Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine

Very easy to use...

Factory presets cover just about any possible cover tune. 4 outputs, the only improvement I could imagine would be a backlit screen.

These are true sampled kits and percussion, even claps!

I have been using this alot for the past 5 years doing 1 niters and it is attached to a mic stand tray with all the cables attached, every few months I'll have to unplug and replug the the audio cables to clean the contacts or the sound will get fuzzy. The volume knob should be pulled and the pot sprayed with contact cleaner that starts to sound gritty.

The price has come down a bit $199 and I am hoping Alesis comes out with an updated model with a backlit screen.

I think this drum machine is incredibly easy to use. I read some of the other reviews that said the manual was difficult to understand. I'm a guitarist and an overall-MIDI-idiot and I think it's the easiest manual for any kind of synth gear I've ever read. I also read that a guy said it couldn't erase sounds in Step Mode. It does, just put it on the sound you want to erase, hold erase down and press play. The manual gives real world examples to put it in useful terms to make it easy to understand.

The feature are good considering I've had this for 8 or 9 years. Each sound only has an 8 level volume from loud to silent which is a bit limiting. All the MIDI functions work fine. I slave it to a Roland 1680 and it works fine. Sometimes if I press play on the 1680 and the SR-16 starts playing, I'll hit stop on the SR-16 to stop the drums and it will go crazy and I can't get it to quit. I have to hit the power button and fire it back up. No big deal. Kind of annoying though.

I think the kicks, snares and some cymbals sound good. The HH's are okay, the toms I don't like at all, the other percussion instruments I really don't use too much. I wish it had better toms. My friend's D4 has very good sounding toms compared to this.

The effects to me are useless. I'd much rather have dry sounds or the ability to make them dry and add my effects at the board. The pads are useful, but you have to program the patterns in layers which is easy enough. The effects are my biggest gripe.

Never had a problem with it. Had it for 8-9 years and it works great everytime.

Never dealt with them.

I've used this machine to death and it works for all my demos. I had a friend just the other day say how amazed he was at the sounds and he owns the Roland V-Drums. I am ready to move up a step though. I'm looking at some computer based programs or even a used D4 or DM-Pro.

The drum machine worked well while it worked. I've had it for 2 years and now it plays only fuzz for samples. Alesis has offered no support for this product other than the 75$ standard repair rate.

Pretty easy to use, the manual is good if you need to look up stuff, kind of confusing in some spots though

I guess it has standard drum machine features, the velocity pads are nice. I wish the display was backlit.

the sounds sound real. There are too many sounds that are drenched in reverb, which is stupid. There are lots of good cymbal and snare sounds. I wish that the hats sounded thicker

I would gig it without a backup, that is if I ever feel the need to bring it to a show.

never dealt with them

its a solid drum machine, I wouldn't want it as my only drum machine.
I wouldn't have paid more than $80 bucks for it. Actually that was the only reason that I bought it was cause I negotiated to $80

Presets are easy to sort through, and you can change them in real time. Editing patches along with creating patterns is a breeze once you get used to the quantization features. I really didn't bother to look at the manual, but it seemed pretty user freindly... i.e. pictures of the led readout. I found the manual scanned online.

I love the velocity sensitive rubber keys! Some people complain about them being too small, but unless you are a chimpanzee with parkinsons disease, it shouldn't be too difficult. I wish this peice of equipment had a full 8 output board. It makes recording much fuller.

I have to say that some of the drum sounds are exceedingly realistic. Don't be fooled by the number of sounds because half of them sound the same anyways. This would be exellent to create 80's hair metal with the endless cache of DRUM SOUNDS WITH SO MUCH REVERB IT SOUNDS LIKE THEY WERE RECORDED IN A FACTORY! THE BASS DRUMS..... SUCK!!!! However, the hi end shakers hi hats cymbals, snares etc. are what I bought this machine for. They sound great even though the shakers can end up sounding a bit fuzzy.

It's plastic, and waighs about as much as my own hand. I've seen toy trucks with better construction. On mine, the volume know is TERRIBLY scratchy and even if bumped just a bit depletes the sound quality very much. I wouldn't gig with this just because it is so fragile looking. Other than that, the machine always works when I turn it on. and for the price i paid, I'm pretty happy with it.

I inquired to the alesis company to find out about how many milliampres i needed in the power supply, and they got back to me in like 20 minutes. VIA E-MAIL!!! OUTSTANDING!!!

If it were lost or stolen, I'd look for it, or beat the crap out of whover took it, but only because they stole it. The ease of use really is a plus, and it always works when i turn it on. But for what I need this machine to do, it falls a little short. Go with a Roland R8. I just got one and it rocks!

I have just finished reading the numerous user reviews of this unit. Not one I read mentioned that there is no headphone output. I still recommend this unit as a useful metronome to students for practice but they have to purchase another headphone preamp or have their hifi or boom box sitting on the piano. When you consider the price of a Boss DB55 going as high as $150 used for the SR16 is still a better choice. One other unfathomable ommision was: NO PEDAL CLOSING OF THE HIHAT. The predecessor (HR16)had one. Strange? What an oversight. If you need a subtle foot closing for subtle time keeping in a light swing style you will miss that sound.

I sold the unit to a school where I instruct and it is being used at a headphone drum station being triggered by a midiKITI and is quite useful. For my live playing I purchased a Boss DR770 and needed two foot switches for stopping and then resetting to the beginning of the pattern. The SR16 automatically reset to the beginning ofthe pattern when stopped. Fixed velocity option should be useful for novice users and for initial experimentation. I took the manual to a copy center and enlarged each page to the max. Text comprehension would be very challenging for all but experienced electronic musicians.

Missing a foot closing hihat so subtle jazzers beware.

Gigged with it for years with no trouble. Always carried a back up power supply. Radio Shack has a 9vAC power supply that is useful for most Alesis stuff.

Seeing many of these units on the used market today and it is still being sold in stores and catalogues for about $190. Alesis certainly got their money from this unit since it is very long in the tooth but still worth owning. Reminds me of the Kurzweil MicroPiano which is still around and very very long in the tooth. I expected a SR16Mk11 just like a MicroPiano Mk11 (more polyphony) and am surprised the SR16 is still in retail play.

this drum machine is a breeze to use, edit, and midify!

the sounds on this thing are like no other in its class! much better than the boss, (and i used to work at a retail music store). the sr16 is great for messing around, practicing licks and riffs, and producing electronic or hip-hop music.

the sr16 has never, ever crashed on me in 2 years of heavy, smoke-filled-studio use!

a great overall drum machine with great sounds. the sr16 is so much easier to use than a sampler, and the sounds are much better than anything in its class. if you want to hear how the sr16 sounds in a musical environment, listen to my songs at: http://www.mp3.com/hypnotik
i use the sr16 exclusively!

This is probably the best Drum machine for the price on the market. The only problem is the manual. The manual is typical of manuals that are writting for someone that already knows how the unit works. For someone trying to figure it out, it's very poor. The manual knocks it down from a 10 to a 5

The features are very good. The external footswitch capabilites for start/stop and for the beat are great.

The preprogrammed drum tracks are almost all that's needed. Unfortunately Alesis forgot about a 3/4 Waltz beat and there isn't any preprogrammed.

N/A. I haven't had the unit long enough to comment

Poor E-Mail support (no answer to E-Mails). Their support web page indicates there are FAQ's for this unit but none can be accessed.

The support and poor manual knock down the overall rating. If it had a better manual and better web support it would be a 10.

Straightforward if you are use to using drum machines, MIDI equipment, etc.

Everything you need to lay down good drum tracks.

You really need to use a MIDI controller/keyboard to get the full sound out of this unit. The touch pads should only be a last resort.

Never had a problem.

When it comes down to it you don't really need very much equipment to
make great recordings/performances, all you need is the right stuff.

Very user friendly which makes it wonderful to sit around & try out song ideas on. All settings are automatically saved, so you can just unplug it & throw it in the closet when you get sick of playing with it.

You can assign any drum to any pad, & tweak the pitch of each individually (very useful for me). Once I did that I found the pads to be very easy to play. You can't alter the decay or effects on the sounds, but with enough tweaking I created a pretty heavy sounding drumset.

I am doing Gothic Rock, so I have no problem with how 80's many of the sounds are. The samples seem to be about 20% Rock, 30% Rap & Dance, & the rest are just the same samples with weird reverbs (usually too much). If you've mastered Finger-Foo like me, you'll have no problems with the pads size or velocity (actually, I just set the touch respose to zero most of the time). If I could alter the FX & decay on the sounds I'd give this thing a 10 in every category. If you have a good drum module, this would be a great sequencer to drive it with (midi in, out/thru).

So far I've dropped it, tripped on the cord & unplugged it, & or left it on by accident...no problem. I have five entire songs in it, some with up to 30 different parts, & I've yet to see a memory failure. From what experience I've had I would gig with it (you could save half a set into it), but not before backing up the data on an audio tape.

N/A

If it were stolen I'd surely buy it again (especially at the peanuts price they go for). I've had it for about a year. In fact, I got it based on what I had read on this page. Right now I use it to drive the sounds in my Yamaha PSR-530, which gives me the ability to edit & add FX. If you are into Gothic Rock or Rap, I think you'll be very happy with this baby. Now, if ALESIS would just come out with a sequel, one with on-board FX, in-depth editing, bigger memory, & a headphone jack, I'd run out & buy 2 the day it came out! I hope you're listening ALESIS...