here is all 233 SR-16 sounds. fixed max velocity 8, level 99, panned center, output L super short best TS cable i’ve got, volume pot maxed into digitakt input L. That means gain staging is jucy af, they actually sound good. Powered from ripcords and a battery pack, very low noise. Used threshold 11 on digitakt so they all have the same consistent start dynamic, and all the sample and reverb tails are there plus extra. The only SR-16 samples online i could find were a little weak sauce, tails cut off, weird folder organisation. This is the whole machine from 001 to 233 in raw normalized max velocity mono.
Thanks so much for this! The SR-16 was my first drum machine (25 years ago… !) and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. I recorded each sound into my DAW ages ago but was never satisfied with how they turned out. Can’t wait to revisit these… again, many thanks.
Snap! My first ‘proper’ drum machine too! I can still remember buying it from Johnny Roadhouse one Saturday afternoon with our old manager! Ah the memories!
Nice! I used to know the SR-16 inside-out and could practically program it blindfolded. It used to be the rhythm section for a two-piece Godflesh-ish band I played in back in the late 90s. Ah, the memories indeed
I had one of those given to me but it literally fell to pieces within days it must had led a hard life! It did sound good for those couple of days tho!
I recently picked up a DR 202… loads of fun in a little plastic box! Especially the gate fx.
Tbh I just mute them as I’m usually using it with other stuff. Some of the lines are nice but the actual sounds have got that 90’s romper feel to them.
Ooooh. Thanks.
Mine lasted from late 90’s till I got the ARmk1 a few years ago. I dig how they sampled for velocity by sampling the kit being hit at increasing velocity. Beautiful cymbal rides!. I miss that level of authenticity in the AR (samples).
are they multisampled? did not realize that. i always used it at fixed velocity 8 because the pads were so stiff, you have to break your finger to get high velocity. if they really are multisampled i might go through and grab the other 7 layers. it took 6+ hours to grab/trim/name all 233 sounds at max velocity, maybe i’m slow.
Yep, they are. There’s also an ancient video on YouTube, the creator doing a tutorial, talking about it.
Anyway, I reckon you you’ve done more than enough.
Last night I found myself feeling nostalgic about the SR-16. Some friends of mine had a band in the early/mid 90’s and we joked that the Alesis was their drummer.
I almost bought a cheap used one, and then decided to look for samples instead, which led me to this thread. Thanks for doing this @thumperjack! I can’t wait to load these in the Digitakt and Octatrack, to go down memory lane then destroy them with effects and excessive resampling!
One of the main reasons the SR16 has a reputation for bad sounds is because a lot of people use it fixed at velocity level 8. It sounds pretty awful when you do that. Not all the sounds are multi sampled, some are. Others have different envelopes and reverb levels at different velocities. It’s a very subtle machine. Not well represented by this sample set.
!) and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. I recorded each sound into my DAW ages ago but was never satisfied with how they turned out. Can’t wait to revisit these… again, many thanks.
it must had led a hard life! It did sound good for those couple of days tho!