20 years too late?

Hey gang,

Wonder if anyone can give me a dumbed down answer?

I am running Cubase and have been trying to record from my old but still loved Alesis SR-16 Drum machine, but 88BPM on SR is not 88BPM on the DAW... which sounds dumb to my brain. 88 beats per minute should mean that you will be exposed to 88 beats in a minute.

The SR tempo recognises whole numbers only, but DAW allows to 3 decimal places!!!

What should I be doing to get the DAW and the SR talking the same tempo? I cannot get clocks to align and have to adjust Cubase by ear. This results in an 88BPM track on SR clocking in at (eg) 85.68BPM on the DAW. Having to manually adjust the tempo of the track before I record ANY other instrument is a painstakingly laborious task and is slowing my spontaneous recording opportunities horrifically.

How do I set up so that the DAW dictates the tempo and the SR conforms? OR, should I be letting the whole number only SR dictate tempo to the DAW? I have tried a few things and cannot make anything work. I want to be able to still use the sequencing / programming of the SR and run the tracks and songs I have programmed into it. It is the piece of kit I am most familiar with and love how it works.

For some reason, I only own one MIDI cable. Do I need a second?

I am primarily a guitarist. I don't live and breathe MIDI. I am running through a Komplete Audio 6 which has a MIDI in and out, and the SR has in and out/ thru.

KA6 https://www.native-instruments.com/typo3temp/pics/img-ce-komplete_audio_6_overview_02_connectivity_2x-e9a2e3ab818ce6ce36509257c8cb1b18-d.jpg

SR-16 http://5a18fcdc5c8aa2617926-54d68a14e2e7c1f76563a2d8c3e9fd82.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/920/images/alesis_sr16_back_large.jpg

Thank you in advance for any solutions.

I've enver heard of this but I have never linked an alesis machine to Cubase via MIDI that I can recall.... check your MIDI clocksettings in Cubase and I will think this over

maybe you need to get older gear or some of the new gen of analog drum machines and go back to the rock solid timing and compatability of CV/Gate? LOL its all the rage again even though its a giant pain in the nutsack

Just read up on CV/ Gate. This does not sound like the path I want. Monophonic only is the deal breaker. Do I need a MIDI in AND a midi out path from both devices? i.e two cables?

I have been able to have the SR drop midi patterns into Cubase, but the drum sounds did not follow. Instead it substituted a piano from its own library.

I want SR sounds and SR sequencing to play in Cubase at the exact same tempo.

Switching gear is not an option. Cash for next two years already spent.

I was joking about CV/Gate, its terrible for most purposes LOL

check your MIDI channels.... don't let anything be universal, then fire up the Alesis and try sending clock data to play a pattern by sending a single MIDI note-on message (middle C for the duration you want a pattern to play) to the Alesis

you could also try MIDI out from the Alesis on one channel into the interface and MIDI out/thru from the interface on another channel to the alesis, then audio from the Alesis back in.....

have you tried dumping your patterns from the SR16 into general MIDI sequences via sysex? from there you could import the sequences to Cubase and let Cubase be the master sequencer it wants to be sending the whole sequence to the SR16 instead of using the internal sequencer..... the timing ay feel slightly different if you concentrate but we are talking fractions of milliseconds and only the biggest nerds pick this stuff out with software sequencers versus digital hardware... its not like the quirky 303 and 909 sequencers

hey, this may seem obvious, but do you have the alesis maual?

http://5a18fcdc5c8aa2617926-54d68a14e2e7c1f76563a2d8c3e9fd82.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/920/documents/sr16_manual.pdf

http://www.alesis.com/kb/article/1575

a lot of people still have these drum machines.... I can't believe you're the 1st person to have this problem with a popular, legacy sequencer like Cubase

I am kinda special.

I don't have much keyboard/ electronica know how. I choose to get into MIDI when MIDI no longer uses MIDI cables and everything is USB... except my gear...

CRAP It feels like I and grandpa, and you are trying to teach me how to use an iPhone.

I use MIDI cables! I own old devices too ;-)

although a couple of my new devices do MIDI and even direct recording thru a single USB and I must admit the convenience is really enjoyable over chaining up MIDI cables from my PC to various devices!

interestingly, guitar gear with MIDI functions has not gone USB, my big rig is all with regular MIDI connection as my TC devices and controller don't do USB.... even programming patches has to be done via MIDI cable and menus...

so the problem is we're primarily guitarists and that guitarists are just dinosaurs! I play through a number of amplifiers that were old when my dad was gigging LOL

but try a couple of my duggestions and if you haven't read the Alesis documentation try reading it.... devices with internal sequencers can be difficult to sync to computer sequencers! recent gear is a lot more cooperative, but for decades syncing triggering synths and drum machine internal sequencers to a master MIDI sequencer has been difficult. When you read about the classic Depeche mode productions you will always find Daniel Miller or Alan Wilder talking about how hard it was to get everything synced to the computer sequencer and synced to tape at the same time. Look at the bright side, you are all MIDI, no CV and your sequencer is also your recorder so once you get the Alesis sequencer synced you won't have any more issues.... hopefully once you sync it there won't be any clock drift (I get some audible drift when syncing my Bassbot for more than few minutes of continous internal sequencer playback and its a bitch, and that's very modern MIDI implementation, though otherwise its a faithful 303 clone which is probably the source of my troubles).