Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine

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).

I am running Version 1.04 of this which after a few e-mail exchanges with Alesis customer support I learned was the latest production version. The drum samples are 16 bit which is more than adequate for performance purposes as well as recording. My machine was built in '94 which means that it is 10 years old. They are still available for sale from most online music sites and command a discount price around $150 so contrary to other reviews on this page I find the samples among other box functionality of very high quality. Regarding editing patches, you have two choices in this area: creating and editing your own patterns, and creating and editing your own drum set. Not only did Alesis take a lot of time in the "obvious" (to the end user) subject of usability, there are subtle nuances that they considered that affect the overall performance. For example you can decide if a particular drum is allowed its full decay or if a subsequent event stops the previous one short. The most obvious example of this is going from an open to closed hi-hat which is prevalent throughout most genres of music. There are settings to govern this behavior in the interest of making the synthesis sound as natural as possible. I will use the term "drum" as convenience in this review, but that term represents ANY percussion instrument that is in the SR-16's memory and that you have access to. Because pattern composition occurs as a loop where you can add successive drums to the loop you have a lot of flexibility. If you make a mistake, you can either erase that drum "track" entirely or just the area of the mistake >>in real time<<. The user interface is very natural and it is designed so that either with a set of headphones (the outputs are just hot enough at full volume to drive headphones), or plugged into an amp you can compose a new pattern group (A, B, A-fill, B-fill) if the 50 built in pattern groups aren't enough. I spent about 10-15 minutes creating my own pattern group and not only does it sound quite natural going through all four patterns in the group, but I can jam on my keyboard along with it and when the two are put together it's as good as live performance with a real drummer.

The manual(s) are as good as it gets! Although I purchased mine second hand, it came with the Quick Start Guide, Reference Manual, and Voice inventory card. The Quick Start Guide is good enough to get you going with the basics, including making sounds, and editing patterns and drum sets. For most stuff you can probably just use a pattern and its A/B/A-fill/B-fill variations, but if you want to spice things up a bit you can create "songs" which are playlists of patterns that you can create in steps. For example, if a pattern is 8 beats, and you want 8 measures in 4/4 time you can create 4 steps to get the 8 measures. Songs are lists of pointers to patterns you specify and since a song doesn't carry the actual beat information, only a sequence of patterns which already occupy either ROM or non-volatile RAM memory, a song takes very little storage. The SR-16 holds 100 songs of 254 steps each where a step holds a pattern. At 120 BPM with 8 beat patterns, this roughly translates into 17 minutes per song. For a box circa 1990 that's not too bad - 1700 minutes of song storage. Like Alesis did with their MMT-8 they excelled in this machine also. The Reference Manual goes into much more detail, and includes a brief tutorial on MIDI if you are new to it. This is one of the best AND SIMULTANEOUSLY the easiest drum machine to use of the ones that I've played with before buying.

Polyphony is adequate as long as you don't go crazy with "drum stacking". If you are looking at creating natural sounding drum parts, even ones with percussion, you should have no problem in this department. The unit has reverb effects (ambient, room, hall), and the "out of the box" drum set presets seem to have them in the right places (I've performed for about 30 years on and off with real drummers in the quest for "that sound", in order to make that comparison). Each drum has a dry, ambient, room, and hall version and if you don't like the drum sets that are preset in the units ROM, you can create your own. The unit is a hardware drummer and so it is not expandable, but I have not found limitations at this point in time. The unit has MIDI in and out/thru which is another example of good planning. The thru function is programmable to merge the internally generated MIDI with the MIDI-in data stream. While most won't use this, it becomes necessary when you want the SR-16 to be the timing master (in case of an external sequencer for recording). For example my Yamaha keyboard's MIDI out goes to the SR-16 in which generates the clock for all MIDI devices on the loop. The SR-16 has its thru enabled so that both the SR-16's timing and my keyboard's performance data drives my MMT-8 (Alesis hardware sequencer). The MMT-8's MIDI out then drives the MIDI-in of my Yamaha. I now have a fully polyphonic recording studio properly timed and hardware based (I own Cakewalk Home Studio 2003, but find computer based sequencing for the creative process cumbersome.) I use my Cakewalk more for post-production. The SR-16 itself is both a drum synthesizer AND a sequencer in its own right and can work as a sound module if you want to feed it a stream with drum pads.

I purchased an Alesis MMT-8 hardware sequencer about a year ago, second hand and this drum machine completes my complement of MIDI recording gear. Hardware sequencers are hard to come by in this age of soft-everything. I find the hardware a little more conducive to the creative process since I don't have to interact with mouse and keyboard and be near my PC. That's just my opinion, though.

I find all the sounds realistic, without all the fuss of proper mike positioning and equalization/effects processing that comes with a real drummer. The sounds are as good as those recorded professionally because they are samples, and the programmed patterns were a result of using real studio drummer performance data to generate the stored pattern data. The reverbs are versatile and I find them of a musically desireable quality. The 50 programmed pattern groups cover nearly all genres of music so it is very usable for most types of modern music. Generating your own patterns can be done by the 12 velocity sensitive buttons, although it's difficult to be consistent tapping rubber pads. You can enter step-editing (as opposed to real-time editing)mode to clean up the sequences and re-adjust the volume of drum hits that aren't consistent, for example from an A to a B pattern or to the corresponding fills. I forgot to mention above that the samples are what Alesis refers to as "Dynamic Articulation". That is, their timbre is modified the harder you strike the pad which lends realism to the sounds. I'll give this category an 8 only because it is difficult to be consistent tapping the drum pads on the device, but for a circa 1990 design this thing was years ahead of its time.

I have replaced the 3v lithium battery used to retain memory in a power-off condition. Although it appeared to retain its memory, typical life of these batteries is about 10 years and this thing just passed its 10th birthday. I also use the SYSEX dump and restore to a computer to back it up. Other than that I haven't had a crash yet. I did start out (and recommend to all who buy one of these second hand) to erase the memory before you begin relying on it. There are instructions for this in the manual and if yours doesn't come with a manual you can download the manuals in PDF format directly from Alesis for no charge. I play twice a week and would use it in a minute if our drummer doesn't show up for a practice or performance. It is invaluable in the studio. I'll give it a 10 for the fact that I've not had any problems with it and that it has withstood the test of time and is still on the market 14 years later.

Prompt response to e-mails, very helpful and friendly.

If it were lost or stolen, I would replace it again with another. I find it worth every penny I paid for it. I've been a musician for about 30 years, and have played in various bands in all genres of music. I've owned some fairly modern synthesis equipment including a Yamaha PSR-GX 76 and Kurzweil PC1X, keyboard amps (Behringer and Roland), home built Leslie 145 (with modern drivers and solid-state MOSFET power amp). I also use (as previously discussed)an Alesis MMT-8 hardware sequencer and Cakewalk Home Studio 2003. I'll probably use the Cakewalk software as post-production edit and final cut of analog tracks before creating a CD, but I prefer the hardware sequencing as I find it more conducive to the creative process.

I got this thing about 4 days ago and i'm already creating complicated, super speedy drum beats. I play death metal with this, and it works great for the very technical very fast drum parts associated with the new frenzied style of death metal. I havent really tried to change the drum sounds or (sound stacking) with it, but the manual seems pretty easy to fallow so it should'nt be hard. at first this machine may seem complicated, just read the manual and play around with the machine and it will come to you rather quickly like a few days or so.

it has enough. I just wanted a machine that could create some crazy drum parts and create them easily. it sounds good it does enough, people may complain that it cant do this or that, there gay. it has everything it needs to create any drum parts you want, sounds good and is pretty easy. what else do you need!

sounds good. but if it does'nt sound good enough for you just go into the sound stacking mode. if you can't get good enough sounds then, your gay! its a drum machine, its sounds good for a machine

only had it for a few days, works so far

don't know

death heads buy this machine! for 150 bucks you can't go wrong! I was'nt really expecting it to be as good as it is for 150 bucks. its professional quality. people that complain about it must be dumb.

Have used the SR-16 4 yrs in home-studio. Alesis has all the user/programmer functions easily identified and in user-friendly locations. Multiple outputs (4) are helpful for studio mixing and effects sends. By building patterns in layers using different pad levels and quantisizations realistic performances can be programmed. Each pad can be panned, tuned and stacked to create a multitude of sound variations. Ease of SONG mode in programming compared to other machines makes it a musicians friend. Used as a live instrument it is also very reliable and easy to use.

Pads are sensitive and expressive. Mount on a solid non-movable surface and check quantisization to avoid miss-hits. Stereo reverb on various patches is good and although may seem to be "overdone" help create the feel needed on certain sounds at the out-set of a session without involving external devices or all the other patches. I liked having the different ambiance selections. Never used the tape back-up. SET-UP features are easily accessed by paging menus. No back-light on the LCD display could be a problem in low-light situations. I sometimes forgot to erase all the patterns on a given #, (A, B, A fill, B fill each are done separately.) Copying patterns is easy and helps in creating pattern variations while still keeping basic pattern. Large inset VOLUME dial is easy to use and doesn't get accidently bumped during performance. A similar TEMPO dial might also be useful for faster changes.

Dynamic response makes the SR-16 a versatile drum machine. Especially useful in the percussive sounds and in fill patterns. No global on-board effects which may or may not be effective for all patches/drumsets simultaneously anyway. An ability to insert an effect into a patch may be what is really needed. Sounds fit most Pop/Rock/Easy Listening/ styles well. Special effects are not included.

Very dependable. Power source is 9VAC not DC. The transformer is not the typical universal multiple DC out one found in any Radio Shack etc. So if your hard on cables or lose things easily I'd have back-ups, or know where to find one. No battery back-up. Keep the manual for trouble-shooting, I thought I wrecked my SR-16 once because the LCD went dim but all it needed was a reboot at start-up (ERASE/PLAY simultaneously.) Hard, well-constructed case.

Never needed customer support. Alesis web-page has many features and down-loadable products. Search there first.

Had a Roland, Yamaha, previously for drum machines. This is better. Don't know much about other "newer" brands/models that include basslines, sequencing lines, riffs, sampling, effects etc. Maybe that's coming in their next generation model. Love the ease of playing/programming and its reliability. Wish it had headphone output, a few more up-to-date sounds, backlit LCD, different storage/back-up medium. If this fails I'll look for another or the next Alesis drum machine available.

The presets on the Alesis are pretty cool, editing the samples is pretty simple, and depending on how you use it can have rally good effects on the sounds. I liked the manual, it wasn't hard to get your questions answer (I'd be surprised if the thing was 40 pages), and that in turn makes it really easy to learn the unit.

For a dru machine that's 10 years old, the polyphony is ok...I've only run into problems when going overboard trying to stack drum samples. It's doesn't have any way to expand it, but it does have MIDI outs, so you can drive another module if you like (I use mine to sequence my dmPro). Using the onboard sequencer of any device is work, but I don't find that it gets in my way, step editing can be a chore though.

The range of sounds on the SR-16 can go from very useable to funny and almost comedic, but then again it's a drum machine, and one made in 1990 at that. I recorded a gothic/doom metal with the machine, as well as several demos so for Rock I can't complain. I can't really vouch for other styles though. Seems like the 'traditional' styles would be ok (rock, jazz, country) someone into the newest rave-type stuff may want to look elsewhere. The onboard effects would be alot better if they weren't tied to the samples. This is actual one of my biggest gripes about the machine, you could have the same sample (kick drum for instance...) repeated in three different places, with three different levels of ambience, untying them would have allowed for more samples. Just my 2 cents. The SR does have velocity, I've never used it (just programmed in dynamics directly) so I can't say.

My first SR-16 I bought from a friend in '92. I'm on my third now. Neer had a problem with them failing, just have a problem with them getting stolen. We usual backup with a dat, so no I've never carried a backup.

Never needed them, so I can't say. For the price though, if one did fail, I'd probably just buy antoher one...y'know depending on the circumstances.

These are three wishes if Alesis were to ever upgrade the SR-16

1. Untie the effects from the samples, so you can actually use the sample space for samples.

2. Tempos adjustable on a per pattern and per song basis, with a global tempo adjust. For programming and live purposes, this would be a godsend.

3. Less tedious step editing.

I have a feeling that their dm series addresses this already (minus the sequencing) so we'll probably never see it, but here's to hoping.

I had owned an older Boss Dr. Rhythm before this machine and it was much easier to get going on that one. But this is not necessarily a bad thing, because it seems to me that the Alesis offers a lot more options than does the Boss. I don't recall the Dr. Rhythm ever having the capabilities that this machine does. So I'll give it an 8, because once you do get acquianted with it it's a pretty logical machine to use. It just has a bit of a learning curve.

Very good drum sounds overall. Like another reviewer, I wish you could cancel out the ambient effects on the sounds, but having them doesn't really render them completely unusable. I love the velocity sensitive keypads, which the Dr. Rhythm lacked. It really adds a much more natural feel to the drums as a whole (though nothing can ever replace the real thing). Combining some of the drier, natural sounding snares with the velocity pads and the ability to step edit down to the millisecond, I'm able to get some really amazing, natural sounding complex lines with lots of little rolls and flams (think military/march style snare lines and you've got it). Was NEVER able to get the old Dr. Rhythm to nail those at all!

I also love the swing and offset options, which adds an even more human touch. You can also switch off the quantization....excellent!!! Once again, much more than the old Dr. Rhythm I had offered (I don't know about the new ones, but I have a little experience with them).

I did wish it had a few more cymbal options, particularly hi-hats. The step mode is a little more tedious than the Dr. Rhythm was, and you don't really have a visual readout of your pattern...you kind of have to make a mental note what sounds are where (though if you scroll through the steps it will play the sounds so you don't REALLY have to remember).

I would say a fair majority of the sounds are realistic, and probably about 90% of the sounds are usuable. Drum machines tend to sound much more synthetic when used on their own in my experience. Once you begin to add other instruments to the mix, things to tend to sound a little less stiff. The swing, quantize-off, and offset features are big pluses for the SR-16 in these areas, because it helps it "naturalize" even more.

The snare and bass drum sounds are very good, and there's a good variety. The cymbals, as is the case with every drum machine I've ever used, are not too convincing, but dousing them in a little reverb to help the decay alwasy helps. There's no good trashy open hat sound like I had on the Dr. Rhythm, but the open hat sounds on the SR-16 are more than adequate and sound much better in a mix than stand-alone. I use the toms sparingly, but that's just my style. There are a few sets of really nice toms that I always go back to.

Even the big hair drum sounds have their uses, and sound great in Chemical Brothers/house style mixes. The percussion sounds are also a lot of fun to play with.

This will be a studio-only tool for me. I intend to take very good care of it. In that sense, I would expect it to be very dependable

For a drum machine programmed in 1990, it sure holds up. I tend to be somewhat picky about how drums sound on my recordings and this machine more than meets my standard. Once again, the velocity pads, swing option, offset option, and quantize options are utterly fantastic, and the fact that this unit is around $100-$200 less than the newer Boss units doesn't really make me care what those guys can do, I've got what I need in this module (and I own a lot of Boss stuff). I have some limited experience with the newer ones and they are very good machines, though. Above all, this machine has what I consider to be extremely important - the ability to "humanize" the rhythm and tones.

I think this machine is an excellent alternative to the aforementioned machines, especially if you're on a budget. I would love to see some software updates for it, but I'm very happy with it as is. The ability to create very realistic and dynamic drum lines has very much inspired me to reach beyond the same old rhythm lines and time signatures. Just about anything I can conceive rhythmically can be done on this machine it seems (odd time signatures, easily lengthened/shortened patterns, etc). I'm very very happy and satisfied with this product.

my machine has the copyright for 1990 on the first "fire up" screen so i asssume naturally that it has the older software (i dunno if there's a newer version).but this does not affect the machine however since this thing completely kills for complicated death/math/hardcore.

sometimes the machine gets a little muddy during fast complicated fills but thats also because my guitars are 110% distorted..so the fact that you can hear the fills and whatnot is amazing.

Ive mainly used mine for fast drum work that is very hard/impssible for drummers to play...here and there i've fiddled with some tripped out garbage and it worked well for that but...the reverbs for the toms lack a bit of life but hey...i record drums dry any way and add reverb if i need it on my tascam 8track

i bought the machine in may 1998 and it took me about three hours to fully understand everything in it...very easy and its never even crashed despite lightning storms (im in florida) or power surges or any thing else for that matter..its even survived a few beer spills but i highly DO NOT recommend spilling beer on anything but your stomach.

bought used so..

if my drum machine was stolen i would hunt the sumsabieotches down and make them feel rather unfortunate that i caought them...this machine is so easy and able to do anything that it has become my other primary instument other than guitar..

Pretty easy to use. I got a little hung up on the manual
when it was new, because some features are described
in the main manual, while others are only in the "quick
start" manual -- the two aren't cross-referenced. The
information is, however, all there.
I'd also like to have seen a larger snare trigger pad (to
make real-time snare rolls a little easier.)

It has a pretty good set of features. Once you learn to use
them, it's fairly flexible for a stand-alone device.
I still find myself pining for a global "defeat" button for
shutting off the Bon Jovi/Springsteen ambience effects --
some otherwise-fine-sounding drums are awash in reverb
which won't mesh with the other sounds in a mix.
I'd really like to have seen a headphone jack, too. This
is the only drum machine I've seen which doesn't have one.

After auditioning the sounds, I made a blown-up photocopy
of the sound chart, then highlighted the sounds that were
pretty decent (in yellow) potentially useful under limited
circumstances (pink) and useless in all instances (green.)
Sadly, there's a lot of green.
The main problem, as noted by myself and others, is that the
drum sounds are too "treated" with reverb, etc, which can't
be unstuck from the basic sample -- they're part of it.
The dry samples (and the drier-sounding wet ones, like the
"room" snare) are decent, but the majority are definitely
slanted towards the "big hair" era. That is, after all,
when the machine was developed (the "copyright, Alesis,
1990" scrolls across the screen every time you power-up.)
An updated version, with a new batch of sounds, and a global
ambience-defeat button (like the Boss 770) would have given
what is really still a pretty good design some extra legs.
Sadly, it's sounding rather dated by today's standards.
The good sounds are ok; there just aren't too many of
them.
Not useless by any means -- just showing its age.

I had to re-boot once (an easy task, well-described in the
manual.) That was soon after I bought it, and I don't
think I lost anything.
Other than that, it's been very good for about 5 years now.

No idea.

I still use it -- what's good about it remains good.
If I were Alesis, then I'd revise it with a new set of
samples, an on-board ambience capability, and a more
"linear" (non-skipping-around) manual. I think it would
be a winner. Even so, it still has some degree of utility.
I replaced it with a Boss 770, but ended up returning the
Boss and keeping the SR16. Navigating the Alesis step-edit
mode made more sense to me, and the Alesis allows one to string
together multiple "songs" into a full arrangement (the 770
needs to be programmed one measure at a time.)
The SR16's strengths still outweigh its shortcomings, though
I continue to search for a significantly better sounding unit
with decent programming functions.

Very easy, a few buttons, patterns, songs, a basic machine. Anyone can do the job. No manual needed.

It has 4 outputs which is quite handy when you can send them to a mixing console where you can eq and ad the effects, because they are needed! Nice hitpads.

Only for rock. I hate the reverbs on almost any drumsample. Thats a shame! Drums are not suitable for D&B, breakbeats or anything. If your an oldschool rocker, buy it!

Volume nobs dies. No problem, set it open and dont touch it again.
Strong unit; everlasting.

Dont know

Had it for a week. Didnt like the rock samples. Sold it to a metalhead. Dont change pattern length: it wil crash and you will have to reset!

This machine takes some getting used to, but once you've learned a feature, it is easy to repeat. The manual is good and gives detailed instuctions on how to use/program the machines. The presets are OK to get started, but some programming is definately needed if you want to make realistic drum tracks with this machine.

Excellent features. 4 separate outputs gives great recording flexibility. You can route snare and base to 2 outputs, then toms and overheads to others. This gives great mixdown options. I have yet to see other drum machines with this many outputs. A couple other nice items: Foot pedal activating of start/stop, fills, pattern switching and tempo. This is great if your play another instument and want drum backing at the same time.

Sounds are pretty good, particulary at analog drum sounds. Symbols are probably the weak point with the sample seeming to cut off a bit to soon. I have used this primarily as drum track for recording rock/blues and it has served well.

I've had this for ten years and the only problem has been with "scratchiness" when adjusting the volume level. Besides that, not a problem,

One of the better investments in gear that I have made. This unit has been on the market for over 12 years and is still selling at or near it's original price. It's easy to use, sounds good and sits pretty well in a mix. You can pick one up used for <$100 and it really can't be beat. If you don't like it, you'll sell it without losing much if any money. It's a pipe dream, buy I'd love to see Alesis put some updates into this machine. No real upgrades have been done since this machine was released.