Alesis SR-16 – Studio-Grade Standalone Classic Drum Machine with On-Board 200+ Sound Library, Performance Driven I/O and In-Built Effects

Works well
For performing in venues
Where stage space is a conce

Thickness….yes that is what I am looking for in a drum machine…thickness..,..what idgit put that category on a review for a drum machine…?
It’s a great sounding drum machine.quick learning curve…I use it for live gigs..I hook it to a volume pedal…the drum sounds are impressive..many many beats to choose from.

Der Alesis SR 18 berzeugt mich in allen Punkten. Bin sehr zufrieden mit dem Drum Computer. Kann ich nur weiter empfehlen.

We had the older Alesis drum machine and have used it for almost 20 years. It started having some trouble maintaining a consistent volume and needed to be replaced.

Rather than going with another older unit, we decided to get this one. We are still learning about all of the new voices and options, but so far we are pleased with this device.

Old school here. Did not know new drum machines have bass you can toggle on or off. There are some programs that rock right out of the box. All you need is your axe, a killer tone and you can jam down to the bone.
This model (SR-18) is worth every penny.

Great product, as stated and with a fast delivery. Sounds are brilliant.

Secondo me non ha dei rullanti molto reali, cmq funziona bene

This unit is very good it is a per you tube videos, and it came with its own power supply in with the price,
very pleased with it.

Dopo la sfortunata esperienza con un prodotto di caratteristiche inferiori ho trovato in Alesis SR18 quello che cercavo di facile utilizzo associato alla chitarra e attraverso il PC con l’ausilio del programma gratuito Audacity ottengo quello che cercavo ottimo prodotto d’ausilio per creare basi e pezzi musicali

Famous and favorite drum machine.
Excellent natural sounds of the drums consist of study recorded samples.

Haven’t really set it to full purpose what I have done works great.

ALESIS – SR16 CLASSIC 24BIT DIGITAL DRUM MACHINE rocks where it should….In the studio, in the home songwriting workstation or anywhere you build your craft. This was a Amazon.ca purchase in March 2017 that I made after using some software styled units that lagged behind and a early 2000’s version of a Boss-Dr Rhythm that wasn’t very user friendly! So then the ALESIS SR16 entered my mind. IMO, this unit rises to its top level when tasked with building song structures in the Rock, Hard Rock/Metal genres. With the ALESIS-SR16 DRUM MACHINE getting a 2012 new 16 to 24 Bit Firmware upgrade and slight renaming to become: ALESIS – SR16 CLASSIC 24~BIT STEREO DIGITAL DRUM MACHINE. I had the old version back in the late ’90’s and I can say the 24Bit version crushes the original. 1st off, is the superior “stereo” sound quality, it’s crystal clear. 2nd the original had some bombastic drum sounds that were awash in late 80’s studio reverb of the worst kind. The 24-bit doesn’t have that annoying tone anywhere in the unit. 3rd, is the much improved feel and pressure sensitivity of the programming pads, when your crafting beats for songwriting, it’s very important that the unit is reactive to the sound textures your exploring. Hit the pads hard or soft, the unit stays the course with you, unlike some USB/Software based models that sometimes are challenged to keep up. It says a lot about this Alesis series, when with the release of the SR18 Drum Machine, the many competition models, the ALESIS – SR16 CLASSIC 24~BIT STEREO DIGITAL DRUM MACHINE is still the best selling unit of all time.

I love the sounds this machine makes. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in buying a drum machine.

I like it but this still is not easy to use. Have not yet found out how to record with it. I even got my brother who is a retired band director to help and the book was not helpful and even he could not do it. YouTube does not help either. If I can’t learn soon it will be on Craig’s List. So just a little warning.

Awesome drum machine, connecting this unit into my existing home studio was a snap and I have made good use of its multiple features, so much to try and compose with. It arrived ahead of the scheduled delivery, was packaged very well for safety and transit. I use Alesis for a lot of my mixer equipment as it is great without the great price tag!

This is brilliant! Of course the item arrived on time and in good working order. Moreover the machine is really versatile.

Aside from the manual, which needs a lot of improvement, this is a good machine with good sounds. One feature it has (which is not mentioned in the manual) is the ability to type in a tempo via the numbered pads. That is very useful for changing tempos rapidly on stage. The manual only lists two ways to change tempo – the dial and tap tempo function. Programming some functions such as changing the individual volumes of drums and cymbals can be very difficult to understand thanks to what I consider a poorly written manual. Where I have succeeded doing this seems to be by accident, and of course, it’s difficult to remember what actually worked.
The back lighted display is very helpful, although some of the buttons are difficult to read when not in good lighting. I am using this machine live on stage and it’s working out well.

I can’t stop playing with this thing. All the options and even then adding the different drum sets to the various options there-in, it’s sweet!
And then adding the batteries for portability… get out of here! Sooner or later I guest I’ll get around to actually taking the OLD Rickenbacker out and practicing with it.

While I haven’t got my head around all the possibilities with this machine (in only 2 weeks), I found it really easy to start using it straight away. The quick-start guide is great, and soon I’ll graduate to the full manual !

We have a Zoom Rhythm track that we have made dozens of songs with, but after many years it was starting to falter. My husband had been eyeing this one so we found it for a good price on Amazon (of course). “Wow!” is all I can say. So many more sounds and even more compact (yay digital!). You could literally set a party off just by playing some of the pre-recorded beats here. Now we are ready to take our music to the next level. Yeehaw!!

In my home studio, the SR-18 simplifies things because I use it for drums on most demo tracks, rather than going through the enormous set-up time required for miking acoustic drums. Bottome line: it’s simpler, better sounding, nicely balanced and panned. Sure, it takes a bit of effort and time to set the machine up, but once you have a drum set or two that you like, you’re off and running. One thing that makes it even more special is the user ability to set (and change!) tempo within a song. The bass patterns are immaterial to me – I’ll play my own, thank you. Experiment with this thing a bit, set up all the parameters and change whatever you don’t like, and you’ll soon have everything the way you DO like! Take the time to review the manual, and keep it close by for reference.

Great product and service when coupled with the price a Real winner thanks Alesis SR18 Drum Machine with Effects Engine

I have found this drum machine excellent and very usable straight out of the box. The rubber drum pad keys are slightly bouncier than I would have liked but are still very good. I am in the process of connecting the SR18 to a computer via MIDI which is proving slightly tricky, but that is probably me rather than a criticism of the machine. I was disappointed with the delivery service as it took about 4 weeks to arrive although it was over Christmas, however the supplier were only about 30 miles away (it would have been quicker for me to walk there and pick it up). I would definitely recommend the SR18 but would suggest you check the supplier’s delivery times and delivery methods before purchase.

UPDATE 10-05-2013: Battery life …… Not much on this topic using batteries, but I recently have been trying some rechargeable batteries and found the life of them a little over 6 hours using 6 Eneloop 2000 mAh double AA’s and a “Powerex MH-C9000 Wizard” charger. Still a great drum sound the most realistic.

I believe this to be the best sounding drum machine made today for the price, it is fairly simple to program, has the most real sounding drums has a nice fill feature… it realy looks cool and has large pads…it doenst save very well, seems once saved, the original is there forever… but still one can create patterns you can save in in cubase, magix or samplitude or another recording program once youve done your program to be sure except for future tempo changees could be off and funny sounding…

I have both the Zoom tr-223 and this and i feel the Zoom tr-223 to be more a Toy compared to the sr-18….but the Zoom can come back to previous patterns once shut off…Zoom has a little better sounding bass, but ill record my own real sounding bass with a real bass ….both can be used in your studio

The output is rather weak using line outs…Neither drum machine is perfect, but the Alesis is a more professioanl Drum machine in my humble opinion….Jim

This is just a huge sounding drum machine. Forget what they used to sound like years ago – this sounds like a real drummer – and a very good one at that. With the basslines added this machine can be used to back a singer / guitarist / keys player and you could go on the road solo (what I plan to do).

It can be complicated if you want to go the whole mile and programme it rather than use the sample tracks, but it comes with a very thorough instruction manual. Plan to learn how to do most of the good things during a month of tinkering with it in your spare time. I bought it with two Yamaha FC5 pedals to work it ‘live’. (But it does work with other on/off pedals like the Yamahas as well.) This allows me to start stop and switch between A / B fills and A / B rhythms. You’ll need pedals like these if you plan to use this box in front of an audience – but you won’t need it for practice.

This is a great tool. And better than a drummer because it doesn’t have an ego, doesn’t need beer to fuel it, and I get to keep all the money from gigs. You can also program in Bass parts – and if you really get you head into it create midi files in Sibelius and drop them in. (This was my original plan if I hadn’t been so busy teaching guitar and gigging.) I have no doubt it would be possible to create bass lines and drums for any set list you may have. So it has enough mamory to load up many many whole tunes – so ultimately you can go on the road with this and play along with your own digital versions of yourself playing bass and drums – that’s got to be a whole lot better than using backing tracks.

If you’re on a tight budget or want something a bit easier to programme, try the SR16 – but that’s only drums, no bass line.

First the good news: The SR18 has 500 excellent drum and percussion sounds covering a wide range of musical genres. These samples really do sound good. The SR18 additionally provides reverb, EQ and compression, and this represents a great leap forward from the earlier SR16. The 100 preset patterns, together with 50 additional patterns stored in user memory are varied and interesting, and a great starting point for inventing your own patterns. There are probably too many patterns dedicated to rock styles for some people’s taste, although that happens to suit me just fine. The bass synthesiser is perhaps of limited use for rock/jazz/blues/country but is wonderful for dance music. I particularly like the Mini Moog sounds.

Now the not so good news: It’s not easy to play patterns in real time on the key pads – I find I need to use the step edit function to clean up my real-time patterns. Also, I’m still struggling to understand the key sequences to adjust some parameters, and I find myself referring to the manual regularly. If there’s a logic to it then I can’t see it. I expect that these key sequences will gradually become second nature, but until then this is a niggle. It would be a great enhancement to be able to link to a PC with a full screen editor. For example, the editor for the Line 6 Pod range is excellent.

Conclusion: Buy it for the excellent sounding samples and useful onboard effect.