Alesis DMPro Drum Module

Advantages: cheap, easy to use
Disadvantages: no effects limited sound editing, dull sounds

...The Alesis SR-16 holds the title of the best selling drum machine of all time and some would say with good reason. The sound quality that this machine can produce is excellent but the drawback is that the 230 odd sounds contained within the unit are uniformly dull and uninspiring. If you need a workhorse set of drum sounds for backing tracks etc then the SR16 will do the job in style but i would not recommend it to anyone who has any kind of imagination in their music. The operating system is fairly straightforward but some of the pattern editing is fairly cryptic if you don't have a manual, apart from that it's pretty easy to figure out whats going on. The SR16 can has 150 somewhat dodgy preset patterns but you can create another 150 of your own to string together in the 100 available songs. Outputs consist of a stereo pair and an pair... Read review

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Advantages: The instruments are of high quality and it is easy to use
Disadvantages: The keyboard sounds are not 100% brilliant

.... It works perfectly on the latter. However, there is a problem with RISC OS Sibelius, which means it cannot play a drum stave. This is however rectified if you play a MIDI file that makes the module say TG3000. The sounds on the module are of a very high quality and range. As I have already mentioned it conforms to General MIDI and also Yamaha XG standard. I cannot compare its sounds with any other sound modules, but it does sound extremely life-like. The keyboard sounds lack slightly in their likeness to their real-life counterpart, but they do not sound noticeably odd. Overall this is a very good sound module that I find really easy to use. It costs around £100 (I do not know exactly as I borrow it periodically from school) and is well worth the money. It is particularly god for novices as it is inexpensive, does the job well and has... Read review

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Advantages: Good value and flexible mixer, works well with PC. Cubase is a nice bonus.
Disadvantages: Knobs not sliders, no MP3 encoder with Cubase but these are minor details

.... This meant there was no way to record a band together live or even just drums on their own which require at least 3 or 4 separate mics. It's important that each instrument and vocal is recorded separately so that you can balance their relative volume levels after recording. FIREWIRE RULES OK! Having looked around the best solution for being able to record several tracks at the same time directly to the PC looked like the Alesis Firewire range. Firewire (or IEEE 1394 to give it it's technical name) is another way of connecting devices to a PC similar to USB but offering better data transfer performance. Most modern PCs now come with a firewire connection as standard but, if you have an older PC that doesn't, you can always get a firewire PCI expansion card for under £10. You may notice that the mixer has two firewire connections... Read review

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