Alesis SR-18 - Studio-Grade Standalone Drum Machine with On-Board Sound Library, Performance Driven I/O and In-Built Effects / Processors

This drum machine was recommended to me by a musician friend. It was a top tip! It’s a fantastic piece of kit. I’m no techie, but I found this fairly intuitive to use. So good to be able to create my own percussion patterns and change them with a foot pedal (needs to be bought separately, but only £12). Drum sounds are very authentic too. Recommended.

Why do you think these are still in production for more than 30years.? Absolute workhorse. Admittedly out of the box they have a distinctly 80s shoulder pad vibes, wide stereo bass drums anyone? But with a little coaxing and a saturator pedal and/or compressor these little babies can tear up the room. I call mine Tina :)I sold my all singing dancing Roland TR-6S as it just had 2010s demo energy, menu diving for days and ton of noise. Never looked back, me and Tina are beyond the thunderdome. Yeah!

Great piece of kit.

SR16 or SR18, Trying to decide?I’m a guitarist, but I wanted a drum machine, I don’t know why, but I did. I’ve a Beatbuddy Mini 2 which gets mixed reviews, but which I find exceedingly fun pedal to play along to at home, but I wanted something with midi and more programable.I bought both the SR16 and SR18 to compare. Here are my first impressions for anyone trying to decide between the two, I hope it helps.They both have impressive (yet retro) drum sounds, very usable and recordable with a little tweaking. They both have a learning curve, luckily, Alesis have good manuals included in the box. Side by side, the differences are notable.Sizewise, the SR16 is smaller, but not by much, the SR18 seems more ‘professional’ in build quality, though both of these units have a reputation for being very reliable. The keys are bigger, more tactile (and have a nice ‘zx spectrum’ rubber vibe!) I found the SR16 to be a little hit-and-miss when tying to 'tap' at the relative pressures, both are velocity sensitive, but the SR18s are a lot easier to use for input. Also, the spin wheel is better and the layout is less cramped, that little extra real estate is put to good use. It’s not perfect, but the revisions make it easier and more rewarding to use. The unlit display on the SR16 is a huge oversight and should have been corrected even if it meant adding another to the price. I can’t imagine using it on a dim stage... at all. The SR18’s display is limited by modern standards, but is large, well lit and easy to read at a glance.Drum sounds are personal taste, both machines included some good kits. The SR18 adds ‘play along bass’ which can be turned off. For some reason, only the SR18 can run truly portable (6x AA batteries) which seems another cost-cut too far for the SR16. A design choice as strange as omitting a backlight for something so portable.I would have loved to see the keys backlit on both models or at least the more essential ones ‘bordered’ with a glow to aid navigation, it seems a standard these days on other equipment, even at this price point.Your mileage may vary of course, but as soon as I took the SR18 out of the box, I knew the little brother SR16 was going back to meet its maker. It's not a bad machine - at all! But you can see where the extra money went, the SR18 is more suitable if you want to break out of the bedroom and perform live, and I'm sure many solo and duo acts are using it, as you are reading this overview. Which must be a recommendation, of sorts .SR16 / Three StarsSR18 / Four Stars

Great drum sounds - can build your own kit from various samples - can write in real time from patterns - can programme patterns to songs- can use step mode to fine tune song patterns - really versitile and so well thought out function wise - can use it live or for home recording - has been used in professional recordings- best drum machine I have ever owned

I seen many reviews complaing about the bass lines that play along with each preset that it couldn't be turned off clearly didn't bother to read the manual .. press and hold mute then press bass and same for percussion . This machine is incredibly flexible easy to programme and has the bonus of being able to program actual bass lines in for full songs . Perfect for what I needed I would give it six stars azing value for money

Bought as present for my husband who is absolutely thrilled with it! Says "It's the Bomb" !! 😁

Lack of sensitivity in the pads makes it very difficult to programme in real time.