This is a bit of an obscure topic, but anyone who's used an Alesis SR-16 may know... it applies some sort of sluggishness to the sequencing, in terms of tempo. So if you line up the first four to, for instance, the Sequencer inside your DAW (Whether Pro Tools, or Logic, whatever), The SR-16 will ultimately lag behind after 8-10 bars. This is to emulate "real playing" from a drummer, which is cool.

So, in the past, I would be able to record 1-2 bars inside my DAW and then basically I could loop it using the built into cross-faded drag-and-drop sequencing... To create drum tracks that were more air-tight rhythmically to my DAW's sequencer (i.e. without any SR-16-induced tempo lag-behinds). If you listen to albums that were produced using the SR-16 it's almost certain that the engineer was fixing the tempos somehow... Potentially in the exact way I've just described. Or...

Is there a way to incorporate an external sequencer via MIDI? There's gotta be. I could see how you might even be able to build one, hooking up a Quartz metronome to some sort of signal chain and then aligning the SR-16 to that MIDI sequence.

The only issue is... I've never done this and don't know how it would work. Is there outboard gear (i.e. Analog) that is just a "Sequencer" that can then align the SR-16 stuff to a different tempo grid (i.e. without the emulation of "real drummer" lag). That way I could basically use an external sequencer and bypass the need to mess with anything in the DAW. Sorry, I'm new to this

indiegrab_360 wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:14 pm This is a bit of an obscure topic, but anyone who's used an Alesis SR-16 may know... it applies some sort of sluggishness to the sequencing, in terms of tempo. So if you line up the first four to, for instance, the Sequencer inside your DAW (Whether Pro Tools, or Logic, whatever), The SR-16 will ultimately lag behind after 8-10 bars. This is to emulate "real playing" from a drummer, which is cool.

Are you not using the DAW as a master MIDI clock and using the MIDI In on the SR16 to sync?

I might be missing your point, but you should be able to sync the SR-16 to your DAW using the midi clock. You send midi clock to the SR-16 midi in. It’s described in chapter 6 of the Alesis manual. You should be able to set Reaper (Logic Protools, what ever) to send midi clock via your interface.

Kinda start there...

Your sequencer/DAW (Master) should have an option somewhere to send a MIDI clock to an external MIDI device (Slave). Somewhere in the menu there's a box you can check that says 'Send SPP' (Song Position Pointer) or 'Clock Out' or something like that. This sends continuous tempo info to the Slave. Hit the MIDI Setup button on the SR16 and page up to Clock In. It should be ON. A MIDI cable from your sequencer/DAW's selected MIDI OUT port goes to the SR16 MIDI IN port. Hit PLAY on the sequencer/ DAW. The SR16 should play with none of that 8-10 bar tempo lag you mentioned, which to me does not sound like human drummer emulation.

If you're already doing all this and it's still lagging then I don't know. Keep us posted.

Hey everyone- Thanks for the replies...
I record to DarkAudacity and I believe it's possible to do what's being described here with an SR-16 to DAW MIDI clock sync.

But..... Because I use my DAW as if it was a tape machine (more or less), I normally don't mess around with much "in the box" editing (Other than very basic stuff, like fade-ins)... Why not? I'm lazy and I was just over it after doing it for multiple years.

I am kind of curious if there is some sort of standalone hardware box that just acts as a dedicated Sequencer... That way I wouldn't have to use the DAW's internal MIDI clock. Then I could potentially program the drums fully on the SR-16, and then utilize this hardware sequencer as the MIDI clock, and just dump the programmed drums to tape i.e. DarkAudacity.

That way I don't have to muck around with dragging/dropping bits of audio inside my DAW. I can just hit record on the DAW and let the SR-16 and an improved external sequencer go to work.

Just curious really. I did notice there are dedicated MIDI interfaces so maybe one of them also features a dedicated sequencer. This isn't really my wheelhouse... as you might have noticed. Also, there could be a solution I'm completely missing. Maybe a different computer program that's not a DAW that can sequence for me. Hopefully I have enough RAM to be able to not crash my PC in that type of idea. Open to ideas...

I think I am having a hard time understanding what you are trying to do. What is your end goal? To write a long pattern on the Alesis and record it into your daw at a tempo and have it perfectly match the tempo in your daw? Or just have a more stable MIDI clock than the one that is internal to the Alesis?

I also think you may be confusing sequencer with tempo/clock.

If you really need a sequencer to create patterns to be played by your drum machine that can then be recorded into you DAW, there are tons of options from Arturia, Korg, OXI, and others that do likely way more than you need. If you just want a stable standalone MIDI clock then there is the midiclock+.

Jon

Does this unit have the ability to chase/slave via the tape in/out? I think it does:
You would print the tape out signal to a track in the daw and set the drum machine to slave to that…Probably looser than midi and not midi —might be an option. You’d likely need a special cord

Barbo wrote: Sun Apr 02, 2023 9:33 am I also think you may be confusing sequencer with tempo/clock. ... If you just want a stable standalone MIDI clock then there is the midiclock+.

Yep, agree. if the the midiclock+ is a little too expensive, Retrokits' RK-006 is a MIDI multitool that can do a lot of things, including act as a reliable master clock. Probably not as stable to-the-nanosecond as the midiclock+, and requires a bit more manual reading / setup because of its nature as a multifunction thing. But if you have any other MIDI shenanigans you want to get into (e.g. triggering the SR-16 from a different MIDI controller), it can help with both at the same time.

I don't think Audacity can generate MIDI clock, so to follow this suggestion:

scrotescape 4 real wrote: Does this unit have the ability to chase/slave via the tape in/out? I think it does:
You would print the tape out signal to a track in the daw and set the drum machine to slave to that…Probably looser than midi and not midi —might be an option. You’d likely need a special cord

..you can generate a Rhythm Track and route it to the SR-16 if you have a spare out on your audio interface. I haven't tried this, so can't vouch for its efficacy.

If you want to try to find a separate computer app that can be your MIDI clock source, this is the search string I'd start with.

Setting this whole "I'm Looking For Advice On How To Ice Skate Up A Hill..." part off to the side...

Seriously consider replacing your current "Tape Machine..." solution with Reaper. The Demo is fully functional for exactly "Zero..." dollars. The license for two versions is probably still way under a hundred bucks, and it actually gets closer to working like a "Tape Machine..." than most things.