Alesis DMPro Drum Rompler MIDI Module

Update 02-24-2026

General Features

Mix

Effects

Expansion

MIDI

Drum Edit Mode

Epilogue

This is the 3rd and last generation rackmount drum "rompler" MIDI module that Alesis has built - their first was the D4, followed by the DM5, and finally the DMPro. The upgrades were significant, and the DMPro packs a lot of features. It boasts of drum and percussion samples for virtually any genre, 16 drum trigger inputs with sophisticated trigger configuration, stereo L/R and four independent auxiliary outputs, layering, active filtering, and other synth-type dynamic control of samples, comprehensive multi-effects system, and memory expansion with the PCMCIA slot (showing my age here). The DM series do not include an onboard sequencer (but the old HR16 did...?). While there is a lot of power packed in the DMPro, the learning curve at the macro level can be a little steep. The user manual is highly recommended; it would be redundant to repeat the operation described in the manual so I aim to describe the DMPro in layman's terms.

The "rompler" term describes a device where all the raw digital samples are stored on non-writeable ROM ICs; the device plays back the samples from MIDI note commands and has no facility to record custom samples. "Romplers" became an economical market approach for playing back samples without the need to include an expensive sample recording system. The only way to use custom samples in the DMPro is through the PCMCIA expansion card and the Alesis Sound Bridge^TM application.

I started out with the Alesis DM5. I'm a traditional drummer who uses sticks and a set of electronic drum triggers arranged as a standard drum kit, so my drum sound needs were acoustic not electronic. Eventually I was disappointed with the acoustic toms and splash cymbals in the DM5. I like separate outputs for different classes of drums/percussion, and a stereo pair and two Aux outputs on the DM5 were not enough. I also wasn't fond of DM5 drum samples that included ambience or reverb which can't be disabled (it doesn't have a digital effects engine). A used DMPro became available in a store, so I bought it and found the improved sounds I was looking for. The DMPro has two extra Aux outputs, and its 20bit sample resolutions are an audio improvement over the 18bit in the DM5 (high frequency sounds such as cymbals have less quantization noise). The sample rate of both is 48K. I don't think any samples are shared between the two, they sound distinctly different.

General Features

Alesis naming convention is as follows: a Drumkit consists of an audio Mix of a collection of Drums each containing Sounds, with Effects and Trigger configurations per Drumkit. You can think of Sounds as samples, and a Drum can contain up to four of them. The DMPro is a 64 voice playback system, meaning that up to 64 Sounds can simultaneously play at any time. 64 Drums are mapped across the range of MIDI notes from #033 (key A0) to #096 (key C6) and can be assigned in any of four Mute Groups. Drum Triggers are mapped to Drums via MIDI note numbers. The front panel buttons access system functions such as Drum, Mix, Effects, Trigger, etc. An encoder with cursor buttons are the editing tools, and a velocity sensitive PREVIEW button triggers the Drum being edited. The PREVIEW button works better if the DMPro module is secured in the rack.

In the DMPro GUI menu system are three modes - Drumkit mode, Drum Edit mode, and Trigger mode. Drumkit mode is used to edit Drumkits IE Drum selection, Mix settings, Effects, etc. To assign Drums, press the Drum button. Trigger mode is used to configure the sixteen Trigger inputs. Each of these modes can be accessed using the associated buttons on the front panel (although you press Drum button then Edit button to access Drum Edit mode). Every mode has a set of functions and parameters that are relevant to the selected mode. The menu system isn't too deep and its architecture is logical. You will spend the majority of time in the Drumkit mode. Drum Edit mode is for advanced edits of an individual selected Drum and has the most complex menu system.

Up to 64 Drumkits can be stored in the DMPro, a nice improvement over the max of 21 in the DM5. The DMPro library of Drums is huge. There are hundreds of Drums arranged in Groups in the Drum page - acoustic/electric kicks, acoustic/electric snares, acoustic/electric percussion, hihats, cymbals, toms, special FX, chromatic, and even a user Group. Samples of the Roland 808 and 909 drums are included, but not copyrighted samples such as the Linn or Oberheim DX/DMX. There's even a decent chinese gong, which is a long sample thus occupies a large amount of memory! The tuning of each Drum in a Drumkit can be changed up to plus or minus two octaves in 25 cent steps (one quarter of a musical half step) using the Tune button.

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Mix

Each Drum can have its Mix parameters configured under the Mix system function - volume, pan, output buss routing, effects return level, effects select, mute group select. While you are free to set panning of any Drum, be aware that most Drums in the DMPro library are stereo samples and/or a default panning; setting panning to "PROG" uses this feature, or you can override the default with your own pan setting.

The main L/R output buss is stereo. While the stereo send to the digital effects is active whether a Drum is assigned to main L/R buss or Aux 1/2 buss, the stereo digital effects returns are routed only to the main L/R buss. The effects send level is varied in the Mix system function, and the send level is proportional to the volume setting to maintain the balance of dry/wet mix. One nice feature is configuring 100% wet output; this is done by using a buss routing called "FX ONLY" which removes the Drum direct sound from all busses but still retains the effects send. The Aux 1/2 busses can serve as stereo or separate outputs. Aux 3/4 are monaural outputs which have no send to the digital effects and the pan setting is not applicable. Stereo drums are summed to mono when assigned to either Aux 3 or Aux 4 output.

The effects select can be reverb buss or multi-effects buss (shown as "OD>DL>PCH"). These digital effects are described in detail below.

Mute Groups are used to enable a "monophonic" action to a set of Drums. There are four Mute Groups available. One purpose is the hihat; in a real drum kit, an open or mid open hihat sound is immediately muted when the foot close pedal is pressed. This behavior is emulated by assigning all the hihat Drums to the same Mute Group. Another Mute Group can be used to "choke" a crash cymbal Drum - by using a "Silence" Drum (yes there is one in the special FX Group) assigned to a MIDI note number and both assigned the same Mute Group, the "Silence" Drum will "choke" the ringing crash cymbal Drum.

One interesting Mix feature with each Drum is the Drum Link. "Link" is borrowed from pipe organ technology; when one manual has one pipe setting while another manual has another pipe setting, the two manuals can be "layered" with a mechanical link to each key in the two manuals; pressing one note on a manual also depresses the same note on the other manual. Drum Link does the layering of two Drums with a "software" link. So you can layer the selected Drum with another Drum on a different MIDI note number.

Finally, a Mix feature is "Drum Enable"; when this is OFF, the selected Drum will not sound when its MIDI note number is triggered.

I made this signal flow diagram on the right for a better visual understanding of the Trigger, Drum, Mute Group, Drum Link, and Mix setting in a Drumkit. It is a useful diagram that the reference manual should had included. A diagram like this reduces repetitive referring to the manual. There's a separate diagram for the digital effects below.

Any of the Drums can be modified under Drum Edit mode. If you modify a Drum (IE change synth function or any Sound), the new Drum can only be stored in the user Group. There are 128 locations available in the user Group. Details here.

A handy button is NOTE CHASE. When this is enabled, the Drum being edited automatically follows the trigger input or MIDI note number played on your MIDI controller - nice for efficient editing.

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Digital Effects

The digital Effects engine is the same as the Alesis Q20 digital effect product. Effects are configured using the Effects button which enters the Effects system function.

There are two Effects systems:

reverb
multi-effects, consisting of Overdrive/Delay/Pitch in that order (aka "OD>DEL>PCH").

The available reverb types are hall, room, plate, large, gated, and reverse. For any reverb type you can vary predelay, cutoff frequency of the input low pass filter, RT60 time, density, and high cut/low cut filter. For a better understanding of the parameters, refer to Digital Reverb Explained.

I made this signal flow diagram on the right for a better visual understanding of the Effects setting in a Drumkit. Another useful diagram that the reference manual should had included, as it reduces repetitive referring to the manual. All the parameters in the Effects system function are included on the diagram for illustration.

There is one single digital effects processor for the entire DMPro.

Multi-effects are interesting, and they can be routed to the main L/R buss separately or in tandem. When used appropriately, the overdrive serves to add some punch on attack transients or harmonics. The delay block in a simple mono delay only with feedback; it has no modulation, and the delay time cannot be sync'd to MIDI clock. Its input can be from the output of the overdrive or straight off the OD>DEL>PCH effects buss. Its output can be routed to the reverb, the main L/R buss, and/or the pitch processors. Again, the pitch processors can receive its input from the delay block or straight off the OD>DEL>PCH effects buss. The types of pitch processors are chorus, flanger, or resonator. Chorus and flanger can be stereo or mono. This is the last block in the OD>DEL>PCH chain whose output can be routed to the reverb and/or the main L/R buss. The final block in the effects chain is a shelving EQ with sweepable low and high cut/boost. The signal flow in the diagram makes it easy to visualize.

Quite an interesting effects chain that lends itself to percussion sounds, and good for standard or special effects. It's no Eventide H3000, but it is good enough. Sadly the flanger does not provide negative feedback, the key to sharp flanging effects.

None of the predecessor Alesis drum products included an effects processor.

Most DMPro Drums include sampled reverb or ambience, which remain intact when assigned to any Aux buss. The sampled effects can be disabled using Drum Edit mode to create your own Drum.

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Expansion

The PCMCIA slot will work with Alesis expansion QCards and RAM QCards, or PCMCIA static and flash RAM cards. These have not been made for years, so they have to be acquired used online. The static/flash RAM cards should be 5 volt rear/write 150 nanoseconds or faster access time 64K sectors PCMCIA type 1 PC cards which are either AMD-C series or -D series Am29F040 4MB Flash cards. The manual claims that any static RAM (SRAM) card should work, but these are very hard to find today. Memory capacities from 512KB to 8MB are known to work. Eight complete banks can be stored on a 512KB card, larger capacities can hold large samples. The Alesis Z1 Hip Hop and Z2 Eurodance QCards (included with the CD-ROM that comes with the DMPro) contain drum loops and samples that can be used with the DMPro. Other Alesis QCards are compatible but you will need to create your own user custom drums from the samples.

A PCMCIA RAM card extends the function of the DMPro: user custom samples (Sounds) and up to 50 sequences which can be played back. The downside: creating sequences requires the Sound Bridge^TM application provided by Alesis (included with the CD-ROM supplied with the DMPro, may no longer be online), and this is an old application (1990s) that may not run on modern Windows or Mac operating systems. The DMPro responds to MIDI Clock and you select songs with MIDI Song Select and start/stop song sequence playback using buttons on the front panel, but the DMPro does not receive MIDI start/stop/continue commands. A trigger input can be used with a footswitch to send a MIDI start/stop/continue command, and a trigger can also start/stop the sequences on the PCMCIA card.

The DMPro does not implement the MMA Sample Dump standard, so user samples cannot be installed directly over MIDI. You have to use the Sound Bridge^TM application to compile user samples into the Alesis Pro Voice format, which are downloaded to the PCMCIA card using MIDI sysex commands. Alesis Pro Voices define sample root notes, start points, loop points, and loop tunings of Sounds. Sound Bridge^TM can also define DrumKits for Alesis Pro Voices. Sound Bridge^TM eliminates the need for a burner for the PCMCIA cards, it supports a variety of sample formats & playback rates, and it implements the DigiDesign Sample Cell^TM I or Sample Cell^TM II formats (but does not require the Sample Cell^TM hardware) which defines advanced sample parameters such as velocity split points and tuning thresholds. top

MIDI

The DMPro has a pretty extensive MIDI implementation. In addition to the Basic MIDI Channel, any Drum can be assigned to any of the 16 MIDI channels other than the Basic Channel. This allows multitimbral expression such as pitch bend and MIDI CCs. Any Drum can have its MIDI reception or transmission disabled; disabling MIDI reception is handy if you have Drums you only want triggered using a kit of trigger pads plugged into the Trigger inputs while the other Drums are triggered over MIDI from an external sequencer.

I have the sysex documentation in a pdf file. Here's the sysex format for patch dumps.

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Drum Edit Mode

Drum Edit Mode has more power than most users will ever need, but if you want to create your own Drums using Sound layers or add synthesizer-style control to Sounds then this is your tool.

Synthesizer-style control? Yes, each sound includes a filter that can be modulated by velocity, filter envelope, mod wheel; very powerful dynamic timbre control not seen in many drum romplers. Great tool to add life to static samples. 13 velocity curves shape the amplitude response to trigger/MIDI velocity. Three six-stage (ADSR plus delay & sustain decay) envelope generators whose levels can be modulated by trigger/MIDI Velocity shape the filter, the pitch, and the amplitude modulations along with four trigger modes. The filter is only 6dB/oct, but this ain't no Moog.

And EACH SOUND in the Drum has their own synthesizer-style controls. Pitch wheel can also change the pitch of a Sound. Two modulation matrix routes can be configured, using any of sixteen sources to any of 21 destinations.

Yeah one can go nuts with Drum Edit Mode. But it is a little too easy for multiple layered Sounds to cause some cancellation, which I have noticed in many of the toms in the Drums library.

Sharing my personal notes for Drum Edit Mode.

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Epilogue

Sorry I had not describe the Trigger system in detail - it is a function I have not yet used, as I do all my triggering over MIDI. The manual does provide a good diagram though. I use a Roland PM-16 drum pad to MIDI converter to trigger the DMPro. I built my own hihat controller (close, mid, open, and foot all with a single pad) that is fed into the PM-16. I have no need for the trigger inputs on the DMPro, except for future expansion adding more pads..

Users have reported that routing the direct outputs to a decent preamp such as API really makes an improvement in the sound. I'm told that producers love API channels for drums, so I might try this someday via their 500 format modules.

If you purchase a used DMPro, be sure that it includes the "lump in the middle" power pack. It needs to be the Alesis power pack that provides 9VAC at 20VA into a DIN 4pin 240deg plug (these are used in other Alesis products). My units are powered from my Juice Goose 12PAQ using this wiring.

To be honest, there's a lot I haven't begun to explore in my DMPro as it has a LOT of features. Probably more than most people will ever need. I don't know of any software editor for this box. I keep one in my studio, and a 2nd on in my stage rig if I find a top40 or 80s band to play in. I still keep a Simmons SDS1000M around for the unique sounds it does, and other than the sampled snares its sounds originate from analog synthesizer circuits which are a sound of their own.

If you want beatbox sounds and don't have much need for acoustic drums or latin percussion, the DM5 is the better choice. But if you want a drum box with sounds from just about every genre up to the 2000s... the DMPro is hard to beat.

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