Alesis SR-16 Drum Machines

 

 

The Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine is a good, basic machine which is at its best when contributing to the sound of rock'n'roll. But this isn't the sum total of its music-making capacities. Of course, as the musician, you can explore for yourself and you'll probably be surprised to find out how useful it can be for creating deeper versions of many other beats such as Latin, reggae, pop, and jazz.

You may very well find yourself being more creative than ever before with this drum machine. It doesn't have a lot of the frills of some of the higher end models, but then it came out in the early 1990's and it certainly does a suitable job for most of what you'll need it for.

The fact that the company is still making it attests to its quality, for if people had stopped buying the SR-16 it wouldn't be on the market! And it still is, and it's very popular. It sounds realistic most of the time, due in part to a "Dynamic Articulation" technique that means you control the timbre of sound by pressing pads with more or less pressure.

 

That's one very important feature because it allows a lot of artistic control in whatever you're playing. It’s easy to use, as it has 50 preset programs. They're in ROM, and if you want more, you can set 50 more in RAM.

There are additional steps you can set within each program, so ultimately you have a myriad of possibilities for the sounds and tempos you want. One great quality of the SR-16 is the tone of its snares. These are used in so many project that good quality here is a must, and there are so many kinds of wonderful snare sounds you can make on this machine.

The musician doing lots of solo gigs will find the SR-16 an especially helpful friend, with its easy-to-use separate pedals for stops/starts and fill ins/outs. This is a garden variety drum machine, but so well made and helpful that, for the price at least, you almost can't do better. Others may be newer or fancier, but if you don't want to spend a lot, and unless you need their functions, like lots of electronics, the SR-16 may be the way for you to go.