Meditations on the awful sounds of the Alesis SR-16 drum machine

["Rick Walker/Loop.pooL" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

Gary Lehman writes:

"I tried some stuff using the SR-16, and it was fine--but don't forget this
is master percussionist Rick Walker's gig, and he HATES the sounds on the
SR-16."

Oh, Gary, please don't NOT use your SR-16 for fear of judgment from me.
I'm probably as supportive a person as you will find in terms of accepting
of people's artistic expression.

While I have to admit that I can't believe that Alesis won't update there
sounds on that still excellent selling unit (released in 1989!!!!),
 both my brother, Bill and the wonderful looping bassist Max Valentino
have done really cool stuff with SR-16s just running them through effects.

I must confess, I use that machine more than any other drum machine I own
(and I own a lot) because of it's ease of programming and it's excellent
midi implementation.

My brother is doing a lot of gigs running it through a little half rack
Electrix FILTER QUEEN (best deal in the universe when they blew them out
at $79 and I'm still reeling from Electrix going out of business :-(

Max used different effects pedals to get his cool sounds until he switched
over to getting all of his percussion sounds out of his bass guitar--and
what a universe that is.....I only regret that he won't be present this
coming weekend.  He rocks!!!!

I have a large collection of really old analogue drum machines (going back
to my piece de resistance,  1953 Wurlizter Sideman) which were mostly
organ accompaniement machines.  They have really dweeby analogue sounds but
run them through a flanger and a distortion box and a filter box and they
sound like god.

Another way to use the SR-16 (or any out of date but MIDI controllable drum
machine is to go out and buy a used Alesis DR-4 or DR-5 drum module.
They have a myriad of excellent sounds and you can use the SR-16 to trigger
them.     Even a really cheap out of date sampler can be really effective
for triggering short envelope drum sounds with an old drum machine.   My 
old
Akai S 950 has incredible sound
on drum sounds..........just don't plan on using a long quiet flute sample
with it...............LOL...........noise city.

In a way, the more idiosyncratic you are with your sound choices, the more
interesting your minimalistic programming can be.
Think of your drum progamming as the same thing as voicing a chord on
any chordal instrument.  The more notes you use in the chord the more
you box yourself in harmonically for your theme or solo on top of it.

I can always tell keyboard or guitar players who program because they
overprogram almost universally:    In a wierd way, I have found that the
most useful drum programs (or rhythmic 'bed' loops for that matter) are the
ones that are incredibly minimalistic and almost always only one bar or two
bars long.............this gives one much more room to layer on top
of the piece to create interest and diversity.

Less is definitely More when it comes to effective grooves and programming.

Bottom line on all of this, is that your gear is as good as you are 
creative
with it.   Noone should feel ashamed or judged by what they have.
Just get jiggy with it!!!!

See you all in Santa Cruz this weekend.

yours,  Rick