< b e n t d e v i c e s / >
alesis hr-16 digital drum machine
this unit created in the autumn of 2005 is very angry indeed. it is now capable of making really nasty noises, perfect for hardcore or industrial styles of music but can also be controlled to make clicks and pops.
possible effects include phasing / flanging at various frequencies, digital distortion / clipping, truncation (perfect for those 'kliks' tunes), multiple drum hits from a single trigger, drum sound swapping, strange 'warbling' and lots more. its hard to describe most of the sounds so take a listen to the samples at the bottom of this page.
all the bends on this machine affect the drum sounds only. all tested midi functionality is intact meaning that this machine can be used as part of a midi set-up as easily as any unmodified piece of midi kit. the pattern and song sequencing sections are also intact as is the very useful LCD display. care has been taken to make this machine as stable as possible. given the flexibility offered by the patch-bay it cannot guarenteed that a combination of bends does not exist that will cause the unit to crash, however i am yet to find such a combination.
some circuit burning occurred when creating this thing, which means this unit is no longer capable of making its original sounds. this turned out to be a happy accident as it added an analogue type distortion to an otherwise totally digital instrument. this is a truly versatile and original sounding instrument.
alterations to sounds are made through the use of a 360 point, thirty way patch-bay, fifteen three-way (centre off) switches and the individual drum volume controls.
DISTORTION CONTROL
the volume control for each sound now controls the amount of distortion on that sound from light overdrive effects right up to massively saturated distortion.
PATCH BAY
a lot of time was spent figuring out the best method of adding controls to allow for the greatest flexibility whilst keeping the convenience of switches for playing the instrument live or for changing paramaters quickly and in a controlled manner. this configuration of patch-bay and switches allows each bend to be made either in a hard-wired or switched manner thus enabling the greatest flexibility.
hard-wired bends are made by connecting two points using the lower patch-bay points only (positions g-l). settings added this way are 'always on' and as such are not affected by the position of the switches. this is useful for finding new bends or combinations of bends quickly as well as setting those bends that you simply can't live without.
switched bends are made by connecting two points between the upper (positions a-f) and lower (positions g-l) patch-bay points. once connected each bend may then be switched on and off using the switch related to the position of the connector in the upper patch bay. switched bends are useful for turning individual or combinations of bends on and off when playing the instrument live.
each bendable point may be connected to up to six other bendable points either in hard-wired, switched or a combination of both methods adding even greater flexibility. up to six bends may therefore be turned on or off from a single switch throw. this is a seriously powerful feature.
SWITCH ARRAY
the switches do not change sounds directly but instead turn on or off the bends created through the use of the patch-bay by turning the input to the bend on or off. for example, switch one (top left), which has two ON positions may be used to make or break any bends that are connected to positions one and two in the top half of the patch-bay. similary switch fifteen, (bottom right) makes or breaks any bends that are connected to positions 29 and 30 in the top half of the patch-bay.
