Roland PM-16

For those wanting to add more trigger inputs to their existing trigger to midi brain this unit will be fine. But for those considering this as their only trigger to midi brain you need to be reminded that the PM-16 does not come with a hihat switch jack. You would need to use three trigger inputs to get closed/open and a velocity sensitve foot closing and then configure your drum machine to recognize what to do. That is no problem if you design your own pads and foot triggers. You'd still have more than enough (in my opinion) left to emulate a standard trap set configuration. If you are looking only to add more trigger inputs to an already configured system it will be fine. With these being around since the early 90s you'll most likely need to touch up some "iffy" solder joints of the input jacks. I would send you an email attachment of the schematics so you could see where the hidden circuit board screws are(under the external card caddy). You should also put in a button battery holder when refreshing the 3v lithium battery. That project isn't hard but finding a button battery holder except in bulk would take some investigation. Good luck.

This is a follow up to my thoughts about the PM-16. Some wonder if the unit has a foot switch jack for hihat open/closed manipulation. IT DOESN'T and I know of no way to hotrod the unit to make it happen. It has two sockets for two pedal switches to toggle up or down in program mode. If you find one used that has been used hard in a vegas showroom setting from 1987 to circa 1996 where drum modules with triggering were prevelant you may have to open up the unit and resolder loose jacks. That will be daunting. Keep my email and I could give you some pointers on which circuit board screws you'll need to remove and where the hidden ones are. You'll also need to refresh the 3V lithium button battery.

It has features like how velocity will affect pitch bend ,cross fade, layering etc.

The individual pots for gain may give you trouble and the contrast pot has failed on a few of these units making the readout very difficult to discern. I use four used PM-16s for special projects at schools along with midiKITIs and of course D4s and DM5s.

Roland will not be of help on this early unit.

The PM-16 is a trigger to midi unit manufactured starting '87 and I think up to '92 or so. If you find one of these units for sale without the power supply it takes a 9VDC 500mA tip negative. The manual is MANDATORY.

The PM-16 can use a memory card for 64 more setups. Internal memory is most likely more than you'll ever use or need so don't fret about the unit not coming with the memory card if you find one for sale.

Typical drum units around at the same time were the TR 505 and 707. Some of the "preset" setups are configured for those units.

This unit is a still valid artifact from the early days of electronic pads to midi. The KAT midiKITI Pro (upgrade) had a few more advanced features but only had nine triggers. A used D4 for $140 gets you the triggers and good samples but one cannot jiggle with the gate time to trigger samples with very slow attacks. The midiKITI and PM-16 have that feature