Long time Alesis SR16 user

I have been using the SR16 for years and have tried many other drum machines over the years but always returned to the sr16. I recently bought a BB and switch combo. I’ve updated the firmware and loving BBmanager although I don’t find it’s very intuitive you have great tutorials available.

Finally my question…

I have several songs tailored to SR16 rhythms and fills that I just cannot give up. Is there any way for me to load these onto the BBuddy so I don’t have to bring both drummers to a gig?

If they are in the MIDI format and mapped to the standard drum map, then yes. You’d have to import them via the BBManager. :slight_smile:

Great! That gives me hope but I know nothing about midi and I’m new to BBuddy. I do have the cables to transfer sysex data to and from the SR16 but have no idea how that translates to midi? Alesis’s website is no help at all…
So do I need to immerse myself in yet another technology to do a simple transfer?

The shortest answer would be - yes :slight_smile:

If anybody is interested in doing this I’d be happy to pay, I have no desire to learn something that will not likely be used in the future…

Try this link: http://www.noterepeat.com/products/alesis/sr-16/49-saving-and-sending-sysex-data-to-the-alesis-sr-16

The problem with the SR16 is the midi out is for backup only from what I see. Original content and user created content are backed up in one large file. It is not possible to export single patterns. The sr16 assigned beats have two alternating patterns with 2 associated fills for transitioning back and forth. I have spent tons of money trying to get off the sr16 because I hate most of the drum sounds but the rhythms and fills are exquisite to this day and the simple logic of an 8 count pattern with a 8 count fill means you are always in time even if you miss the que for a fill. There’s a reason they still sell tons of 'em 24 years on…They are SUPER easy to use!

Sadly this is a deal breaker for me…I was hopeful the Beatbuddy could easily copy the beats via midi…

Try this link: http://www.rmidi.com/rmidi/Sr1610/Sr16ExportPatterns.htm
It addresses specifically exporting patterns from the SR16
or this link: http://www.rmidi.com/rmidi/Sr1610/Sr16Patterns.htm

I’ll bet that you can hook the SR16 to your computer, and use something like Reaper to “listen” to the midi coming in from the SR16 and record it.

Big thankyou to all, for the suggestions…I love, love, love, this pedal, the beats and sounds are fabulous, I’m hopeful I’ll be able to figure this out now with what you folks pointed to. I only need three of the sr16 patterns for material I’ve written around. They happen to be the most complicated ones to reproduce and I’m not capable of drumming a single beat. I’ll post the solution if I’m successful so others can utilize…

Thanks again:D

I just ordered cables that should allow me to connect my SR-16 and Beatbuddy. Given that my Praise Team Leader has cataloged a lot of our Sunday tempos and Patterns from the SR-16 to each song over years, he’s asked if I can input them into Beatbuddy. I’ll let you know how this goes.

Much will depend upon how creative your Praise Team leader has been with the Alesis. If the patterns in the Alesis were all programmed to match General Midi drums, you could hook up a mid cable from the Alesis to the BB and play any of Garry A’s General Midi compliant “Rock with Bass and …” kits. Otherwise, you can have the Alesis run into a DAW and record its midi output, and then move notes around or create kits as need be. If you find yourself needing some of the Alesis sounds to make new kits, I have them at the link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cs3bk3rdnoiovp1/AABc3S1W3eAgLNslzxc3n7Jsa?dl=0

I know this is an old thread, but it is still relevant to anyone attempting to move their beats and kits over from the Alesis SR-16.

  1. One thing that I did not realize was that BeatBuddy only seems to work with 44.1k files. Phil’s files above are 96k and sound really bad until you down convert them. I brought them into StudioOne. My project was in 44.1k so when I exported each wav file it got converted.
  2. Even if you have the 44.1k wav files, BeatBuddy may not play them do to the Meta Data attached to the file. I downloaded a free Meta Data stripper from the app store for my Mac.
  3. The manual for creating drum kits seems to be non-existant and the procedure for doing it is very convoluted. You have to create the kit, save it, then import it, then enable it (someone even said you should exit the manager before the import - not sure why).
  4. Once the kit is installed it seems to work fine, but the next issue is the overall volume of the kit (using SR-16 midi files), is a lot lower than the standard BeatBuddy kits. There is an overall volume slider on the kit creation screen, but it does not seem to do anything. I may try editing the midi volumes in my DAW to see if I can bring the volume up. That is going to be a lot of extra work though.
    Please correct me if any of the above is not correct or there is a better way to fix the midi volume issue.
    Cheers

Wally,
Thanks for the info above. I did not realize those wav samples were 96k. I got a huge collection from a German site, and I had only used bits and pieces of it. I will convert them to 44.1k and normalize them for use in the BB. That should take care of 1,2 and 4. The overall slider mentioned in #4, is, as you found, not enabled.

With regard to #3, I had run into issues simply trying to build a built and then use it. The procedure that seemed to work without creating additional issues was to build the kit and name it within the drumkit editor. Then Save the kit. That actually is what turns it into a BB Drumkit. I that point I export the kit to my archived drumkits folder. Then, when I want to add the kit to a project, I import the kit from that folder, and enable it in the Drumkits list.

I agree it’s convoluted, but it works.

I’ll take a look at those Alesis samples shortly.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cs3bk3rdnoiovp1/AABc3S1W3eAgLNslzxc3n7Jsa?dl=0

I’ve converted the samples to 44.1k, 16bit samples and stripped the meta data. Also, they were normalized to 85%. They ought to be good to use.

Hey thanks Phil. I give yours a try rather than trying to do them from scratch. I’ll let you know how I make out.

Phil those files work great. Don’t suppose you have the midi files transposed :wink:
I have been doing it, but it’s slow. Have to use my DAW to record the MIDI from the SR-16 then move the notes around so they will map to the kits I reproduced. Man what a lot of work.

Anyway I have a question. How do you get the Fills and Transitions to end with a Cymbal Crash on the 1 Beat. The Alesis achieved this by cheating - it used the 1st beat of the fill as its ending as I recall. That does not seem to be the case with the BeatBuddy.

Somebody had the SR-16 midi files, but not me. Maybe they’ll see this thread and offer them up. If you get them, I’d appreciated getting a copy.

Your other issue, from another old post

"Not sure why this was not posted here or even why it is not part of the basic midi beat creation instructions…
It’s an obvious and fair musical question into the process of using the product.
This is the response I received from support… Hope it helps…

[I]"Hi William,

I forwarded this question on to Goran, who creates the content, and this is what he responded:

I always create a 2-bar file for 1-bar fill, out of which the 1st bar is fill and the 2nd bar contains only a crash on beat 1. This goes for any time signature.

Keep Rockin’!
Jay, BeatBuddy’s roadie"
Me again… It appears the program plays the downbeat of the second measure included in the fill before resorting (continuing) to two beat of the first measure of any “main beat”… So the algorithm processes ahead to the second beat of the main beat after being told to play a fill.

If that makes sense?"
[/I]

I would have just built a kit to match the mapping to way they came into your DAW.

Hey Wally,
I am in the middle of doing a similar project for the Rock 1 through Rock 7 beats on the SR-16.
My goal is to have a set of SR-16 drum kits that have been General MIDI-ified along with the matching drum beat Midi files also being GM’d. I have 6 of the 7 completed at this point.

The dropbox link in post #15 has almost all the SR-16 drum sounds (it’s missing 043 Ballad Kick :frowning: )

A helpful hint: you can change the Midi drum pad mapping for the SR-16 before recording the MIDI Out to your DAW so that the Midi Note numbers are what you want so you don’t have to “move them around”. If you want to create patterns and kits that duplicate the SR-16, just set the Midi drum pad settings to the defaults on page 44 of the Alesis SR-16 manual and build your BeatBuddy kit(s) according to that mapping. See attached file for how I mapped both the default SR-16 Drum Kit 0 and the GM-ified version of Drum Kit 0.