Alesis HR-16 (1988) High Sample Rate Drum machine

 

Midi digital drum machine from the end of the eighties featuring trigger pads and internal sequencer.

DRUM MACHINE (weight: 3 kg).
The main panel features a 16 x 2 lines display, 29 rubber buttons, a data slider and 16 pads (8 levels of curves response).

Back panel terminal connectors:
- main stereo out
- AUX out
- Midi interface
- tape Sync interface
- pedalswitch input for start/stop sequencer

Power supply is external with AC-AC PSU.

 

SOUND drum machines based on a single 8-bits 8031 manages 16 digital voices polyphony at 16 bits relative- DAC is a common chip Burr Brown PCM54.

STRUCTURE: a voice is composed by a single PCM sample with some basic edit parameters:
1- mix volume
2- pitch tuning (32 scaled values)
3- panning position (7 scaled values).

WAVETABLE internal ROM contains 49 samples organized in 6 groups:
A- 10 bass drums
B- 7 snares
C- 5 tomtoms
D- 3 hihats
E- 3 cymbals
F- 21 various percussives instruments.
EPROM PROGRAM it is possible to reprogram the PCM EPROMS with custom sounds, some free software are available for this job- there are 2 x 27C040 (512 Kb) + 1 X 27C256 for Os and samples assignment/name.

SEQUENCER can be recorded in 2 classic modes:
A- step mode (resolution up to 1/64 th)
B- real time with 10 quantizes levels and 9 swings/shuffle levels.
Various global edit functions commands such as ERASE, COPY or INSERT.

 

SYNC sequencer can be synched either to:
1- external Midi clock
2- tape sync protocol.

MEMORY:
- 100 songs
- 100 patterns (1 to 682 beats long)
Battery replacement: non-volatile RAM soldered 3.6 Ni-cad battery.
Data can be saved to Midi system exclusives or by magnetic tape dump.

 

 

MODIFICATION the HR-16 and HR-16B are cheap and often victim of circuit bending modification.
Here's a gallery of bent exemples:

picture 1 and 2 from EBay auctions, picture 3 from Ebay

 

RELATED FAMILY:

	HR16B basically the same machine but with a different black case and a wavetable which eatures some different PCM waves- "B" version is considered as more rare and interesting, depends on taste. VIDEO
	MMT8 a sequencer with a very similar design VIDEO

 

 

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION there are some free and commercial samples set:

	name	price	link	demo
	DSK Mini DrumZ 2	FREE donationware plugin contains all Hr16 samples plus other machines akai xr10 / Boss Dr55 / Roland Cr78 / Tr606 / Tr727 / tr707 / tr808 / tr909 and more.
	logic-cafe	FREE SAMPLES for LOGIC		N/A
	HERE!	FREE HR-16 sample set	GET IT	N/A

AUDIO DEMO

pattern demo pattern demo 2

Soundcloud Alesis HR-16

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION Overview custom sounds EPROMs circuit bent