I bought the first grey one sold in liverpool, end of 1988. still got it (third battery!) & recently popped some of these ROMs in it. it does a pretty good job with them, but I guess I spent a long time working on the original sounds & I'm quite attached to them. I agree that the kick lacks girth, but using the separate out & processing it improves things greatly. I used a lot of guitar pedals on mine back in the day too. a trick I'm trying to remember how I pulled it off- I recall there's a way of getting one sound to choke another, maybe by using the hihat pads or something.... I'd put a cymbal on two pads, anyway, with one of them turned down in the onboard mixer, & use it to silently cut off the other, like a cymbal-grab. playing tuned percussion on it was cool too- using a sequencer to come up with riffs, then record them into patterns on the HR. good stuff. new subscriber here. lots of toys- deluge, OT mk1, three blackboxes, mpc-1, tracker... not enough time to get the best out of them, which is why I come on here looking for tips & tricks!
I just refurbished my old HR-16, touched up all the contacts with graphite paint, new slide potentiometers, new, blue LCD display, and instead of directly replacing the battery I wired in a battery holder epoxied to the internal casing. Back in the day I used a TR-909 along with an HR-16 to make House music. I had both MIDI Clocked to my Atari ST, and they complimented each other really well. The different shuffle settings along with the hats, cymbals, shakers etc and particularly the Ambient Wood Snare worked really well with the 909. I also played Bass in a Post-Rock type of band, and used the HR-16 when we couldn't use a live drummer (which was most of the time). To get round the weak Bass Drum sound when jamming, I used to assign 2 or 3 different BDs and have them playing in unison. For example, normally I'd have the Electronic Kick 1 sound assigned to both the Kick Pad and a the Claps Pad and playing in unison. If one kick is tuned to 0 and the other is tuned to either +7 or -5 your essentially playing a power chord, so it's harmonically gonna sound a lot more fuller. Also, if you have 2 or 3 of the exact same sounds playing on and off together, and they're the same pitch, or a cent below, you can achieve some pretty cool sounding pseudo-phase type effects.
I had to have three or four of the finger snap at different pitches and delays coz that sample is so weak, single snap, dry no reverb completely useless. The other sounds are superb though
My first drum machine. I used to use it to trigger my Emax2 sampler. Speaking of "swing", there were a lot of New Jack Swing songs made using this drum machine. I saw it in so many studios that I ended up buying it myself.
yeah I ve heard stories about how abismal it was touring with, it s like the MMT8 it ll crash and wipe out all the patterns if certain buttin combos are pressed
I love this Drum machine, but it’s frustrating that it forgets the sound selection and routing as soon as you leave program. at least with mine, every time you have to reconfigure all the sounds and routing. Really a bummer.
When switching eproms, does it erase the patterns and songs you have on the drum machine already? Considering putting one in but I don't want to wipe my hr16 clean.
1st would be the 4 individual outputs for processing externally and tracking 2nd would be the crunch that comes from the converters Lastly, it’s just fun to have the vibe of a old drum machine but would certainly concede that no one would ever be able to tell the difference in a mix between the samples and the actual HR-16
Thanks for the video! I am changing voices on some of the pads. When I turn the machine off, and back on, the voices haven't saved. Do you know how to save the changes?
I wish people wouldn't make videos like this because it just causes people to ask more money for their old gear. Not that long ago you could find cheap hr16's all day every day and now on ebay and reverb people are wanting silly amounts of money for them. $400 for a hr16? Lmao no thanks. $150 tops
I had Alesis MMt-8 sequencer & this hr -16b drum machine along with Roland's Mt-32 sound module , I made good music with those machines
Killer combo, especially back then!
I have the grey model. We used it in our three member band back in the 90's. Still works fine.
I’m amazed how many of these are still working great with little to no maintenance!
I bought the first grey one sold in liverpool, end of 1988. still got it (third battery!) & recently popped some of these ROMs in it. it does a pretty good job with them, but I guess I spent a long time working on the original sounds & I'm quite attached to them. I agree that the kick lacks girth, but using the separate out & processing it improves things greatly. I used a lot of guitar pedals on mine back in the day too. a trick I'm trying to remember how I pulled it off- I recall there's a way of getting one sound to choke another, maybe by using the hihat pads or something.... I'd put a cymbal on two pads, anyway, with one of them turned down in the onboard mixer, & use it to silently cut off the other, like a cymbal-grab.
playing tuned percussion on it was cool too- using a sequencer to come up with riffs, then record them into patterns on the HR.
good stuff. new subscriber here.
lots of toys- deluge, OT mk1, three blackboxes, mpc-1, tracker... not enough time to get the best out of them, which is why I come on here looking for tips & tricks!
I just refurbished my old HR-16, touched up all the contacts with graphite paint, new slide potentiometers, new, blue LCD display, and instead of directly replacing the battery I wired in a battery holder epoxied to the internal casing. Back in the day I used a TR-909 along with an HR-16 to make House music. I had both MIDI Clocked to my Atari ST, and they complimented each other really well. The different shuffle settings along with the hats, cymbals, shakers etc and particularly the Ambient Wood Snare worked really well with the 909. I also played Bass in a Post-Rock type of band, and used the HR-16 when we couldn't use a live drummer (which was most of the time). To get round the weak Bass Drum sound when jamming, I used to assign 2 or 3 different BDs and have them playing in unison. For example, normally I'd have the Electronic Kick 1 sound assigned to both the Kick Pad and a the Claps Pad and playing in unison. If one kick is tuned to 0 and the other is tuned to either +7 or -5 your essentially playing a power chord, so it's harmonically gonna sound a lot more fuller. Also, if you have 2 or 3 of the exact same sounds playing on and off together, and they're the same pitch, or a cent below, you can achieve some pretty cool sounding pseudo-phase type effects.
That’s really cool and a great tip
I had to have three or four of the finger snap at different pitches and delays coz that sample is so weak, single snap, dry no reverb completely useless.
The other sounds are superb though
My first drum machine. I used to use it to trigger my Emax2 sampler. Speaking of "swing", there were a lot of New Jack Swing songs made using this drum machine. I saw it in so many studios that I ended up buying it myself.
Ah yes, New Jack Swing!!!
SO interesting bc it’s always felt that the Octatrack had a similar groove with MIDI to the MMT-8, it really reminded me of it
💯
so many old pieces of gear had multiple outputs. I wish more modern gear had that
SO True!
Classic, underrated.
Have you tried the Vintage Edition Eprom, if so what's in it ? As the seller mentioned secret😅
You know I actually have some of those Roms but have never checked em out before…. I know what I am doing next week…. Will get back to you!
@@_justin_joe eprom vids incoming? Looking forward to it
also, curious about this!
Walter Afanasieff used these samples on Mariah Carey and his other legendary productions (Alesis SR-16 and Alesis HR16A)
Oh thats cool. I didnt know that
First time I heard "Hero," I was all, "That's an Alesis SR-16!"
Awesome
The sound of godflesh drums
yeah I ve heard stories about how abismal it was touring with, it s like the MMT8 it ll crash and wipe out all the patterns if certain buttin combos are pressed
I saw Godflesh in 1992 on their Pure promo tour. Tickets on the door were £5. By then Justin was using the SR-16.
A lot of people didnt know it has sympte tones build in.
💯
I just got some. Great sound, but how do you set the individual audio outputs? I haven't figured it out yet. great video
Super easy. Push the mix button, where you adjust volume & pan, then either press #1 or #2.
I love this Drum machine, but it’s frustrating that it forgets the sound selection and routing as soon as you leave program. at least with mine, every time you have to reconfigure all the sounds and routing. Really a bummer.
All you have to do is hold "Record" and press "Voice" to save the sound assignment
To store the mix and routing settings hold "Record" and press "Mix"
When switching eproms, does it erase the patterns and songs you have on the drum machine already? Considering putting one in but I don't want to wipe my hr16 clean.
I don’t think so but I have never check that before. Will check it out next time I upgrade a machine and report back
So what's the difference between using this HR-16 or just having the samples on your Octatrack?
1st would be the 4 individual outputs for processing externally and tracking
2nd would be the crunch that comes from the converters
Lastly, it’s just fun to have the vibe of a old drum machine but would certainly concede that no one would ever be able to tell the difference in a mix between the samples and the actual HR-16
@@_justin_joe Yeah, all valid reasons, just for fun being my favorite. Thanks. All the best.
Thanks for the video!
I am changing voices on some of the pads. When I turn the machine off, and back on, the voices haven't saved. Do you know how to save the changes?
I believe your battery might be dead.
Is it saving the sequence when you save it and turn it off and on?
@@_justin_joe Thanks! I am not using the sequencer. I am just triggering sounds from an interface. But all patterns and songs do save.
@@kevsdrumvideos3300 Interesting, I am pretty sure the the sounds and sound settings are supposed to be saved with the pattern
Are you holding voice and record once you're done?
I wish people wouldn't make videos like this because it just causes people to ask more money for their old gear. Not that long ago you could find cheap hr16's all day every day and now on ebay and reverb people are wanting silly amounts of money for them. $400 for a hr16? Lmao no thanks. $150 tops
150 tops! More like $100. I got mine for $20 in 1998. 😂
@dpalaoro I agree... don't know why hr16s go for silly amounts now but you can still get cheap sr16s
So true and also everything has “rare” on their listings