Alesis SR-16

Elegant, Modern Slab

Nobody is raving about it, it is not coveted or collected, yet it has been in production for like 20 years. This is possibly the best selling drum machine ever, if only because of its super-long market life. I had it once, got rid of it and bought another one a few years later.

What's the secret? Well, the thing just plain works. It's got a 200+ samples, it uses dynamic articulation to change up samples as you play/program louder or softer, making for an unusually realistic sound to the ear, in my opinion. You have all your techno sounds, all big rock sounds, percussion sounds, basically every drum sound you'd need.

The programming is easy too, and it makes for a really good playback module. With midi you get an enormous amount of sounds mapped across the range of midi key numbers.

It also looks very simple and streamlined, it's design an elegant, simple, unobtrusive modern slab.

At least that's my theory why it's still selling. Hey I just may get another one tomorrow. I'm having some serious nostalgia for the thing right now.