--- product_id: 13790991 title: "Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects" brand: "alesis" price: "AED 41" currency: AED in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 category: "Alesis" url: https://www.desertcart.ae/products/13790991-alesis-sr-16-studio-grade-standalone-drum-machine-with-on store_origin: AE region: United Arab Emirates --- # Full MIDI & footswitch I/O 233 pro drum sounds 12 velocity-sensitive pads Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects **Brand:** alesis **Price:** AED 41 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🥁 Elevate your beats with the legendary SR-16 — where classic meets cutting-edge. ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects by alesis - **How much does it cost?** AED 41 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ae](https://www.desertcart.ae/products/13790991-alesis-sr-16-studio-grade-standalone-drum-machine-with-on) ## Best For - alesis enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted alesis brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Iconic Studio Sound:** Harness 233 meticulously sampled drum sounds powering countless hit records. - • **Dynamic Articulation™:** Experience authentic tonal shifts with velocity-sensitive pads that respond like a live drummer. - • **Seamless MIDI Integration:** Plug into any DAW, keyboard, or electronic kit with comprehensive MIDI and footswitch connectivity. - • **Compact & Performance-Ready:** Studio-grade build with built-in effects, reverb, and stereo outputs designed for live and studio workflows. - • **Customizable Patterns & Kits:** Create, save, and stack up to 200 unique user patterns with 50 preset kits for endless creativity. ## Overview The Alesis SR-16 is a studio-grade standalone drum machine featuring 233 professional drum sounds, 12 velocity-sensitive pads with Dynamic Articulation™, and full MIDI connectivity. It offers 50 preset and 50 user drum kits, built-in digital effects, and flexible pattern editing, making it a versatile tool for songwriters, live performers, and producers seeking authentic, customizable drum tracks in a compact form factor. ## Description The Drum Machine That Started A Music RevolutionA true studio icon. As one of the most popular drum machines ever made, the SR-16 has been used by everyone from songwriters to live performers to remix engineers as their drum machine of choice. Fusing 233 professional sounds, on-board digital effects for added realism, stock and user customisable patterns, complete MIDI support, performance driven connectivity options, Alesis’ exclusive Dynamic Articulation and a compact, studio-friendly footprint, SR-16 can be heard on countless records, praised for its natural realistic sound and true versatility. Taking your production to the next level of professionalism just got a whole lot easier with SR-16 - change up your workflow and redefine your expectations of a professional drum machine, your production demands it.In-Demand SoundSR-16 features a pro selection of 233 realistic, natural drum sounds, offered both in dry form and sampled with our incomparable digital reverbs.Realistic Performances GuaranteedOur exclusive Dynamic Articulation feature enables SR-16’s drum sound to change its tonal content as it's played harder for truly realistic performances.Patterns for Days.The SR-16 features 50 preset patterns captured by top studio drummers, not just programmed and quantized. Plus, there’s enough built-in rhythmic variations (with A, B and two Fill sections) for composing complete arrangements.The Personal Touch Looking for more customisation? SR-16 doesn’t disappoint. You can create and save your own customized patterns and songs with space for 200 totally unique user patterns.Tactile Control, Effortless IntegrationThe SR-16 also provides complete MIDI implementation, a footswitch input, flexible programming and editing features and velocity-sensitive pad buttons.Easy-To-UseIt's so easy to use that you'll be up-and-running and composing new music in minutes. Whether you need a songwriting partner or an accompanist for live performance, turn to the all-time world standard in drum machines: the SR-16.The SR-16 features 50 preset patterns that were actually played in by top studio drummers, not just programmed and quantized. You'll find enough built-in rhythmic variations (with A, B and two Fill sections) for composing complete arrangements, and you can create and save your own customized patterns and songs. Plus, the SR-16 also provides complete MIDI implementation, a footswitch input, flexible programming and editing features and velocity-sensitive pad buttons. Plus, it's so easy to use that you'll be up-and-running and composing new music in minutes. Whether you need a songwriting partner or an accompanist for live performance, turn to the all-time world standard in drum machines: the SR-16. Review: Alesis SR18 Drum Machine with Effects Engine - The Alesis SR18 Drum Machine is amazing. I have had many problems with every computer based drum machine program. It's not that they didn't work right, but the fact that they just weren't for me. I am very good with computers, do photography editing, and music editing, etc, all on the few computers I own. As far as doing drums on my computer, It just wasn't clicking. Everyone has to find their path of least resistance, and THEIR best method for doing things, since everybody is different and everyone has their own path of least resistance. Hence, to each, their own. What works best and is the easiest for one person, may be the most complicated for the other. What is most complicated for you, may be the easiest for the other person. Basically what I am saying is this drum machine, once in my hands, really clicked. This was MY path of least resistance. It's good to know I can sit down with this machine, and only this machine, and make full drum tracks. As far as some people saying this is so hard to use, or takes a couple months, for me it took two days. Hence, 6 one way, half dozen the other. The first day I just messed with it, without directions. It was confusing. The second day, I read the directions, and by the end of the second day, I had already made three full length drum tracks, doing everything from customizing my entire drum set and sounds, making a bunch of patterns, and then piecing all those patterns together to make tracks. Ok, so now for what it can do: * I saw one review where they said you cannot change the length of the patterns. This is not true. You CAN indeed change the length of the patterns. You can use whatever tempo you want, 120, 140, whatever, and you can make the patterns 4 beats long, or 8, or 16, etc. * You can customize your own drum setup, so you have have a couple bass, etc. Rule of thumb if you are trying to re-create double bass, is to make two sounds, almost identical, BUT make the second sound a little different tonewise. Because in real life, you can tell the difference between both bass drums. This makes it sound more realistic. * There are a TON of different sound variations for every kind of drum sound you want. * You can tweak each individual sound. For instance, if I find a crash I like, but think to myself that I want it to sound softer, offset it to the right a little, change the pitch to a slightly lower pitch, and also make it ring on longer, ALL of this is possible. * Learning this machine really is not that hard. Can be done within a good weekend. All in all, this machine is amazing. I am a heavy metal guitarist, and I record my own tracks on a Tascam DP-02, and this works great in conjunction with that. This machine works very well with the metal genre, or rock, or any genre at all. It lets me put together full length tracks (from all of my combined patterns I made), does very very well using it in a double bass aspect (you can program the bass to sound like double bass, and as fast as you want), and you end up with very realistic sounding drum tracks! Since I play metal, this is VERY important, since it's hard to find a good drum machine that can go with the metal genre. Last, all I have to do is plug it into my Tascam recorder, and record! Love it! This sounds amazing! The one and ONLY downside to this is the fact that there is NO connection to connect it to your computer. I want to make this clear. There is a way to hook up through your instrument cable connections, but then I'm not sure how this hooks to your computer through a 1/4" cable connection. But all I have to do is record them into my Tascam, then send them to my computer, where I can save them for later. Hope this helps, and sorry about rambling. Any questions, feel free to comment and I will surely answer them for you the best I can, to help out. Review: AWESOME! - Ok, I JUST received this yesterday. BUT, I have been using the SR16 for over 15 years and used the HR16 before it since the 80s. As some have said, right away you can hear the improvement in the sound, not that the SR16 sounded bad... but this sounds great. I have yet to build my own patterns with this but I see all the familiar buttons to do that, so I suspect it will be very similar to the SR16, which was easy to use, though certainly time consuming to build the patterns, but thats ok. I have gone through about 10 of the patterns so far only because I plugged in my guitar and jammed on each one. Here are the early thoughts: Number 1, if you are a guitarist who has to jam alone a lot, you are going to absolutely love this thing because of the fact that you can get some really nice drum and bass going on at the same time. The pads that give you the drums also give you the notes for the bass for you to program that. Each of the patterns I whipped through took me into different guitar ideas and such, same as jamming with a live drummer and bassist would do. It was fun... and, you know, if you ever have to spontaneously just play SOMETHING for someone it kinda sucks when there is only guitar unless you are a world class guitarist. With this, you get the drums and bass along with you and it makes what you do sound more interesting. Number 2, I think the existing patterns are pretty cool for jamming, but they seem a bit busy for recording... so look at this drum machine as a tool in that its greatest use out of the box is jamming... and then you get the bonus of having the ability to program it for song demos. I have a real drumset and mics and processors and let me tell you trying to record good sounding acoustic drums is a nightmare. In the end the better sounds of a good drum machine, while not always as organic as you'd like still lead to a better sounding demo most of the time compared to live drums in a home demo situation. Number 3, reiterating Number 1, if you are a guitarist or keyboardist... really... the ability to have bass involved as well as drums is AWESOME. I thought the bass would just be a nice little bonus.. its done better than that to make it more than a little thing. I read many reviews on here of people downplaying the bass feature saying they would record their own bass. I agree with them... when recording, you would. But... for simple fun and jamming... this rocks. My SR16 is still going strong. The only reason I really got this one is because I thought it might be fun to keep one drum machine by my recording unit and one by my keyboard amp for quick live jamming (its no fun always having to unplug and reconnect in different spots) and then I searched desertcart for drum machines and saw Alesis had put out this newer model that I was never aware of. I would say, for any guitarist, its hard to spend $200 and get a tool/toy better than this! Now the trouble is I will want the SR18 in both locations. If you are not sure whether the SR18 is worth the extra cost from the SR16, TRUST ME... it IS!!! I will update the review in the future if I have anything significant to add... but in an hour or so of jamming, I already think this has proven to be a fantastic purchase! ## Features - A Studio Icon - Legendary classic drum machine for songwriters, live performers and remix engineers - In Demand Sound - 233 professional sounds included, built-in digital effects for added realism and powered by Alesis exclusive Dynamic Articulation - Seamless MIDI Connectivity - Complete MIDI support for use with keyboards, computers, DAWs and electronic drum kits - Connectivity Covered - 4 (stereo pairs) outputs; 2-function footswitch jacks for start/stop and count/A/B/fill - Production-Ready Features - Sound stacking, step editing, stereo samples with reverb and ambience - Professional drum machine with 12 velocity sensitive pads (with Dynamic Articulation(TM)) - 50 Preset / 50 User drum kits with 233 sounds assignable to any pad ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | B0002CZYW0 | | Best Sellers Rank | #5,572 in Musical Instruments ( See Top 100 in Musical Instruments ) #6 in Drum Machines | | Body Material | Plastic | | Brand | Alesis | | Brand Name | Alesis | | Color | Black | | Connector Type | MIDI USB | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,167 Reviews | | Global Trade Identification Number | 00694318001004 | | Included Components | Power Supply, SR16 Drum Machine, Safety and Warranty Information, User Manual | | Item Dimensions | 9.25 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches | | Item Type Name | SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine With On-Board Sound Library, Performance Driven I/O and In-Built Effects | | Item Weight | 2.5 Pounds | | Item dimensions L x W x H | 9.25 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches | | Manufacturer | inMusic Brands Inc. | | Material | plastic | | Model Name | SR16 | | Model Number | SR16 | | Part Number | SR16 | | Set Name | Drum Machine Set | | UPC | 694318001004 | | Unit Count | 1.0 Count | | Warranty Description | 1 year manufacturer. | ## Product Details - **Brand:** Alesis - **Color:** Black - **Item dimensions L x W x H:** 9.25 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches - **Material:** plastic - **Model Name:** SR16 ## Images ![Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/715Ftfify8L.jpg) ![Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81nCOklpEmL.jpg) ![Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81RTkqRvk+L.jpg) ![Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71pUskj1CfL.jpg) ![Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance-Driven I/O and In-Built Effects - Image 5](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Iwh9UnJnL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Size, Style** options. ## Questions & Answers **Q: Do I have to plug the machine into en amp? My hammon organ feeds directly into the leslie.** A: You can play it directly through the organ/Leslie. Remove the back off the organ, and on the organ's AO-28 preamp where the volume pedal linkage attaches, you'll see a female RCA phono jack. Purchase a male RCA to male 1/4 TR cable to connect the two. Please note that the Hammond's auxiliary input is very high impedance (it was originally designed for commodity crystal phonograph cartridges of the 50's and 60's), so the cable must be of high quality and well shielded or it will pick up hum. The drum machine won't sound bad with the Leslie is on Chorale/slow, actually kind of a nice effect, however won't sound proper when the Leslie is in tremolo. I used this configuration for years, and is great if the organ is in a living room or other space not conducive for dedicated speakers. However, when you do go the latter route, get studio monitors or equivalent. Common speakers, such as pirated from a surround sound system (even if high end) don't cut it. The drums will sound distant and cheap. **Q: Can anyone who has purchased an sr18 from amazon confirm that the velocity sensitivity of the pads works as it should? and keeps working over time?** A: Others seem to say theirs works fine. But my unit does NOT have working velocity sensitive pads. The settings menu can set a fixed velocity, or soft/medium/hard settings that are supposed to be dynamic velocity. But on my unit it makes no difference, regardless if it's a soft or hard hit on the pads. It's either 0% or 100%. I work around the issue using a Korg NanoPAD2 hooked into a MIDI USB Host (by Kenton but others work), and use the Korg Kontrol editor software to set all pads on the NanoPAD2 to MIDI channel 10. The NanoPAD2 has actual velocity sensitive pads that work with the SR18, and even has 4 more pads (16 versus 12). Since you can use the Kontrol editor to set the MIDI notes, you can have your own kit layouts set to one of 4 "scenes" without changing the SR18 kits settings. (But you can still change things on the SR18 side if needed.) Because the sound quality is so good with the SR18 and it has a lot of other good features, I forgive it for this one nuisance because I think I would use the NanoPAD2 anyway even if the SR18 pads did work properly. **Q: Does this have pre-programmed, automatically generated beats that you can't remove?** A: That is correct. It has 50 pre-programmed styles, with an A version and a B version, for a total of 100 beats. You can also program your own beats. **Q: What kind of speaker system is recommended with this drum machine** A: There are no speakers recommended for this product. It's a matter of your personal preference and depends entirely on the application. Desk top computer, studio house, studio near field or club system speakers, it does not matter. It's the best bang for your buck... Period. I bought a Machinedrum MK whatever (from Sweden last year) for $1,200 and sold it. It was a good drum unit if you're a DJ, but if you're a composing "musician" forget it. The SR18 is great... I'm a producer and I say buy it, try it... It doesn't matter if you're using. "Yamaha" or Bose... It delivers with speakers made by anyone at any price and any size. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Alesis SR18 Drum Machine with Effects Engine *by V***E on March 31, 2010* The Alesis SR18 Drum Machine is amazing. I have had many problems with every computer based drum machine program. It's not that they didn't work right, but the fact that they just weren't for me. I am very good with computers, do photography editing, and music editing, etc, all on the few computers I own. As far as doing drums on my computer, It just wasn't clicking. Everyone has to find their path of least resistance, and THEIR best method for doing things, since everybody is different and everyone has their own path of least resistance. Hence, to each, their own. What works best and is the easiest for one person, may be the most complicated for the other. What is most complicated for you, may be the easiest for the other person. Basically what I am saying is this drum machine, once in my hands, really clicked. This was MY path of least resistance. It's good to know I can sit down with this machine, and only this machine, and make full drum tracks. As far as some people saying this is so hard to use, or takes a couple months, for me it took two days. Hence, 6 one way, half dozen the other. The first day I just messed with it, without directions. It was confusing. The second day, I read the directions, and by the end of the second day, I had already made three full length drum tracks, doing everything from customizing my entire drum set and sounds, making a bunch of patterns, and then piecing all those patterns together to make tracks. Ok, so now for what it can do: * I saw one review where they said you cannot change the length of the patterns. This is not true. You CAN indeed change the length of the patterns. You can use whatever tempo you want, 120, 140, whatever, and you can make the patterns 4 beats long, or 8, or 16, etc. * You can customize your own drum setup, so you have have a couple bass, etc. Rule of thumb if you are trying to re-create double bass, is to make two sounds, almost identical, BUT make the second sound a little different tonewise. Because in real life, you can tell the difference between both bass drums. This makes it sound more realistic. * There are a TON of different sound variations for every kind of drum sound you want. * You can tweak each individual sound. For instance, if I find a crash I like, but think to myself that I want it to sound softer, offset it to the right a little, change the pitch to a slightly lower pitch, and also make it ring on longer, ALL of this is possible. * Learning this machine really is not that hard. Can be done within a good weekend. All in all, this machine is amazing. I am a heavy metal guitarist, and I record my own tracks on a Tascam DP-02, and this works great in conjunction with that. This machine works very well with the metal genre, or rock, or any genre at all. It lets me put together full length tracks (from all of my combined patterns I made), does very very well using it in a double bass aspect (you can program the bass to sound like double bass, and as fast as you want), and you end up with very realistic sounding drum tracks! Since I play metal, this is VERY important, since it's hard to find a good drum machine that can go with the metal genre. Last, all I have to do is plug it into my Tascam recorder, and record! Love it! This sounds amazing! The one and ONLY downside to this is the fact that there is NO connection to connect it to your computer. I want to make this clear. There is a way to hook up through your instrument cable connections, but then I'm not sure how this hooks to your computer through a 1/4" cable connection. But all I have to do is record them into my Tascam, then send them to my computer, where I can save them for later. Hope this helps, and sorry about rambling. Any questions, feel free to comment and I will surely answer them for you the best I can, to help out. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ AWESOME! *by J***H on December 12, 2012* Ok, I JUST received this yesterday. BUT, I have been using the SR16 for over 15 years and used the HR16 before it since the 80s. As some have said, right away you can hear the improvement in the sound, not that the SR16 sounded bad... but this sounds great. I have yet to build my own patterns with this but I see all the familiar buttons to do that, so I suspect it will be very similar to the SR16, which was easy to use, though certainly time consuming to build the patterns, but thats ok. I have gone through about 10 of the patterns so far only because I plugged in my guitar and jammed on each one. Here are the early thoughts: Number 1, if you are a guitarist who has to jam alone a lot, you are going to absolutely love this thing because of the fact that you can get some really nice drum and bass going on at the same time. The pads that give you the drums also give you the notes for the bass for you to program that. Each of the patterns I whipped through took me into different guitar ideas and such, same as jamming with a live drummer and bassist would do. It was fun... and, you know, if you ever have to spontaneously just play SOMETHING for someone it kinda sucks when there is only guitar unless you are a world class guitarist. With this, you get the drums and bass along with you and it makes what you do sound more interesting. Number 2, I think the existing patterns are pretty cool for jamming, but they seem a bit busy for recording... so look at this drum machine as a tool in that its greatest use out of the box is jamming... and then you get the bonus of having the ability to program it for song demos. I have a real drumset and mics and processors and let me tell you trying to record good sounding acoustic drums is a nightmare. In the end the better sounds of a good drum machine, while not always as organic as you'd like still lead to a better sounding demo most of the time compared to live drums in a home demo situation. Number 3, reiterating Number 1, if you are a guitarist or keyboardist... really... the ability to have bass involved as well as drums is AWESOME. I thought the bass would just be a nice little bonus.. its done better than that to make it more than a little thing. I read many reviews on here of people downplaying the bass feature saying they would record their own bass. I agree with them... when recording, you would. But... for simple fun and jamming... this rocks. My SR16 is still going strong. The only reason I really got this one is because I thought it might be fun to keep one drum machine by my recording unit and one by my keyboard amp for quick live jamming (its no fun always having to unplug and reconnect in different spots) and then I searched Amazon for drum machines and saw Alesis had put out this newer model that I was never aware of. I would say, for any guitarist, its hard to spend $200 and get a tool/toy better than this! Now the trouble is I will want the SR18 in both locations. If you are not sure whether the SR18 is worth the extra cost from the SR16, TRUST ME... it IS!!! I will update the review in the future if I have anything significant to add... but in an hour or so of jamming, I already think this has proven to be a fantastic purchase! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nothing better for the money, pattern creation is easy but includes some extra steps *by B***. on July 3, 2026* If you need a drum machine with acoustic drum sounds this is a solid choice. The sounds are decent and familiar. I have had one of these since they came out and this is my 2nd one. The first one didn't break I loaned it to someone that made off with it. I'm sure it's still working after 35 plus years. These things are ultra durable. You can route the outputs so you get a discrete kick and snare from the left and right main output and the toms and cymbals in stereo from the aux out which gives you more options when mixing. Programming in real time or step is easy to understand as is stitching patterns together into songs. It would be five stars but the pads are awful, tiny, and don't trigger consistently so tapping in parts in real time is inconsistent. The best solution I have found is to start with the pads set to fixed velocity, record your pattern in real time and the use step mode to adjust the velocity of the performance and parts that are too fast and close together for the pads to trigger in real time. The process isn't hard it's just a little more time consuming than it would be on a machine that has better pads. The only other options that provide similar functionality are three times the price. If you are looking for a drum machine that you can play finger drums on the sr16 is not for you. It's great for recording or using live for simple A/B fill functionality. If you have a MIDI controller you could use the MIDI IN to get around the issue with the pads by triggering it from a keyboard. This little guy is part of my "song writing setup" which is an old Zoom R24. I like to limit my options when writing so I don't wind up doom scrolling through all of the sounds and options that working in a DAW provides. Once it's time for production I can move to my DAW by transferring the audio files. This machine has physical midi ins and outs so I can transfer the MIDI performance as if I want to replace the drum sounds with something different. If you like to work in an old school "a thing does a thing" workflow this is a very useful little machine. ## Frequently Bought Together - Alesis SR-16 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine With On-Board Sound Library, Performance Driven I/O and In-Built Effects - HQRP Foot Switch сompatible with Alesis SR-16 SR-18 Roland CR-1000 Drum Machine DP-2 Damper Sustain Pedal - Alesis ASP-1 MKII Universal Sustain Pedal and Momentary Footswitch with 5ft Cable and Non Slip Bottom --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ae/products/13790991-alesis-sr-16-studio-grade-standalone-drum-machine-with-on](https://www.desertcart.ae/products/13790991-alesis-sr-16-studio-grade-standalone-drum-machine-with-on) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Arab Emirates* *Store origin: AE* *Last updated: 2026-07-10*