One of Alesis's first drum machines. With 49 sounds including 10 kicks, 7 snares and a complete ethnic set all of which are 16 bit samples this drum machine is a great bargain! Its partner in crime is the MMT-8 sequencer. But the HR-16 has its own sequencer with 100 patterns and 100 songs available. The drum tones can be tuned, have individual level controls for mixing, and there is 16 voice polyphony which means up to 16 drum tones can be used within a pattern. Patterns are programmed in either step or real-time. With external click inputs and Midi, the HR-16 is capable of integrating your older drum machines or sequencers with Midi systems! The drum sounds, however, are pretty cheesy.

Alesis HR-16B

The updated HR-16B model had lots of new sounds cool for enough techno and electronic music. And it still costs about the same price. It is possible that some HR-16's may have been modified to use the HR-16B's ROM chip to get those sounds. The HR-16 is gray and the HR-16B is black. Either one makes a handy little drum machine that's so cheap these days that it is more than worth adding to your studio - it just might come in handy one day. It is used by Orbital, The Grid, Autechre, Sub Dub and the Stereo MC's.

Josh

January 31, 2010 @ 12:35 am

I know were to get one for 30$ and it going to be awsome im going to try this out

wade

October 16, 2009 @ 12:37 am

I usually layer the drums (10" snare with wood snare, Kick with gated kick, cymbal over cymbal etc...) you add some 'verb and a bit of delay, it sounds great!

Shawn

July 30, 2009 @ 2:27 pm

Another simple and logically designed piece of gear from Alesis. Though some of the sounds are thin and dated sounding they can easily be tweaked with reverb, delay, layering, and compression. If you would rather make music than learn how the drum machine works, these babies are for you.

eq

May 8, 2009 @ 3:41 am

I clocked a zillion hours on my hr-16, along with the mmt. Both pretty hardy pieces of equipment. But the sounds were really thin, just not up to par with 'real' music recordings... You could use one to reproduce 80s style music, but you'd be hard pressed to ever produce percussion tracks that ... have meat to them. If you don't need 'meat', then you're fine.

Harry

February 20, 2009 @ 7:16 pm

Have Alien-Devices.com modify (circuit bent) your HR-16 or Hr-16:B for you. It's amazing once modified. I love mine!

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