The DM Pro was reviewed in summer 1999 as a one-rack-space module for MIDI players and electronic drummers. It combined a 16 MB sound ROM, 64-voice polyphony, six audio outputs, onboard effects and PCMCIA expansion. Its trigger system also handled the hi-hat pedal; sixteen trigger assignments did not mean sixteen interchangeable pad sockets.
A kit behind each strike
A pad strike or an acoustic-drum trigger calls up a sound from the DM Pro. The rack module lets the drummer assign those sounds, shape them and route them to the mixer; MIDI notes provide another way in. Direct edit buttons and a display put the kit settings on its front panel.
Period press
Alesis DM Pro front panel
Official exact-model front-panel product photograph.
Building the kit
Alesis advertised more than a thousand internal sounds, 64-voice polyphony and 64 kit locations. Choose individual drums, adjust tuning, filters and modulation, then set their outputs and effects. The saved kit holds the choices together for the next performance; PCMCIA expansion provides a route to additional samples.
Making the triggers behave
The DM Pro’s sixteen trigger assignments include the hi-hat pedal. Several pad inputs share stereo jacks; numbers 15 and 16 belong to the pedal connection and do not respond like ordinary pad inputs. Gain, threshold, retrigger and crosstalk settings help the rack distinguish a deliberate strike from vibration elsewhere in the kit. The rear panel joins pads, acoustic pickups and pedal movement to the saved sounds.
A 1999 studio proposition
Alesis’s June 1999 campaign addressed MIDI studios, recording facilities and performing percussionists, promoting sample expansion, 20-bit conversion, effects and six outputs. Contemporary reviews followed that summer. The front panel handled the kit; the rear trigger bank connected it to the drummer’s physical setup.
Alesis DM Pro advertisement ↗ Alesis DM Pro ↗ Alesis DM Pro review ↗
Sources
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
These displayed records are labelled by their documented role, date and source; source-only records are listed separately below.