Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine

Up and down buttons aren't my favorite user interface for complex tasks, but Alesis didn't have much of a choice here, and they did a remarkable job with it. I suppose if they designed the thing today, they'd include some kind of PC interface, which would be nice. Still, the only thing I didn't understand at first, this being my first drum machine, was that a fill plays into the first beat of the next pattern. Duh! But they should have mentioned it prominently in the manual. I hadn't touched the thing in years, but last night I picked it right back up. I don't even know where the manual is, and I don't need it.

I agree with others that lack of expandability is the SR-16's major shortcoming. There's tons of space for user patterns and songs, synch with position pointer, 16-voice polyphony, footswitch jacks for start/stop and count-A/B-fill, two sets of big 1/4" audio outs, and more. I wish it had a headphone jack. It wouldn't rate an 8 against really full-featured machines, but for my purposes, and for the price, it's nearly perfect, so...

The other reviewers nailed it when they complained about the big, ugly, useless reverb on most of the kicks and snares. It is a horrible monster stomping all over the mix. But the kicks and snares mentioned below are useful, and also the "Pure Snare" and most of the percussion sounds. Maybe I'm the only one who gets excited over congas and cowbells, but they are great. The crash cymbals, on the other hand... well, it is a drum machine. You can get pretty convincing sounds out of the rides and hat if you do it right-- use the ride bell and the interplay between open and closed hats. Most important for all the samples is to program your own patterns and USE THE DYNAMIC ARTICULATION, i.e., vary the velocities of the notes. If you're not using all 16 voices, you can get more dynamics by assigning the same sample to two different pads slightly detuned from each other. I've made tom fills and conga solos that, well, took my breath away at least. But if you just leave every note on 8 it'll sound like what it is, a cheap drum machine. Points off for the tubby 80s sounds.

Last night I realized, with great queasiness, that I've had this thing for 10 years. It's been tossed around in trucks, steeped in cig smoke, left out to collect enough dust to grow potatoes in, and its only problem is a crackly volume knob, which is my fault.

Never had to deal with them.

If it got lost or stolen, I'd be sad, but I'd probably move to an all-PC solution since portability is no longer an issue for me. I could not ask this thing to do more for so many years for the price I paid.

When the SR-16 came out originally, I balked at getting one, primarily
because I had owned a HR-16, which had given me nothing but fits.....
long-time ROLAND TR-series advocate here. Anyway, mid-1993 rolls
around, my TR-707 had long since bit the proverbial dust, and I had
STUPIDLY GIVEN AWAY an absolutely pristine, mint TR-909 to a friend (yes, I've kicked myself
long and HARD over that...) I plunked down the doe, and scuttled home
with my new toy. I think the manual is pretty straight-forward; it was
very easy to "cross the train-tracks" from ROLAND to ALESIS, though I
still prefer the ROLAND programming scheme.

Does it have effects? ARRRRRRGH! Yes, if you enjoy sounding like
Poison or Motley Crue. The majority of the sampled sounds are
drenched with reverb, which has WAY TOO MUCH decay. Renders most of
the sounds absolutely useless for today's music. I'm not particularly
taken by using the keys to program, either....I tend to use a ROLAND
PAD-8 to trigger the sounds via sticks. It has all the necessary MIDI
implementation/commands/ports; it's pretty much up-to-date in that
respect.

The OVERUSE of reverbs on most of the samples seems to be the main
complaint for this unit; I totally agree most are useless becuase of
the ambience. The dry samples, however, are quite good. Several of
the snares (especially the CHROME, LOW CHROME, and various PICCOLO
samples) are totally valid for current styles. The kicks, however,
suffer from the typical mid '80's "clicky kick" sound, a'la the YAMAHA
RX7, RX11, ad naseum. Not very realistic at all. However, the OLD WOOD, LOW
WOOD, and GARAGE KICK are useable, the latter being a wide-open,
buzzy, flappy dry kick sound.
My single biggest beef with this machine is this: fifteen years ago,
when you heard a drum machine, it pretty much sounded like a drum
machine, and everyone was happy. With this mongrel, though, if you're
the least bit "off" in your programming, you just come off sounding
like a really lousy drummer with no sense of dynamics at all.
It's all, or nothing.

Reliability wise, it's a workhorse. I've left it on for days at a time,
I haven't dropped, kicked, spit, whizzed or poo'ed on it, but I ASSUME
it would take said stupid abuse, and continue right on. ALESIS does
make quality stuff....I still have an original MIDIVERB (1985) that I
use for the gated, "Phil Collinesque" sounds.
I haven't put myself in front of a bunch of raging drunks (bar
audience) for money for over ten years...but I don't think I would
mind using it on a gig, if I did.

I had to call ALESIS once about the MIDIVERB, and they were VERY
helpful. Haven't had any problems with the SR-16. As to the price I
paid, this was mid-1993.....I haven't a clue, but I can assure you
it was more than most of the internet dealers are chugging them out
for these days.

When I first got the unit, I was soooo impressed with it. But the
honeymoon was over pretty quickly. What's designed to sound impressive
and overwhelming in the showroom (e.g., the reverbs), get very very
annoying very quickly. Sort of the same way a lot of inexpensive loudspeakers
are designed with an over-blown top-end that sounds good when you
demo them, but grates on your nerves like a razor on glass soon after.
Would I buy another.....unlikely.
I recently auditioned the BOSS DR-770, and didn't think much of it,
either....way too many things that go "BOING"...and I don't need on-
board slap bass samples.
If ALESIS had planned a way to upgrade the sound sets via card or
download (keep in mind, this WAS 1990 :), this would have been THE
END-ALL drum machine. As it is, it's still an interesting, useable,
"mature" drum machine thats unfortunately sounding more and more
"dated" with each passing year.

The SR-16 is one of the dead simplest pieces of digital music gear ever invented. The manual is excellent, written by Craig Anderton of all people...but the unit itself is so simple there's not really any need for a manual at all! All I can say is, if you can't figure this out, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE never buy a piece of gear with the name Roland or Yamaha on it!

One of the really nice features is the ability to do odd time signatures easily. It's still a great, easy to use sequencer, even 10 years old. The 10 year old sounds don't hold up as well, there is too much 'verb on a lot of sounds (It's not an onboard reverb processor, people...the verb is RECORDED with the samples) But still there's enough variety to get good rhythms going for any kind of demo or songwriting application.

See above. Best for Rock, but can work for anything. No onboard effects. Excellent velocity sensitive pads.

Built like a brick shit house. These babies last forever. Never heard of one breaking.

I'd say a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10

For the $125 or so you'll pay on eBay (where there are always 10 or so of these up for sale) it's still an awesome value.

I can only assume that those rating this at 10 work for Alesis. After two years of experimenting and attempting to understand the manual I am at last getting somewhere....,

I have never used another drum machine so I have nothing to compare it to but the tracks I have recorded sound good enough. The editing is a nightmare, selected drum sets revert of their own accord and there is no sequencer as far as I can make out.

Some drum sets sound very realistic, others rather trite. One board panning useful, pre-loaded drum patterns are rather "last year".

So far so good. Hasn't broken down yet.

Called to ask for help and a rather mystified customer services person couldn't understand why I was having such problems. It's so easy to use......,

It's small, transportable, stero, ideal for a small studio where no drummer would fit. Yet it's such a bitch to programme. Which means I am probably not getting as much out of it as I could.

This is an insanely complicated machine to use. The other reviewers who claimed that the manual is easy to use must either be much more experienced with drum machines than I am, or they have a different model SR-16 than I do. The manual with my SR-16 is clear as mud, and programming the thing is like doing calculus. At this point I've given up programming it and I'm just banging on the pads. The manual is incomprehensible, and so editing patches is impossible. The presets sound OK - somewhat late 80s/early 90s rock drum oriented, not much subtlety. Why in the world they put REVERB on every single kit is beyond me.

Built in effects include reverb, which is all over the presets and pretty much impossible to get rid of. It does have MIDI capability, but no expansion capabilities. I don't know what it can do with MIDI, because the manual is utterly incomprehensible. It does have some sort of sequencer, I imagine, but as before, the manual's utter incomprehensibility makes it impossible for me to say anything. I'm giving it a 5, because it seems to have a good number of features; too bad the damn manual is so poorly written it's impossible to figure out how to use them. And what is up with the REVERB?

It sounds like a drum machine. A good drum machine, but a drum machine. Most of the presets seem oriented toward various kinds of rock music, and some of the kits sound very schmaltzy and cliche'd. The onboard effects consist of reverb, and the reverbs are terrible; they need to just stop doing that. It is possible that there is some way to turn off the reverb, but again, the incomprehensible, utterly arcane manual insures that you will have to be a programmer with a degree in higher mathematics to figure out how to do it. The pads are touch sensitive, which means you have to bang the hell out of them to get it to make any kind of noise. Turning up the volume, of course, increases the hiss.

I can't even program this thing, so depending on it or using it on a gig is completely out of the question.

I haven't tried to deal with the company. They can't be contacted via their website the last time I tried. Upgrade it? Hell, I can't even understand the manual!

If this thing were lost or stolen, I would be entirely happy. If I had to do it all over again, I'd pay the extra bucks and buy one of the Roland units. I guess that's what I get for trying to get something for nothing. You get what you pay for, I suppose. At this point I think I would be better off with a Mattel Synsonics. I had friends who used this machine with some success and read a few good reviews, but my experience with it has been entirely negative. I have used other Alesis products in the past and had similar problems (i.e., the instruction manuals were utterly incomprehensible) but in this case, the impossibility of understanding the manual makes this machine totally worthless to me. I wish I had never bought it, and I would never recommend it to anyone.

the presets are great,it's one of the easiest drum machines to use,but still super quality.The manual is also very easy to use,you can order a video too if you want to really get into it.

i think the buttons are just the right size,you can do realistic rolls and fills,it has built in reverb,panning ,presence,much more.We use this in a live duo application,we midi it through a couple of other drum modules to get even more of a live feel.The bass player was originally a drummer so he does all the programming,he does all the fills,starts and stops with his feet while playing the bass.

The drum sounds are extremely realistic,the beats provided are great plus you can add 50 more of your own,with a basic rock beat you can do thousands of songs.I think anything electric has to be maintained properly,if there's static it's probably the users fault.

we use this machine three to four nights a week and have never had a problem(knock on wood)We own 2 of them,one for the studio and another for the live application,we only take one on the job,that's how much confidence we have in this machine.

we have never had to call the company for support.

We will always have this machine as long as it's available.We use JBL SR series subs,JBL SR series 15 8 horn,All JBL SR series speakers and crest and mackie power amps,behringer boards,fender guitars.We went through a bunch of other drum machines before ending up with the SR-16.we have it mounted on the sound board so it's out of crazy drunk peoples way.We do a serious duo with top notch equipment,we stay busy and the SR-16 is a huge part of our overall sound,we stand by it 100 percent.

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...

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...

once you get the hang of it, programming in is very easy... i program via the step editor, 'cuz i have no idea how anyone can play a decent rythm on such small pads... the big problem is that you can't erase in step mode, which i feel is stupid. i mean, if nothing else, i'm sure everyone is going to accidently hit the wrong drum some where while programming 4 measures worth of 16th notes, y'know? And what if you do something and play it back and don't like it?

The pressure sensitive pads are nice, the swing works once you figure out how to use it, i've never had trouble with too many voices, to the polyphony is good, but the midi has this annoying habit of setting itself to song zero... also, it should just have a small built-in reverb thing instead of wasting samples by taking a sample and applying room reverb and then hall reverb...

256 drum sounds it says, but i swear a lot of them sound EXACTLY alike... and i'm not referring to the ones where there's a drum sound, then the same one w/ room reverb, then the same one w/ hall reverb... (i have a friend with the Alesis SQ-8 "synth" and it seems to me that Alesis has this technology to include a s**tload of sounds/samples on their things, but they're not creative enough to give you as many *useful* sounds to work with...) there is an astonishing lack of "techno" style drums for a drum machine, it's like it's marketed towards rock bands, which is s**tty 'cuz rock bands avoid using drum machines!!!

i'm really nervous about using this for a gig, 'cuz it always resets to song zero, and that's just lame... even with the "Midi Program Change OFF" i have this problem... however, a good thing is that you never have to save anything. Once it's programmed, it's there until you erase it, which is pretty rad... if you lose power, you don't lose anything you've done...

never dealt w/ 'em myself, but my friend w/ the SQ8 spent a few months calling and e-mailing them and never got a response...

this is a rock and roll drum machine. maybe a jazz musician would find it useful, but i don't know, i'm not a jazz musician. As for the rest of us, doing ELECTRONIC music this DRUM MACHINE is next to useless... i'm kicking myself in the ass for buying it, and if it was stolen or something, i'd kick myself in the ass for not selling it before hand... right now i'm keeping it, but i think in the end i'm going to end up selling it... my advice to ppl looking to buy it, DON'T GET SUCKERED IN BY THE REALLY LOW PRICE. Unless your doing rock music and you want a 200 dollar metronome, this is a piece of crap for a drum machine.

Software Version 1.04: Presets patterns/songs are by in large rather appauling, following up on a cliche sense of the sound of many genres (The "techno" and "new-age" patterns were rather amusing). While the sounds are fixed memory samples, editing beats and patterns is rather straightforward. The step-record feature is well laid-out, and most features are easy to recall without a manual once you go through it once or twice.

Effects are fixed in the samples (booo!), and the polyphony (at sixteen voices) is generally enough (considering the length of the samples) for almost any composition. It is non-expandable beyond sysex dumps of the operating system, patterns, and songs. It has an annoying habit of setting syncing to its own clock-tick (even if internal is off, and external is on) which means that you should be sure your master clock device is operating or the SR-16 does its own thing. Keys are semi-velocity sensitive (eight possible velocities? fine, but bizaare), and sequencer is adequate since it controls the internal drum machine only. The pedal "fill" feature is very cool, and justifies my buying this unit over most other models despite its drawbacks.

Instruments are more or less conventional, non-editable, and work for music that doesn't deviate from the "norm". Sounds aimed more at rock and jazz styles, although perhaps still cliche-ish in that realm. Expressiveness is adequate, considering its price. The pedal "fill" is decent, and syncs well without sounding "out of place".

It has not given me any problems as of yet. Although if you run low on memory, it becomes difficult to carry out even normal menu operations, but I have only once run into this when loading it up with patterns and songs found online. It seems rather hard to fill the memory unless you do an awful lot of programming.

Have yet to deal with Alesis to this day.

I compose primarily new-age electronica, so this machine was probably not the best choice for me considering I like to develop new sounds and rhythms from scratch. Considering my budget at the time, and the fact that I was in absolute need of a rhythm machine, it was an appropriate purchase. In the future I would be more inclined to purchase a sampling rhythm machine when my budget allows (ie. The Akai models MPC-60 and MPC-3000).

The machine comes with 233 preset sounds, a lot of which are the same instruments but with an effect(reverb, delay). The preset sounds that are usable are dope, however I have no use for alot of the sounds, since I do mostly hip hop. THE PRESET BEATS ARE CRAP!!! I bought my box used so it didn't come with a manual, but Alesis hooked me up. I downloaded a manual online and printed it at work. After reading the manual and getting use to the way the SR-16 edits, I found the machine a breeze to operate, cut and paste, loop patters, add fills, double patters, and drop beats real time. I've "phucked around" with some other drum machines, which retail for alot more $$$ and have found the Alesis SR-16 THE EASIEST to make/edit beats with!
Overall I give it an 8 here because THE PRESET PATTERNS SUCK and the instruments are rather limited, but I'D EASILY GIVE IT A 10 as far as creating/editing beats.

No built in effects, thats a rip, but what do you expect for $100? You can however create your own drumset (by selecting certain drums from a preset) then tweak them, by ajusting panning, volume, and tone. The metronome is nice for keeping beat, when composing a song. It has swing and quantize options, but I haven gotten around to those yet. I don't really care for the velocity sensitive pads since you have to beat the hell out of them to hear em. Luckily Alesis was on their game and allowed you to set any pad at a fixed volume, or a range of volumes (velocity sensative). There is plenty of memory in this bad boy! 50 patterns to save to, with both A & B patterns and A & B fills for each pattern. 100 songs to save to. Overall kinda light on the options, but everything you need is there. FUNDAMENTALY SOUND!

The sound of the instruments I actually use are great, however out of 233 presets I only use about 150. The one thing really lacking on this machine, is the ability to add effects. All the sounds are "pre-effected", and sometimes that can be a real pain in the......butt, again for $100 what should I expect? It does have velocity sensative pads, but I only use them on ocassion. The pads could be a little bigger since I have bigs hands and sometimes, wind up mashing more than one pad at a time. For the most part the sounds are good, and keeping me playing for hours on end.

Hmmm I bought mine used, everything still works, and it looks kinda beat up. So I'm impressed!

Never called em, but they have the manual on-line and thats a plus!

Overall I give this machine an 8.5 just because I don't use everything this machine has to offer. Espically since I DON'T WASTE MY TIME ON THAT GARBAGE SOUNDING MIDI CRAP. This machine is a remarkable value, has phat drums, and THE BEST song editing I've seen on any machine under 1K. If it were ruined I'd definately buy another, unless I had 2K to spend on a real machine. You definately get your moneys' worth out of the machine. I've been mess'N around for 7 years. I currently run a Mackie 1202 w/ 4 Mic's hooked up, Techniques Tables, Gemini 24 second sampler, and whatever gear my homies decide to bring over. My SR-16 is running neck and neck with my Mackie 1202 and my Mic, as the best bang for my buck!
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/3554

I am using the newest software version. The preset drum kits and drum patterns are AWSOME. You could sit down and record with this puppy right away. It took me a while to figur out how to record, but once you do, you won't want to stop. You cannot edit the presets, but you can copy them to the user bank then do what you want with them. It is EXTREMELY easy to use, although reading the manual is necessary is yu want to get everthing out of this machine.

The velocity sensitive pads are a nice touch; althogh sometimes you can get "double taps" when they are not wanted. The only built in effect is reverb, which you cannot control :(. You can store drum patterns on a cassette and the drum machine will recogize the patters. THere's MIDI, but I'm not into that stuff...

The sounds are VERY, VERY realistic. The open high hat(there's about 25) is unbelievable...you can hear different rattles, etc. All in all, there are about 230 drums(and other things). Every one sounds GREAT. It is very easy to program your own kits(which contain up to 12 percussion's of your choice). Works well for all music since you can easilsy record your own patterns. I was amazed the day I got it, and still am every time I plug it in. It reacts well to velocity...

Everything is fine, except for the volume wheel. It gets scratchy and jumpy on the low end, but it doesn't bother me. It may just be my SR-16...or maybe not...that's why it gets an 8...

Gonna call em about the wheel...

Love it, love it. I've recorded basic patterns on a real drum then on my SR-16. People thought the SR-16 was the real drums! They are so realistic it's awe inspiring...GO GET ONE!

(Software version 1.02). The SR16 is a great sounding drum machine. Patches are easy to edit, and most of the presets sound pretty decent. The manual is helpful, but confusing about some points (it is also downloadable from the Alesis web page, a BIG PLUS!) However, I do have a few gripes. First of all, the reverbs are not editable. Second, there are not any names assigned to the drum kits (it would make picking them much easier), and there are not any printouts of the drums and their numbers (you have to scroll through to see names and numbers). However, considering the price of the unite, these are forgivable. Keep in mind that this is my first drum machine -- I bought it to use the presets until I learned how to program it (which is what many drum machine newbies do).

I am not sure what the polyphony is (see below reviews). The button action is kind of cheap feeling (not as nice as the boss's). Touch response is also not very noticeable. Effects are built in and are not editable (make sure you like the reverb settings). Overall, this machine is pretty easy to use. A cool feature is the abillity to break into a fill anywhere in the song (the fill will be different depending on when you start it). This gives the machine a "real" feel and sound. Sounds can be routed through four different outputs. No battery capability. Midi capable. Very portable and lightweight.

Sounds are definately realistic. My only problem is finding drum sounds that fit my needs. I like simple drum sounds, but many of the sounds contain too much reverb for my tastes. There are only 3 or 4 (out of 40 somthing)preset drum kits that I actually like. I also wish the preset songs were a little better (I will eventually get better at programming my own, but until then, the presets will have to do). I would say that the presets sound too techno/hard-rockish. However, if you program it, it will sound good for just about anything. As I mentioned above, it does not react very well to velocity.

I use it for home recording -- I like to perform with real drummers. However, this machine is definately road worthy. The only problem is that the volume knob is a little "scratchy". Other than that, just don't drop it.

Never dealt with alesis, but they have a lot of support on the web.

For the price, this is a great drum machine. It it were lost/stolen/broken, I would go with a BOss DR5 or 660 (which have more features and better sound IMHO). It was definately worth $160, but I would not pay more for it. I love its sounds, but I hate most of the presets (but not a big deal since I program it now). The reason I bought this instead of the others was price (the bosses sell for around $250 used), but I would definately spend more and get something better next time. I wish it had more control over sounds/reverb. This machine is beginning to grow on me, though.

Good sounding box. 50 preset patterns, 215 different drum sounds. You can make your own kits, and patterns. The SR-16 makes a great Sound Module, but it doesn't transmit constant time. example: I'm working in 110bpm, and the sr16 is waffling at 109.8 - 110.2 (i'm getting this info from my sequencer) Midi documentation stinks, there isn't anything, that talks about how kits are assigned without lots of interpretation. The drum machine itself is easy to use, just set tempo, and hit start. The sounds are driving this rating.

It has 10 instruments it can play, they can be programmed to correspond with GM, or any other drum kit you are using. Midi docs stink. It doesn't keep accurate time, but is a great sound mod. Velocity sensative input pads are nice.

Sounds are great. Alesis did a great job. The drums are full, and the cymbols ring. with 215 different drums, it can cover all types of percussion.

I have had this machine for 7 years, and it hasn't failed me. It has fallen on the floor, or had things fall on it, and it just keeps playing.

Never talked to Alesis, but the have a great web page. You can even download a new manual if you lost your old one. I wish all companies did that.

I'd probably by a D5 for sounds next time, or for a rhythm machine maybe the Dr.Rhythm. The fact that it can't keep solid time as a controller really pisses me off, IF they could fix that, I'd buy it again.

This is a dedicated drum machine. Only drum sounds and patterns. It comes with 233 sampled sounds (16 bits). 50 of them are kicks, 60 snares, hats, cymbals, toms and some Latin percussion. The quality of the sounds is superb, and you've got plenty of room to choice from. It also have 100 patterns, 100 fills and 100 preset patterns, I think. The reggae ones are cool. Fool proof, anyone can use it just taking a glance at the manual.

Midi in and out. (trhu programmable using the midi out). 4 outputs, useful for separating kick-snare-sterero pair. Twelve keys. Each key have a six layer velocity response, although the sounds respond to velocity via midi. You can edit wich midi note will play each sound. The internal pattern mode has a cool swing quantization.

Very cool sounds. If you hit harder, the pitch of the drum sound changes pretty realistically. Good for rock, pop. Not so good for those into hard electronic music, because most of its sounds are sampled from real drums. No onboard effects (never seen a drum machine with them). Not too much editing of the sounds, just some pitch.

It's a strong machine, I've used it live and it is great (anyway, always make backups). Never had a problem. Small and easy to move (slightly bigger than size of a VHS videocassette, and not much heavier).

If you want to kick your drummer and still use good realistic drums, buy one.