How do I Sync a Drum Machine (Alesis HR-16) in Reaper?

Ok, I have an old Alesis HR-16 drum machine and I've gotten it to "work" in Reaper. At least in as far as getting it to trigger the drum sounds from any of the drum software I have but... I have not figured out how to get it to sync with Reaper so that when I hit record on Reaper and Play on the drum machine it will play in time. Please any help from someone who knows what I need to do and hopefully someone out there who's experienced this. Thank you.

BTW, I really want to get this thing working as I love the way I am able to build drum parts with it. I have tried some of the other computer based midi editors and such but I just love this old thing. Thanks.

While you are waiting for our learned community to help you with this question, I asked a related question about a week ago: . I haven't had the chance to try out the answer I got, but I'm confident. The SR-16 is a great tool for building beats. How did you get it to trigger your drum software? I'm using Battery. You? EDIT: You are using the HR-16! Not the SR-16. Same difference?

Hi guys and welcome to the forums! I think, this is not an easy task, because those drummies don't support MTC (I don't know for the SR-16, but AFAIK the HR-16 doesn't). Reaper can be synced to SPP (Song Position Pointer), MTC (MIDI Time Code) and LTC (Longitudinal Time Code, an audio signal), but it sends only MTC or LTC to sync external gear or other software, 'cos SPP seems to be obsolete nowadays. So if you want to sync those drum-computers to Reaper, you must first record a sync signal coming out of the drummy's sync output to Reaper, and use this to sync it afterwords by feeding it back to the HR-16. This might be a problem, if you have just one stereo out on your soundcard, because you need one audio channel to play the sync back and have just one channel left for your drum audio. -Data

Thanks Arrakkis, but in fact I don't know very much about this. It's only because I had the MMT-8 once (the sequencer 'brother' of the HR-16, which I liked much) and knowing that the HR-16 is pretty much the same. But I can't remember, whether I ever did sync the MMT-8 via MIDI; I always used the audio sync to synchronize it to tape, which is a special signal and in no way compatible to anything else. You could try to sync Reaper from the HR-16. instead of the other way round. So I wouldn't say it's not gonna happen. Try it. As I understand it, it's more the HR-16 itself than the sounds of it(?). You surely can use it as input terminal, without the need to sync at all. Maybe you could try to explain what exactly you want to do, so I (or others) might be able to give specific help. -Data

I'm sure I have done this successfully before. I have the HR-16B and the MMT8, and I am sure I have got them in sync with Reaper before when going back and re-doing old projects. It could have been Sonar that I did this on. If I remember, all I did was set the HR-16 to recieve external midi clock, and set the host to transmit it. Let me see if I can go back and replicate these settings.

OK, have you tried enabling the clock output in Reaper? Page 400 of the manual. You have the option to enable song position pointer and midi clock. This is different from midi time code. Reaper outputs this data on the midi out of your interface. Without dragging out my old Alesis hardware, I believe this is what I did. If you give it a try, let me know the outcome.

It does work! I thought it did. Set the clock source on the HR-16 to Midi/Internal, and enable the SPP and clock output in Reaper, connect the midi cable, you're off.

Milt, I'll look it to that, Thanks. If it works I'll keep you all posted. As for what I'd ultimatly like to do is this. I'd like to use a program that will allow me to creat MIDI files with the HR-16 so that I could pull the files with the drum software to use in my projects. Is there a program around that will allow me to do this, I've listed the stuff I have above. Or, is there a software program that will allow me to use my Akai to create drum loops in the same way that the HR allows you to create the drum part, as I have discribed above? I'm just looking for a good, cost effective solution to this problem. I like the way the HR works to creat drum part and I have not found it anywhere near as easy to do this using the Akai and Reapers MIDI editor, which I found does not work well at all, at least not so far. Thanks everyone.

If you go to Options>Preferences>Midi Devices, right click on the midi out device, you will get a dropdown that allows you to send SPP, and midi clock to the midi output.