I picked up a used sr 16 drum machine the other day and im having trouble connecting it to my sp-404. The sr 16 had no power supply so i bought a 9v 300ma ac to ac pwer supply from radioshack. i also purchased some rca to 1/4 inch cables. Is there a way to connect the 2 machines using the rca to 1/4 in cable? or do i have to use midi? ive never used midi before and am new to it. when i connect using the rca cables no sound comes out, i even tried running a mixer in between but still no sound from the sr 16. If anyone out there uses a set up like this and can help me out id really appriciate it.

Depends on how you want the two boxes to interact. You want to record sequences and drum hits from the SR-16 onto the SP? Or are you trying to get the two to run in sync?

If it's the former, just hook up your drum box's audio outs to the SP's audio ins, no need for a mixer. TRS to RCA is fine, both signals are line level, just buy some adapters from your local music joint, they're usually cheap. If you are not hearing any sound there might be something wrong with either the SR-16, or the SP's inputs. Check your manuals to confirm you are doing everything correctly, if you don't have hard copies you can always download them.

In the case of the latter, set the MIDI channels, and use a MIDI cable to connect the SR-16's out to the SP's in. If you want to hear both boxes you are going to either need to use a mixer, you could monitor through the SP but a mixer is desirable. I haven't really felt the need to make use of my SP's MIDI functionality so I know very little about it, and I've never used an Alesis drum computer before so I really don't know how well this will work out for you. Again, check your manuals to find out what types of MIDI messages both machines are capable of sending and receiving.

Peace.

hey thanks for the help. turns out my power supply for the alesis sr 16 was not factory. its almost impossible to find an after market one that works with that machine. anyways i got the right power supply and some 1/4 in to rca cables. everything works great. now i can program all my drums with the sr 16 and leave alot of pads open for samples on my sp.also the vinyl effect sounds good on the alesis drums, which have that old school sound to them.

i hear there might be a way to sequence with the sr 16 midi into the 404?? havent tried it though, as i dont know much about midi...