Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine
233 drum and rhythm samples and ready for MIDI!
Make the Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine your new songwriting partner. With its selection of 233 realistic drum and rhythm samples, it offers a plentitude of options to spawn your creativity. Use the Ales... read more
Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine
Reviews
Trusted musician and artist reviews for Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine
Based on 6 Reviews
Great old-school drum machine
Great old-school drum machine with classics drum sounds but some of samples, which can be used in electronic music. Great as an automatic drummer or drum module in your setup.
aww man, I had one of these.... you used to be able to buy them in pawn shops for 40 bucks or less
Great drum machine.
Fell in love with the SR-16 when it hit the shelves of the music store I worked at in 1990 and had to have one!. So simple to program, sequencing at an entry level even a guitarist could understand. This has been my drummer for 27 years now and while the sounds are a little "of that era", I do not know what I would transition to.
if you read the latest TapeOp flood mentions this little guy as a favorite sequencer for triggering other gear because he likes its groove.... the internal sequencer does have its own thing and its really fast compared to other digital beatboxes
We used to use it for an old Klute cover, We would take a Nasty Brass tone from the Kawai K1 and use the SR as the trigger. Because drum voices are all attack/ minimal decay it replicated the sound almost perfectly, just hacking off the decay where anything else would snip or trim... Would love a copy or link to the article if you have it handy!
Solid, but minorly faulted
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: At the time of this first review I've only owned this for three days, and in that I've still, unlike most music hardware I've used to date, only scratched the surface. This is a combination of two things: One, the sr16 is packed to the rim with features, and settings, and buttons that it can take a while to learn how to use, or even uncover, and Two, this is one of the most ridiculously un-user friendly devices I've ever used, though considering these are from originally, and mine is dated to also, 1990, they are decent. I think that if a product has been in production for the last 26 years non stop, pretty much, it is probably okay.
oh hey, that's an sr16? I have one of those somewhere! How much do you think its worth? What did yours cost you?
Yeah, there are tons of features to dive into, but they are pretty dated by today's standards of drum programming.... and the sounds are most certainly of the time Alesis has always been a Johnny-come-lately (other than the mighty Andromeda). You are definitely looking at lofi interpretations of the Emu and Yamaha sounds that were allover mif 8s pop (like Janet Jackson).... on the other hand, those same drum machines were used by the likes of Depeche Mode, Ministry and Skinny Puppy, so....
oh, and like a lot of alesis stuff you are really meant to command it with MIDI from a PC or more user friendly external sequencer.... heck, you can even use a midi keyboard to play beats on one of these...
Yeah I could use a MIDI setup to control it with my 25 key controller, but I mostly use it in conjunction with my guitar looper system (TC FB X4), tapping the beats out, or pre-programming them, and using the A/B/Fill function. I could do with getting a couple of piano sustain pedals, for the exp. jacks; adds a lot of function.
I bought mine 2nd from a mate for £50. They go for about £45-£80 2nd hand on Ebay. After a tonne of research there's basically nothing better within a budget range, and its actually pretty good once you get your head around it
Does its job
I bought this one specifically because its the kind my favorite band uses. I was not disappointed, even if you cant write drum patterns yourself, the presets on this bad boy make up for your failure. I use it to jam, write songs, and everything in between. This is the most useful tool in my rig, easily.
edited about 3 years ago
Pretty neat sounds.
Very cool old-school samples, good for demo tracks or keeping acoustic drums in time. Also very good for maybe late 80s early 90s synth pop.