Alesis HR-16 & HR-16:B

Alesis drum boxes from 1988. These boxes were the forerunner of the SR16, and they are ok and really cheap. The 16B version has electronic sounds similar to those included with the SR16. The standard HR-16 is a good little box for hiphop n stuff, it's got some nice clangy snares etc.

1988 & Alesis continued their theme of cut-priced but quality sounding products by releasing a super affordable 16-bit drum machine for around £449 GBP (with the street price soon dropping even lower within months after that).

Each unit delivers 49 drum & percussion sounds including around 10 Kiks, 7 snares, toms, about 2 hi-hats each with different openings including pedalled, plus cymbels & a variety of percussion stuff. The drum samples can be freely assigned to any of the 16 pads - hence the mixer-style scribble strip above the 2 rows of pads - and assigned to either of the 2 stereo outs with panning & volume per voice. The HR-16's are 16 note poly but all 49 sounds are accessible via MIDI if you setup the sounds to a MIDI map.

Although the HR is generally NOT rated for it's sounds when you read website reviews, it was used on plenty of hiphop records including "It’s a Big Daddy thing" by Big Daddy Kane, Prince Among Thieves & more. The black HR-16B arrived in 1989 featuring more 'effected' sounds and the two machines could be linked to give 96 voices with one acting as master which was quite clever.