Using drum machine with protools

[tiocaloy]

I am thinking of aquiring a Alesis SR-16 Stereo Drum Machine to use with mbox pro-tools LE sessions. Right now I know zilch about operating a drum machine. My question is: How common is it to use one of these devices for recording? Do they work well and easy to use? Any information would be nice.

[CyberCat]

If you are going to record MIDI you should have no major problems unless you are using ProTools 6 LE or earlier.

If you are recording wave tracks, you need a multiple input interface and you have to assign each track on the alesis to a different output. Then you have to record all the tracks at the same time, or it's going to be the devil trying to get them to record/play in sync.

You can record the entire drum sequence as one wave track, but then you'll never get to mix and EQ the track properly.

[tiocaloy]

I thank you kindly for your reply.

[brandondrury]

How common is it to use one of these devices for recording?

It needs to be said that using external hardware drum machines is WAY less common than it was just a few years ago. The software samplers these days are WAY too powerful. The old "drum machine" term evokes sounds that are corny and fake. Check out the powerful modern drum samples these days and you won't hear anything remotely cheesy.

DFH Superior
Superior 2.0
BFD 2
Addictive Drums
Steven Slate Drum Samples

Brandon