Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine

If you're a drummer or a computer programmer, this might be a good unit for you. I'm an experienced musician, and have also had some experience designing web sites, but found this machine's protocols to be quite dense, despite having read the provided "Quick Start" manual, watched a number of online tutorials, and even paid a consultant almost as much as I paid for the unit to train me on it. I expected there would at least be a simple 4/4 shuffle pre-set, but no -- if I want something like that, I need to program it myself. All I ended up doing after all of the above, was accidentally programming over the one beat that was even near to what I was looking for. Luckily I found a tutorial on how to return the machine to factory settings (though it was in French and went by very quickly!) So, after weeks of research and additional expense, I'm back to square one. I found the sounds quite limited, and would never recommend this to anyone, nor purchase it again if given the chance.

I had taken the item back because it was barely bearable even with a top notch amp, maybe it was the unit.

Best drum machine for the money. There's a reason they're still making these 30 years later however, it is an absolute flipping nightmare to program. i'm just using it for the preset drum programs to write guitar riffs.

The Alesis SR-16 is a wonderfully fun and powerful drum machine. I have not used the sequencer functionality at all. Instead I have programmed MIDI patterns in my DAW and triggered my custom drum kits in it. The sound output has an element of noise and that definitely affects its use as a truly professional instrument. To get around this and also to really make your drums mixed properly, I recommend recording each drum sample, denoising them, and loading into sampler instances in your DAW. This way you can adjust the phase of each sound to fully gel and also you can process individual sounds as well. My only complaints beyond the noise floor are that the pitch adjust range is not a full octave up and down and there is no decay parameter like those of the Alesis SR-18 & Akai XR-20. The drum samples are quite good and, for a machine that is over 30 years old, sound good for a multitude of genres. I have made techno and electronic tracks with it and, while the drum sounds lean natural, they are varied enough and have enough character for serious work. Let's see if Alesis will be making this in another 30 years. I'd almost be surprised if they didn't.

I'm a drummer for more than 50 years. I'm not great but I have fun and enjoy playing. I never had a need or want for drum machines (as a drummer I never liked a machine that plays better than me and never gets tired, LOL) I have worked with many them during my Recording Engineering years. Anyway, a little over a year ago I built a new Music Production Studio in our Music Room. I already have nice Gretsch Catalina Club Kit, a Fender Tele and Jazz Bass and a Fender CD60 Acoustic and Cordoba C3m Classical. I wanted to build upon this starting with a Tascam Model 12 Mixer/Recorder, a bunch of different Synthesizers, Semi Modulars (I'm up to 16 and still counting, they are addictive), a few Pocket operatorsMIDI Controllers and Keyboards, and some Virtual Software Synths, oh and yes my first Drum Machines. I could not resist this Alesis SR16 Drum Machine which I could not believe is still being manufactured 33 years later (that may be older than some of you reading my review) and the price is amazing for what you get! Honestly it still holds its own after all of these years, I guess that's why it is still in production! 233 Drum Sounds 50 preset patterns with A/B Variations and 50 User Programmable Patterns 12 Velocity-sensitive drum pads that have Dynamic Articulation. A and B Fills 24-bit sound engine (upgraded from the original 16 Bit makes the Noise Floor on this incredibly low, non existent). MIDI in/out/thru The Build is Solid, the Drum Samples are top quality.. Programming the SR16 is pretty simple One of the nicest features of the SR16 is the ease with which you can switch between Perform and Compose modes while a pattern is playing. If you've recorded a couple of parts while in Compose mode and you want to try out another part before recording it, just press the Perform/Compose button and you're out of record without interrupting the flow. Also the Song Modes are quite well thought out. YOU CAN CREATE up to 100 songs on the SR16, each of which can consist of up to 254 steps - a step consisting of either a Main or a Fill pattern. But where it really shines is the inclusion of real-time Song recording. Select your initial pattern, set the SR16 to Compose mode, press Play and off you go: the drum machine starts playing in realtime and automatically records all pattern selections you make, compiling them into a Song chain for you. Needless to say, this is so much better than manually compiling Song steps, it also allows you to be more spontaneous about selecting patterns. Ok so this old drummer is really enjoying my Alesis SR16 and it is a great addition to my Music Production.

Truthfully haven't had a chance to use it yet, but it fits so nicely and compactly on the top of my desk, right next to my NEW Tascam Portastudio (which I have used already). I am ready to continue on with some more straightforward, old-school recording, and I'm sure the Alesis will blend in just as easily as the HR-16B, which served me well for decades! just a cursory look at the value of assures me that it will be easy to use. I'm a home recording dinosaur and proud of it!