"Take cover!"........ newb alert! :-/

[PeeVeeAh]

Hi folks,

Could be a long story - but I'll cut to the quick: I'm a partially
sighted PC-ist - and one-time musician - who bought an Alesis SR-16
drum m/c recently. I took it out, tapped the 'pads' and thought,
"okay, how do I 'see' how this works?" There is no comprehensive
editor written for this machine. It largely pre-dates such
utilities. However it does appear from the YouTube GUI demo that Key/
Note/Kit could be sculpted to provide a really useful sequencer/
interface - if I can get it 'talking turkey' through a USB-to-MIDI
interface (Yamaha UX16) to my Vista-based PC. The demo I saw did not
seem to address accessing external MIDI synthesis, so (before I
download the executable,) is your amazing environment going to provide
the toolbag I'll need to produce virtuoso percussion on the aging
Alesis?

Sincerely,

Peter (Reading, UK)

[Tim Thompson]

> The demo I saw did not
> seem to address accessing external MIDI synthesis, so (before I
> download the executable,) is your amazing environment going to provide
> the toolbag I'll need to produce virtuoso percussion on the aging
> Alesis?

Keykit can send MIDI to external devices, yes, and can handle any number of MIDI device input/output ports (each port providing
access to 16 MIDI channels). So, basic interaction with your SR-16 should be straightforward. While the keykit GUI may look
enticing, there's still a fair amount of text to deal with when configuring/interacting/figuring-out keykit. Unless you're planning
on playing with some algorithmic drum things (for which keykit is excellent), you might want to try a more straightforward drum
pattern tool. For example, Tunafish (at http://www.brambos.com/ ) is one of the most straightforward sequencers and drum pattern
editors that I've ever seen, and has a good clear full-screen display. It's free to try (fully functional except for saving) and
dirt cheap to buy.

...Tim...