different sounds may be used in a pattern.
The unit can remember 100 ‘main’ patterns and each pattern has a corresponding ‘fill pattern. So in essence the unit can remember 200 patterns, however fills are not as flexible as main patterns but offer a unique feature. Each fill is associated with a main pattern. A fill uses the same drum set and is the same length as its related main pattern. Additionally a fill does not have its own downbeat but uses its downbeat data as a substitute to the next patterns downbeat data. This is a really smart feature that allows for the following: Let say your playing a fill and wish to have cymbal crash on the downbeat of the next pattern. The crash is more related to the fill than the new pattern you would probably be more interested in hearing a crash after a drum fill than at the start of the pattern if a fill hadn’t been played. Since the fill will play its downbeat data at the beginning of the next pattern you do not have the cymbal crash repeat every time main pattern plays.
Song Mode
Pattern mode offers some really great features and song mode unfortunately omits some great features. A song is a listening of the and the order of up to 254 patterns which comprise a song. So once you have played through 254 patterns of a song the unit will stop playing since there is no way to link songs which is a shame. The unit will remember up to 100 songs. Song tempo may be set from 20-255 beats per minute and may be changes as the song is playing but there is not way to store a tempo change as part of the song. Songs may be created in real time or manually by entering the patterns. You may identify the step which a main pattern switches to a fill pattern in real time or by entering the specific step in manual mode. You can insert a step between existing steps, delete a step or replace a step. You can copy a song to itself and thus double it and copy a song to a new song. What you cant do is identify a group of steps (i.e. steps 40-50 - the chorus after the first verse) and identify a step where they should be inserted (i.e. step 90 -chorus after the second verse). You may start a song at any step, however to identify the step you have to use the incr/decr keys to scroll to the applicable step. You should be able to enter the specific step using the 10 digit keypad but you can’t. This is very frustrating and will cause you to waste precious time scrolling to particular points.
Midi Implementation
The SR-16 has a really solid midi implementation which offers the following:
Other
The unit offers swing percentages of 54%, 58% and 62% of the current quantization setting. You can change the swing percentage or quantization without leaving record mode and the notes that have already been recorded will stay where you put them.
You can clear the units memory by holding down play and erase buttons (for three seconds) while turning on the power. You can check the software version by pressing the fill button any time your in the back up menu. I have version 1.07 and do not know what the differences are between the version but if you know about the differences please e-mail me.
The user interface is pretty good with a nice size easy to read display with logical menus and a large cool looking volume knob. Of course the knob is the only thing to ever break on my unit and now when I move the knob I get some static and some strange volume changes (so I always leave mine on full). My biggest gripe about the display is that there is no way to see the contents of an entire pattern and at most you can see one event at a time in step mode. Something like a ‘Roland’ style grid (even if you could only see four beats at a time) would have been nice. The buttons are a tad on the small side but still easy to work with. The pads are also small although bigger than the buttons. However, in my opinion, they are too small to realistically record patterns without the need to do some clean up in step mode. And since the unit is so small and (9 1/8" X 6 ¾" X 1-3/4" weighing 2 pounds) it moves around as you try to play the pads. You may wish to stick the unit to something so it doesn’t move around which is what I did. The manual is well written and overall the unit is very easy to use.
Its interesting to mention that I bought an SR-16 in 1992 since at the time I only had a TR909 and was looking for some more realistic drum sounds. I have been using the SR-16 since and overall I think its a good machine with my biggest complaint being the lack of programmability of the sounds followed closely by the inability to directly enter a song position.
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