| StoreTags: alesis, hr16, drum machine, review
Author: bla on September 26 2007 Viewed 4998 times. 17 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
People who enjoyed reading this: mechp, linde, SenorFrio, jogn, Otterfan, skab, bodo, adcBicycle, energygiant, Adjective, mlbot, DrexonField, astroid, Unknownforce, jcd, lilt, dustmite
-->
reposting my old review that was here years ago
-
HR-16 high sample rate 16 bit digital drum machine
I’ve got two of the hr16 (the grey one). There’s a hr16b (black) which is the same but has different sounds. I think that's the one used by Mike Paradinas in a lot of his old stuff.
There are 16 independent voices- 12 monophonic pads 3 hi hat pads that share the same audio channel so they cut each other off and a crash pad that uses two channels so it can overlap itself and the click uses one voice.
Each voice can be set to one of 49 samples- I think i read that they were 48khz. There are 10 kicks, 8 snares, 5 toms, 5 hats, 2 rides, 1 crash, timbale, 2 congas, 2 wood blocks, claves, cabasa, 2 maracas, shaker, agogo bell, 2 cowbells, triangle, tambourine, hand clap, fingersnap and drum sticks. Most are acoustic samples but there are also 2 electronic kicks an electronic tom and an electronic snare but the snare sounds like a dirty tom (no snappyness). There’s also a gated reverb kick and snare.
Each pad has its own mix settings: volume 0-99, 7 position pan and selected output 1 or 2.Tuning setting: -16 to +15 over an octave and a half
There are 100 patterns- each can be stored with its own set of settings. If used as a midi sound module these sets can be switched with program changes. The pads can each be assigned a different midi note number but these are the same for every pattern.
Via midi it will play 32 different volumes but it will only record in a pattern 8 different volumes. The pads are velocity sensitive (if they work) or you can choose the volume of the hit (1-8) to be recorded.
Each pattern can be up to 682 beats in length and they can be copied to each other to add one pattern to the end of another or individual pad data can be copied to another pad or another pattern merging it with existing data on that pad. Pad data or whole patterns can be offset forwards or backwards by a number of 384th notes.
There are 10 quantize settings ¼ 1/6 1/8 1/12 1/16 1/24 1/32 1/48 1/64 and ‘off’ for 384th notes (96 subdivisions per beat).
A variable amount of swing can be selected for each quantize setting. Quantize and swing only affect incoming recording data- auto quantize only. You can’t quantize or unquantize something that’s already been recorded.
It loop records and overdubs so patterns can be built up one hit at a time or there is a step edit mode but its a bit difficult because you can’t go back a step and it’s easy to accidentally delete loads of hits if the button stutters.
In song mode you can create songs of up to 255 steps. Each step can be a pattern or a tempo change and the song can be set to loop.
Data can be sent and received through midi sysex or saved and loaded on tape (or any audio recorder- I use minidisc)
As well as midi clock in and out it will sync to a tape sync signal. It outputs tape sync so it can be used to put a sync track on multitrack tape and then sync to it and generate midi clock for other devices.
There are 4 ¼ inch jack outputs (2 sets of 2 stereo or 4 seperate if panned all the way).Tape in and out mini jacks for data load/save and tape sync in and out.Midi in and out and an option to echo midi in to midi out.(thru)
The main problem is the buttons wearing out because they’re old (I think 1987 was the first). Cleaning the contacts helps a bit but they’re always going to be dodgy. Also because of the age the internal battery for the memory might be dead and it’s a soldering job to replace it. The power supply is AC not DC so you have to use a special more expensive one.
Main good points for me are they’re really cheap. It has a fairly high resolution in the sequencer (384th notes). I like the wide range of the tuning setting for each drum. Also the processor is totally fearless- you can write solid 384th notes on every pad and turn up the tempo to 255 and it won’t slow down or miss a single beat- the newer sr16 can’t handle that kind of thing at all but it’s a lot easier to use. The only problem I had was when I sent it loads of midi notes and program changes at once and it got stuck on pattern 00 and I had to switch it off and on again.
| |
Comments
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
Adjective
i just discovered hr-16 recently, or the sound of it
i mean i've known about it but had never played with samples from it before.
does anyone have a high quality sample pack of one or both versions?
i downloaded a pack from http://samples.kb6.de/downloads.php but some of the samples looked clipped
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
bla
i cant help you with samples
i think they sound best when pitched down loads
the low conga pitched down is lovely smooth bass
and the large cowbell pitched down is an amazing clang
and if you do it to the gated snare you get really rough hoover bass
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
jogn
There was a sample site posted here before, but i think the post's gone now 
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
Adjective
i wonder does the SR-16 have any of the same samples from the HR-16?
i have an SR-16 that i used to play with in my teens, but it's packed away somewhere.
i just remember there was reverb all over everything and it sounded phil collinsy... i guess i'll dig it up and see, assuming i still have the power supply
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
bla
no- the sounds are all different (im talking about the grey hr16- the black one (hr16b) has some of the same sounds apparently(like the rap kick (808)) but ive never used one)
well they sound different even if some might be the same original sound
i think the sr16 doesnt sound as high quality but has some better sounds in it
the worst thing about the sr16 is you can only tune in 8 steps (-4 to +3)- no fine tuning
also the processor on the sr16 cant handle dense pattern at all (slows down, misses out beats)
and its polyphony is crap- you cant even play all its 12 pads at once
still a good machine though (ill write a review one day)
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
Adjective
thanks much for the info bla
and also yay for review blogs
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
SenorFrio
Cheers for the manual! This has inspired me to sample my HR16! Thanks!
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
bla
oh yeah- its got a built in skinning up tray!
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
djugel
"As well as midi clock in and out it will sync to a tape sync signal. It outputs tape sync so it can be used to put a sync track on multitrack tape and then sync to it and generate midi clock for other devices."
have you done this? I need to learn how to ...
09/26/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
bla
ive never done it but i will someday when i get my reel to reel up and running
im assuming its as easy as setting the song length and tempo then recording the tape sync signal onto an outside track of the tape
then when you play the tape with the sync track going into the drum machine/sequencer (mmt8 does it aswell) it will start at the right time and right tempo and if its set to output midi clock other stuff can sync to that
ive no idea how reliable it is
09/27/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
sweettrip
i did it once or twice with a 4-track and from what i remember it was pretty reliable. sorry , i do not remeber much as this was like over 10 years ago, but i think the 4-track offered a special sync mode where it would dedicate a track/channel to receive a sync tone and play it back as well, since the sync tone could not be EQed, etc.
my experiment was only limited to the HR16 and then that syncing a dr660 (4-track (sync tone) -> HR16 (MIDI) -> dr660); i can't say how reliable it is with more MIDI stuff chained up, or even with a MIDI splitter...
09/27/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
bla
the hr16 manual says its better not to have high frequencies in the track next to the sync track
Register / login
|
^
EM411 is Copyright 2001-2008 EM411.com
All rights reserved. | Contact | RSS
|
