MPC 500 - How to Control a Drum Machine via Midi (Alesis SR-16)

Just a quick demonstration of how to connect the MPC & SR-16 and use a drum machine in conjunction with you main samples. Always be opened to try new things in your studio setup, there is not one way to make music so remember that!
Hope this video helps, as always ask any questions if you have.
Peace peeps
#mpc500 #akaimpc #alesissr16

[@pitch_blaccck]

My man you are an absolute life saver! I bought the SR-16 and couldn't figure out why midi wasnt working through ableton. turns out you just had to enable it within the drum machine. Thanks!

[@gaz312]

I have a digital drum kit and wondering if I could use my drum kit to trigger the sounds from my drum machine to get additional sounds.

[@Yosser70]

Cool video man. So the SR16’s sounds are all on 1 midi channel and are mapped with note values on the controller? I’ve got a M Audio Trigger Finger and the SR16 would be great to use with it.

[@cstarcrusher]

thanks for the video man. using an old sr-16 I've had forever midi'd up to my mpc2000xl in my new studio setup.

[@phillindablank]

Wow thats great to hear dude, my pleasure! I have never used the 2000 before or the 2000 xl but they are stellar machines. Hope you enjoy your new setup!

[@robertsylvester3542]

I’ve had my alesis for over 10 years and have written tons of tracks with it, but I wonder if it’s compatible with the x jam ?

[@phillindablank]

Im pretty sure the x jam has a midi out socket on the device (but you would need some sort of dongle) so I believe it will work with the Alesis

[@felipeferrer5201]

hey man im connecting my alesis yo the syntakt but i cant change the sounds from the alesis on my syntakt i need some help (sorry for bad english)

[@phillindablank]

Hey man, I'm not sure the Syntakt has sampling capabilities (I don't think so but im not sure). However, if there is a line in on the device I believe you can change the sounds through some signal processing (adding fx and filters). If so I would see in the manual how to process incoming sound from the line input on the Syntakt.

[@tomstegeman4344]

Hello, So I am trying to do the reverse of what you have, I'm trying to use SR-16 to control my MPC500. QUESTION- when you have the SR-16 slaved to an external MIDI clock device (which sends the SR-16 tempo information), do you have a problem where the SR-16 only syncs to that tempo when a start/stop command is activated on the master device? What I mean is, if your master clock is set to say 120 bpm, and your SR-16 is set to 80 bpm, the SR-16 won't show 120 bpm unless you hit "start" on the master clock device. This is the problem I have, and the biggest issue is that if I decide to press "stop" on thr SR-16, it will go back to its previous tempo rather than staying in sync with the master clock signal. I want my SR-16 to be able to let me use start/stop commands internally and still keep itself slaved to the tempo of the master clock device when it is receiving an active running MIDI clock signal. I need this so that I can do live gigs on stage and be able to start/stop the SR-16 without having to reset/press-play on the master midi clock device. I can't seem to get this to work

[@phillindablank]

Unfortunately, I sold the SR-16 a long time ago so I have no ways of going about testing this setup. What you can do (which involves another device) is make both the SR-16 and MPC 500 a slave device and possibly use the start/stop button as a Midi CC message on your Master sequencer. I'm uncertain if you can set up specific Midi CC messages on the 500, but I know it can definitely be done on the newer models of MPCs.

[@tomstegeman4344]

@@phillindablank no worries mate, thanks for the detailed response. Another hack someone else suggested is to have the SR-16 programmed to have blank sequences every other pattern, such that I never have to press "stop" and it can stay in sync with master clock and cycling between normal drum patterns and blank patterns will give the illusion of playing/pausing.

[@phillindablank]

@@tomstegeman4344 I haven’t heard of a hack like that before but if it works in your favour then I would say go for it. Cheers man, hope it works out for you!

[@johnmanickam61]

Hi bro can we sequence song using mpc 500 and Roland gw8 via midi?

[@phillindablank]

Yea it’s very possible, however to avoid confusion with the different midi channels and programs, it may be best to resample what you play on each sequence and organize each part of your song using the difference tracks.

[@korrawinphonphichai9857]

,👍👍👍

[@paserpase2870]

You need to learn how to make beats bruh, how you got the alesis & akai 500 & cant make fire🔥beats,