I bought one to use as a metronome for playing the piano. Total overkill, but it's actually pretty decent. Had a few upgrades along the way, I think (mostly bit depth of samples), but it's basically identical to the version that came out in 1989 or 1990 (or whenever it was).
You can get an SR-16 right now for $160 US, which is super inexpensive for a drum machine. Alesis is still doing it. I really appreciate that there are companies making inexpensive gear. Alesis also makes a bunch of e-drum kits. Great video Starsky.
Yeah, I saw that. It's amazing the SR-16 is still in production today and has been for over 30 years (since 1990)!!!! You can still buy it new!!! That's gota be the longest production run of any drum machine in history!!! I admit, it does sound very good.
I was in keyboard retail then (85-2001). They (and the MMT8) sold like hot cakes. Can’t finish the video now; looking forward to it later. Both units felt cheap, but actually held up well. What a great time in keyboard retail!
My uncle had one of these back in '88. I remember recording all of the sounds to a crappy cassette deck, hoping one day to own a sampler (other than SK-1😄). That day finally arrived when I bought a Kurzweil K2000 years later, while in college. I think the cassette distortion plus Kurzweil's lovely DACs did those sounds some good! Thanks for the flash-back; looking forward to the Linn ROM swap!
Honestly '80s/early '90s digital drum machines sound great. Samples in those have their special character due to how unrealistic they sound despite trying to be realistic and failing.
That was my first drum machine when I was 16. I wouldn't call the sound crappy, more like "special" or "recognizable". And it was quite easy to use, no complaints except for the bad contacts.
Ive had 3 or 4 of these over the decades, that slider is great for changing the drum tuning on the fly, I used extreme tunings to make it sound more machine like, the weak point is the pads are fragile. I have fond memories, Ill get another when I see one at the right price
I was playing in a country band in the late eighties. And when the drummer left, we used one of these till we got another drumist . Then 10 years later swapped a few guitar parts for one which I fully circuit bent and sold for 300 quid. No just got the black b version .
I sampled it into my S950, for the 8 separate outs. They sounds are great. Then the HR-16B was even better in some ways - Now they live in my S3000xl. Just like you, Starsky. PS. also really enjoyed your Synclav REgen video too. Thanks!
The HR16 is the poor mans linn drum, it was by far the best drum affordable drum machine of its time. I dreamed of owning one of these or even more the HR16 B with the electronic drums and was black, I later owned an SR16, D4, D5 and I still have my QS4 which has both a D4 and Quadraverb built in. They don't sound as good as the HR16 though, it cuts through mixes better.
I got the HR-16B exactly for the reason mentioned. It sounded like a drum machine with much more punchy processed and more electronically sounding kicks and snares. And, yeah, all the drum programming was done in Cubase. Had Cubase on the Atari from the 1.0 already in late 89. Got the HR-16B maybe in 90 or 91. At the time I was into EBM (Front 242 mainly) and beginning to get into techno/house. For EBM it was great! Before that I only used the (crap) built in drums of the Roland D-10 and triggered them via midi too, of course. I have actually never used the drum editing on any drum machine. Always done it via midi. Since I had Cubase from the get go, I saw no reason at all to do it on the small display on a drum machine (often a lcd strip) when I could see everything on the computer screen at once. In addition to that "patterns" where visible parts on the sequencer.
I’ve still got my D20 in the loft… I’m sure it was the floppy drive that sold me! Interesting that you programmed via Cubase. I had a TR505 and couldn’t believe what a pita it was doing it in the computer compared to the hardware. But then I’d hammered it for years so knew it inside out.
I really wish they would re-issue the MMT8 that was a damn good sequencer and they could do so much more with it now just give it more tracks and keep it simple. Hell make it an iPad app. I remember when I opened up for orbital they had a stack of MMT8’s
You hit the nail on the head- the sounds just aren’t that great. The HR16 was my first drum machine, and I really had no clue what I was buying at the time… I wanted a drum machine, and that was the newest, cheapest one out there so I bought it without really evaluating the sounds first. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t get cool dance drum sounds out of it, and then I became even more disillusioned when they released the HR16B, which was closer to what I would have wanted. I also think it would have benefited from a more traditional x0x style pattern editor… I never bothered with the step editor at all, and just hit record while playing everything in live. I would try to get more interesting sounds out of it by pitching sounds as low as possible and layering several sounds together, but it still never quite did it for me. The only trick I discovered is that the HR16 sounded great through a guitar distortion pedal, much better than any other drum machine I tried.
Tell yah what, stick that in a 3U panel, give it some cv and trigger inputs, change the display to either oled or obscure 4 bit led and you could still charge 500 quid easy.
it sounds good, sometimes great.. sadly it looks like shit - like it should be printing shipping labels or something. therefore it hasn't found a place in my studio
I was playing in a country band in the late eighties. And when the drummer left, we used one of these till we got another drumist . Then 10 years later swapped a few guitar parts for one which I fully circuit bent and sold for 300 quid. No just got the black b version .
I think we need a video on why Alesis still makes the SR-16 34 years later! 😁
That’s not a bad idea!
still have the SR-18🙃
I bought one to use as a metronome for playing the piano. Total overkill, but it's actually pretty decent. Had a few upgrades along the way, I think (mostly bit depth of samples), but it's basically identical to the version that came out in 1989 or 1990 (or whenever it was).
I used it for 20 years as a midi master, thanks to it sloppy clock that gave so much groove to my live set :)
Secret weapon of Godflesh
You can get an SR-16 right now for $160 US, which is super inexpensive for a drum machine. Alesis is still doing it. I really appreciate that there are companies making inexpensive gear. Alesis also makes a bunch of e-drum kits. Great video Starsky.
I love Alesis, and been using them for decades. The Quadraverb and MIDIverb were a must have.
Yeah, I saw that. It's amazing the SR-16 is still in production today and has been for over 30 years (since 1990)!!!! You can still buy it new!!! That's gota be the longest production run of any drum machine in history!!! I admit, it does sound very good.
My friends in the 90's used it for the Drum Sequencer to fire TR-909 TR-707 and TR-727
I was in keyboard retail then (85-2001). They (and the MMT8) sold like hot cakes. Can’t finish the video now; looking forward to it later. Both units felt cheap, but actually held up well. What a great time in keyboard retail!
Oh wow. Manual printed on the actual hardware is a surprise huge value for retro used markets.
great vid,as always🙂
My uncle had one of these back in '88. I remember recording all of the sounds to a crappy cassette deck, hoping one day to own a sampler (other than SK-1😄). That day finally arrived when I bought a Kurzweil K2000 years later, while in college. I think the cassette distortion plus Kurzweil's lovely DACs did those sounds some good! Thanks for the flash-back; looking forward to the Linn ROM swap!
Used a lot in New Jack Swing. Love the sound of it!
Had one in the early 90’s until we finally found a real drummer who fit our style.
Even then there were times I wished we hadn’t sold it!
Honestly '80s/early '90s digital drum machines sound great. Samples in those have their special character due to how unrealistic they sound despite trying to be realistic and failing.
That was my first drum machine when I was 16. I wouldn't call the sound crappy, more like "special" or "recognizable". And it was quite easy to use, no complaints except for the bad contacts.
Ive had 3 or 4 of these over the decades, that slider is great for changing the drum tuning on the fly, I used extreme tunings to make it sound more machine like, the weak point is the pads are fragile. I have fond memories, Ill get another when I see one at the right price
I was playing in a country band in the late eighties. And when the drummer left, we used one of these till we got another drumist . Then 10 years later swapped a few guitar parts for one which I fully circuit bent and sold for 300 quid. No just got the black b version .
I was going to buy one in 1990 maybe the mk2 but I ended up getting a Roland r8m with the electronic card
I sampled it into my S950, for the 8 separate outs. They sounds are great. Then the HR-16B was even better in some ways - Now they live in my S3000xl. Just like you, Starsky. PS. also really enjoyed your Synclav REgen video too. Thanks!
The HR16 is awesome, nothing cr*p about it!
😂😂👍
Yeah man
The HR16 is the poor mans linn drum, it was by far the best drum affordable drum machine of its time. I dreamed of owning one of these or even more the HR16 B with the electronic drums and was black, I later owned an SR16, D4, D5 and I still have my QS4 which has both a D4 and Quadraverb built in. They don't sound as good as the HR16 though, it cuts through mixes better.
I got the HR-16B exactly for the reason mentioned. It sounded like a drum machine with much more punchy processed and more electronically sounding kicks and snares.
And, yeah, all the drum programming was done in Cubase. Had Cubase on the Atari from the 1.0 already in late 89. Got the HR-16B maybe in 90 or 91.
At the time I was into EBM (Front 242 mainly) and beginning to get into techno/house. For EBM it was great!
Before that I only used the (crap) built in drums of the Roland D-10 and triggered them via midi too, of course.
I have actually never used the drum editing on any drum machine. Always done it via midi. Since I had Cubase from the get go, I saw no reason at all to do it on the small display on a drum machine (often a lcd strip) when I could see everything on the computer screen at once. In addition to that "patterns" where visible parts on the sequencer.
I’ve still got my D20 in the loft… I’m sure it was the floppy drive that sold me! Interesting that you programmed via Cubase. I had a TR505 and couldn’t believe what a pita it was doing it in the computer compared to the hardware. But then I’d hammered it for years so knew it inside out.
Im sure Joe satriani and ozric tentacles used this machine, I had one myself back in the early 90s and the hr16b. cool machines for the period !!
Ozrics now they know how to play..silas Neptune is a genius
Mine's full of shonky hot glue and gaffer tape repairs
I really wish they would re-issue the MMT8 that was a damn good sequencer and they could do so much more with it now just give it more tracks and keep it simple. Hell make it an iPad app. I remember when I opened up for orbital they had a stack of MMT8’s
You hit the nail on the head- the sounds just aren’t that great. The HR16 was my first drum machine, and I really had no clue what I was buying at the time… I wanted a drum machine, and that was the newest, cheapest one out there so I bought it without really evaluating the sounds first. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t get cool dance drum sounds out of it, and then I became even more disillusioned when they released the HR16B, which was closer to what I would have wanted. I also think it would have benefited from a more traditional x0x style pattern editor… I never bothered with the step editor at all, and just hit record while playing everything in live. I would try to get more interesting sounds out of it by pitching sounds as low as possible and layering several sounds together, but it still never quite did it for me. The only trick I discovered is that the HR16 sounded great through a guitar distortion pedal, much better than any other drum machine I tried.
Very papery sound, quite unlike most digital drum machines and samplers
Tell yah what, stick that in a 3U panel, give it some cv and trigger inputs, change the display to either oled or obscure 4 bit led and you could still charge 500 quid easy.
😂🤩 now there’s an idea
honestly, I clicked on this video expecting another bad gear episode 🙂
😮😂
These seem like they'd be great for black metal
@@GeorgeL909 like Living Colour?
it sounds good, sometimes great.. sadly it looks like shit - like it should be printing shipping labels or something. therefore it hasn't found a place in my studio
I won´t give mine away for a good reason.
Just nearly killed mine swapping the EPROMS 🤦♂️
@@StarskyCarr "Nearly" means you didn't kill it though, fortunately, no?
I was playing in a country band in the late eighties. And when the drummer left, we used one of these till we got another drumist . Then 10 years later swapped a few guitar parts for one which I fully circuit bent and sold for 300 quid. No just got the black b version .