Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine

I worked on a review for over a half hour and then all of a sudden it went away and I could not get it back. I'll say this to whoever reads this I love the SR-16 but it needs to be back lit for live use. I have to use a flashlight to read the screen. Not good.

I'm gonna keep my review very straight forward.. The others all have the features etc. etc.

Easy to use for the most part.. I love the presets and contrary to other opinions the reverbs sound great once you record the entire band on top of it.. Just the right amount of effects that blend perfectly.. By itself they may seem a little much but they got it right as far as the levels. I haven't tried to tackle programming an entire song yet.. But I have used the patterns/fills for songs and it's sounds like a real drummer.. I've also recorded a click track and played live drums over it. This thing is GREAT! The manual is okay if you take an afternoon to read it.. Which most people don't want to do when they get a new toy.

The sounds are amazing! Lots of snares, kicks etc. etc. to choose from. The pads are pretty touch sensitive once you use the "Full Velocity" setting.

The sounds are as good as it gets. Real sampled drum sets and the ability to create your own.

I only use this unit for recording and so far it's been perfect.

N/A

It's great for recording!!!!! Wish I would have invested in this unit years ago. I'm gonna throw my Roland TR-626 in the trash can

This is my second drum machine, my first being a dumpstered (yes in the garbage) Dr. Rythym that worked flawlessly despite its age and aailing ac adapter. I gave it away and bought an SR-16. I'm a bare bones, cheap import guitar and loads of effects boxes type of guy, I'll vulture whatever type of amp I can find and go for broke. I don't really have a lot of set gear preferences and love to experiment, this thing is awesome. The manual is helpful to a novice like me, but experimentation is the true key. I actually like the presets and find the 50 different kits interesting and quite usable for the junky industrial noise project I am trying. I also have an Alesis microverb which is reliable and a crazy compliment to run the drum machine through to add delay, reverb or just plain noisiness. With a little time and a few beers, even an untrained monkey could figure out the basics of the SR16! I am digitally fairly inept and it's still easy for me to use and I am still finding new ways to mess with it, like running it trough flangers and distortions to see what I can find. Easy to pick up hard to put down, especially if it's your first drum machine experience, plus it's affordable.

It has 16 voice polyphony which I don't really care about, I just want beats. The velocity sensitive keys are cool and you could bang the pads all day and not damage the unit. It's a bare bones drum machine perfect for beginners and minimalists alike. They added a headphone jack to the newer ones and it came with an AC power supply but doesn't accept batteries like some other inexpensive machines do. The few features it does have, work great and do their jobs well. I am just dipping my feet into electronic music with the help of an expert friend who has sequencers, vocoders, synths keys, dj equipment and the like. I am experiment ing with really raw guitar sounds and needed something slightly more complex than a metronome for my beats, the SR-16 is perfect for my basic, experimental style.

The touch sensitive keys are cool, but as some have said, they can be slightly unreliable, I hit them really hard for maximum effect regardless of the sound, forget subtlety! Most of the kits sound a little reverby and unrealistic as stated in previous reviews, I don't really care, it's a digital machine, it's never gonna sound like a live drummer for under $200, you get what you pay for. And for the price it's a good little package, machine, AC power and a thick manual. I can see myself using this live for experimantal punk ala Babyland etc. Some sounds are a litte 1980's and drenched in reverb, but good enough reverb, as Alesis are kings of digital reverb modeling, as evidenced by their rackmount stuff like the Micrverb IV. Features are slim, but it does the bascs all very well, especialy for the prcetag.

I trust Alesis gear wholeheartedly. My Microverb IV has never had a case or bag and never sat in a proper rack. I have traveled with it unprotected and it still works like new. It's been dropped, stepped on and fallen from the top of a tall bass rig many times. The SR-16, I imagine is built as well, granted it's almost all plastic and rubber, rather than the Micro's metal chassis. Even for being plastic, it doesn't feel cheap, it has the look and feel of a quality built piece of equipment and I will and do carry it around with other effects in a padded plastic pistol case, this type of case is dirt cheap, includes thick foam and offers maximum drop protection for small pedals and expensive stuff like Line6's big stompbxes. I would gig with this without a backup, based on my previous experience with Alesis products.

I have dealt with an Alesis rep over the phone once and he was way cool and professional. I had a question about software and settings on my Microverb shortly after I bought it. He answered all of my questions patiently and we chatted about gear for a good 20 minutes before he decided he'd better get back to work. Chances are if you have an ssue at soe point you'll talk to a real live English speaking employee who will do their best to help you out. I have never needed repair service for any Alesis product but I feel confident that they stck by their reputable rand name and do good work in a reasonable time frame. By the way, I spilled a glass of cold water over most of the top of the SR-16 two days after I got it, thinking the worst and kicking myself fr being clumsy. I quickly picked it up to drain of the excess liquid, grabbed a roll of paper towels and dried it off, I let it air dry for a good couple of hours and plugged it in, it works like new, no sign of failure or wear. I would not recommend taking it swimming, but this goes to show that small accidents with clean liquids will not phase this machine, if taken care of promptly!

It's totally worth the retail price and just in case I bought the chain store's extended 2 year warranty for an extra $20, which I feel will be worth it for peace of mind. I have been playing bass and guitar for around 15 years and this is my first real drum machine. I bought it because the salesguy said it'd been around since the late 80's in some form or another and that it was the gold standard of basic, plain old drum machines. Ease of use sold me on it, and the brand name helped also, as I like Alesis stuff. There are no extras, add ons or special features. If you want bass and effects and bells and whistles, buy a pricey Roland/Boss machine or use software. The SR-16 is like the plain, white, windowless work van of digital drum machines. It does exactly what it promises on the box, nothing more, very generic, in a good way. The key to having fun and getting the most out of this machine is experimentation. Hook it though guitar and bass effects. Add ridiculous digital reverbs. It's opened up a whole world for me as far as 4 track recording goes and helping me realize half baked guitar ideas and tempos, hell, use it as a metronome if you aren't creatve! I do wish it accepted alkaline batteries for a backup power source, but you can't have it all, right? The SR-16 is one small step towards electronic music for me and one giant leap for my new musical endeavors. I really dig this thing.

This is my first drum machine. It is very easy to use.

Seems to provide many usable drum sounds. It is programmable.

Realistic. Can control sound and velocity.

I've had no problems.

this machine is not terribly hard to use. i'm pretty sure alesis originally created this thing to market to non-electronic musician types. if you're used to electronic music, you'll find this easy to use... but maybe sometimes too easy. if you're not used to electronic music, you'll probably find programming a chore until you really get the hang of it.

i usually dive into things first without touching the manual, and then come back to it when i've #$%^&* everything up. that's what i did with this machine as well. the manual doesn't offer much coherent help, so i just continued to $%^& things up until they were #$%^&* up in a good way (?).

once again, this machine was not created with electronic musicians in mind. to someone used to dealing with boxes, this thing has no features at all. no effects. no expansion. to someone who simply wants a drummer who actually does what you tell them to and doesn't argue (often a valuable thing!), this has just about everything you really want/need.

step mode is straightforward enough. the cute little velocity-sensitive keys are fun to play with, but i find them unreliable. i'm not a big MIDIjunkie so i don't have much to say about MIDI implementation.

this is where things get sort of interesting. i'm amazed that as many people are satisfied with these sounds as we see in other reviews.

the bottom line is that you can only get cheesy, echo-ridden 80s-ish drum sounds out of this. they do NOT sound realistic at all, on their own. everything is awash in a really tasteless reverb. there is no tightness to any of the drum sounds whatsoever. if you want the clean, tight sound that is fashionable in most contemporary music, run far away from this machine.

that being said, the sounds are actually fun. if you want to have drum patterns for, say, cheesy 80s type synthpop, look no further! you can also get those huge, eery, echoey bass drums like on early swans records. run it through a distortion and you can get great industrial samples. it's also good if you're looking for drum parts to various subgenres of metal, especially death and black. i'm currently using this machine to record some $%^&*@ up industrial-ish black metal tracks.

also, back to what i said about unrealistic sounds, that's not strictly true. IF you can program patterns intelligently, using the stereo features and dynamics settings, then complete patterns can sound reasonably realistic, at a distance. if you pay no attention to these aspects, it will just sound like a cheesy drum machine.

i don't entirely trust this machine to stand up to true gigging abuse. if you try to stack sounds on it then the overall sound will become extremely confused. a lot of the time when i use the rubber keys, they start playing different sounds from what i programmed! this would make one sound really silly in a live situation. the physical integrity of the box is good enough for sitting around at home, but i prefer to have boxes that are built like tanks. maybe that's just me.

never dealt with them

altogether, i'm still not really sure how i feel about this thing after owning it for a year. it's only good for certain types of applications. it is NOT versatile. you can have a lot of fun with it, and in certain mixes it can sound really good... but only in certain mixes. i still use it more or less regularly, but if it were lost or stolen i'm not sure how hard i would look for it, and i'm reasonably sure i wouldn't get a new one, or if i would, then i would get it used at the lowest price possible.

all in all, i think i would be happier with it if i had paid about $50 less for it.

the first 2 days it may seem a little tricky if you are not used to drum machines, but after that its nothing. its actually layed out very well and all the controls are very simple.

there are a few things i would have done differently if i were designing it but im not so ill not bitch

it has everything you need to lay down some groovin' trax. very cool if you dont have a drummer around - and who wants to pay a smartass drummer anyway???? JK guys, you rock


there are MIDI capabilities but ive not explored them as of yet, i will know soon.

i like the sounds - and the drums that have reverb have it applied just right, and there are different levels - so if you want that stock 80s ballad sound with verb on the drums you can select different levels of verb, very cool.

if you save your own songs or simply add the fills while recording it direct into a PC recorder this thing is great. you can even set the sensitivity of the pads

it was made what, in 89?

i got mine used a month ago and its still kickin strong, so id say thats very dependable

sounds great, very portable, very handy in recording or jamming situations - and man its really got some grooves and alot of times that is inspiration enough to come up with things that you would not think of without a beat, and not just any beat....a good beat makes you wanna play better.


its a valuable practice tool as well. i hate the click click of metronomes, so this thing is for me. you can practice your ass off to get your chops going down and pretty much any sane tempo.


so yeah, id say its a very good machine. you want some drums for PC recording? a drummer for live jams with your friend? a practice partner that can really keep the tempo/beat?

like Prego - it's in there

This machine is surprisingly easy to use. The manual is questionable at best, but if you've tinkered with a drum machine before it's quite easy. I've consulted the manual for the sound table only. Everything else I've just winged it on, and so far so good. The MIDI implimentation may take some reading to work out, but making patterns, songs, and drum kits are way too easy.

It's got a 16 note polyphony, I think. There are several touch pads that are velocity sensitive, so you can add some cool dynamics to your playing. It has MIDI-in and MIDI-out, so it's compliant with the industry standard. There's a reasonable amount of room for all your patterns and kits, so this thing should have you playing for a while.

And while I'm at it, I might as well get it over with and say it again: there are no built-in effects, except for the annoying reverb on half of the sounds. There, I've said it.

The sounds are pretty darned good, especially considering they're samples from 15 years ago. I've been quite pleased with the punchiness of the snares, toms and hand drums. The cymbals are good, but some of the kicks are kind of weak. Nothing a little EQ can't fix, though. Most of the sounds are very realistic.

However, the reverb on half the samples sucks. No need to beat a dead horse. Get over it or find a better drum machine for $150 (good luck and happy hunting).

I'm quite pleased with this machine. The touch-sensitivity is very handy and lends dynamics to your sound. It reacts well to your playing, and it feels quite like an instrument rather than a programmable computer. That makes it quite fun, and an invaluable studio tool.

I've owned two of these units, both of which are still alive and kicking.

I've had good experiences with Alesis customer support.

This device is the definition of "drum machine". If you looked up "drum machine" in the dicitonary, you should see a picture of Alesis SR-16. Anyway, this thing is the king of its price range. Nothing Boss makes can touch it. It's been around for 15 years, becoming a prime musical example of the old adage "If it aint broke, don't fix it." If you don't have one of these and you have a home studio, your studio is incomplete, plain and simple. It's a fine sound source, easy to program, fun and useable, and indespensable for the studio musician.

Software ver 1.4
The preset rhytms are almost useless but for a few jazz and ballad.
The preset drum sounds are bit cheese - each preset has claps or cowbell which is not in my standard rock drum sound.
Editing on this machine is a breeze - you can easily build your own kit, send it to different panning outputs. I usually do the kit stereo and send the kick Aux 1 and snare in Aux 2 so that way I can provide them extra treatment since that is the bread and butter of rock music.
Programming songs and/or patterns is also a breeze - you can do it in real-time or in step mode.
My only complaint is that it can't do tempo changes from pattern to pattern, so if you need to speed up a song you have to do it by decreasing or increasing the measure sizes.

Polyphony is I believe at 16 notes at a time. Sometimes when you do a track at 180 tempo it can get clogged up a bit and you need to make some adjustments. A definite plus is the sound stacking option - you can layer 2 snares for a more realistic performance.
There are no built in effects - the sounds come in with already recorded reverb and delays which I find sometimes cumbersome to work with.
There are no expansion capabilities.
There are 12 pads, pressure sensitive which is really nice when you want to do a real drum roll or cymbal chokes.
There are no expansion capabilities that I know of.
MIDI capabilities I can't speak much about - I've used it so far to trigger drumbeats off of a keyboard and have synced it with keyboard and another drum module - very easy to do and the results were excellent.
I miss some of the expansion features - it could be nice if more memory could be added.
The big bummer again - the inability to change tempos when creating a song. Odd rhytms are also akward to work with when the grid is laid out for standard rock/pop 4/4 beats. Odd rhytms could be done, just that it takes some getting used to.

My biggest complaint is the lack of realistic cymbal and crash sounds. From what I heard on other machines this one is not behind, actually compared to Boss DR-5 the drum sounds on this one seem better. What I would've liked to get is more non effected drum kits. There are lots of reverb on some of the drum sounds which make them dated and even useless in some application. There are enough sounds co construct a decent kit with so that should not be a problem.
This unit has great aftertouch and key sensitivity.

Very dependable. I had it crash on me only once when I was really pushing it hard with a 11/7 or some other weird rhytm.
This unit has been rock hard and has never let me down live or in studio situation.

In the years I've had this (over 10) I had dealt with them only once - when needed to replace the power supply (fried due to user error-plugged in wrong unit into it). Very friendly and courteous user support team,

I am so used to this machine that I can operate it in my sleep. If it were gone I'd definitely miss it but will probably break down and get one of the newer units that can do tempo changes within a song - now when my sound got more proggy I definitely miss that feature.
New PC software for drum replacement and drum modules have popped up that can do more realistic sounds and use sampled kits so I am not sure if I will get this machine but I might use it to program the beats through MIDI since it is very easy and intuitive to operate.

This machine is a breeze to program. If you're having trouble with it, you're a retarded moron and you need to sell it to someone with half a brain, because that's all it takes to operate this machine. The manual is very easy to understand.

Tons of features if you take the time to learn how to use them. Some of them take time to get use to, but the end result is worth it.

You can get some really great sounds out of this machine. I've found the tuning mode to be quite useful in getting the sounds I want. To get killer tom sounds I take the low floor tom sounds and tune them up higher for my mid and high toms. I do this with almost all the sounds. It works really well.
If you take your time programing / using the step mode, tuning mode, quantize, swing and offset modes and layering, you can't tell this machine from a pro drummer. The perfect rock drum machine. Listen to the built in demo. Alesis did a great job of showing what the SR16 is capable of doing.

It's built like a tank. I bought mine in 1996 and have used it constantly for the last 8 years without one single problem. It's been dropped to many times to count. Had beer spilled in it. Cigarette ashes dumped all over it, and it still works perfect.

Never needed them!

Hands down, this is the easiest machine on the market to program. I've tried them all. I would buy another SR16 in a second if it were ever stolen of broke. Now days they only cost $149 new. $100 used. Great value!

Intuitive, easy to play, edit etc. No complaints with the presets (although the "rock" ones are a bit naff) but the joy is in the programming.

Haven't run out of polyphony yet. Love the way you can hop from pattern A to B via a fill and back again all on the fly, select patterns by keying the number in or using the up/down arrows (a much better way to get from pattern 3 to 48 than using a wheel like on the Roland/Zoom. Also like the way you can sort the drum volume by playing or step editing (eat your heart out Roland)

Sounds are showing their age now but the quality of the samples are still good. Good for rock, less so for modern pop/dance.

Had mine for 7 years and used live every week. The buttons are just starting to wear out (esp the tap tempo button) now, but it does survive falling off the keyboard quite regularly. Power supply far more robust than any of my Roland gear

Never broken down and could figure out the manual so I've never called them

I wish Alesis would upgrade this - double the memory and give us some new drum sounds, but that's all I would change. I fancied a new machine as this one is starting to wear out and have tried the Zoom and Boss DR670 and DR3 (previous drum machines in the last 20 years came from the Roland stable) but they're not a patch on this if you want to use it live, hop around patterns, enjoy midi in/out and have more than a stereo pair for outputs. As they're now selling for under #100 I'll probably buy another one until I see something better come around (but that could be a long wait).