This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Alesis SR-16 MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Alesis SR-16: what it answers to.

At a glance

Firmware

Not recorded.

MIDI channel

Any one of 1 to 16.

Voices

16.

Notes

Each note plays a drum of its own, assigned by the player; the factory notes are listed below.

Note range

Not recorded.

Velocity

Sent and received.

Aftertouch

Not recorded.

Pitch bend

Not recorded.

Program change

Received, with 100 presets.

MIDI clock

Sent and received.

Start and stop

Sent and received.

Control change

None.

NRPN

None.

System exclusive

Supported.

Drum notes

Each drum's note is assigned by the player, and these are the notes it has from the factory.

Where these facts come from

Source documents

• SR-16 Reference Manual, Rev C, its user manual, read on 9 October 2026 ([the file read](https://www.alesis.com/rscdn/920/documents/SR16 Reference Rev C.pdf)).

How they were read

The SR-16 Reference Manual, revision C, 72 sheets: the voices and their velocity at p. 4, the drum sets at p. 29, the voice count at p. 33, the MIDI setup chapter at pp. 42 to 48, system exclusive backup at pp. 49 to 51, the software version at p. 56, synchronisation at pp. 57 and 58, and the MIDI supplement at pp. 62 to 64.

THE MANUAL IS ALESIS'S OWN FILE, AND NO CURRENT PAGE OF ALESIS'S LINKS IT. It is served from alesis.com; the PDF's own title is SR-16 Reference Manual, the file's name says Rev C, and its back page prints 7-51-1023-C (manual sheet 72). The SR-16's page on Alesis's drums site, which still sells it, names no document, and the site's downloads page lists other products and not the SR-16.

ALESIS IS THE THIRTY-THIRD MAKER HERE AND THIS IS ITS FIRST INSTRUMENT, so nothing in this account leans on a habit of the maker's, and nothing should be taken from it for the next.

NO CONTROLLER IS NAMED IN A WHOLE MANUAL, WHICH IS THE ROUTE behringer/rd_9 TAKES TO none. No page names a control change, a controller number or a non-registered parameter; the word controller appears five times, each for a device that sends MIDI, such as "an external MIDI controller (MIDI drum pads, MIDI keyboard, etc.)" (manual p. 42). This is a reference manual with a MIDI setup chapter of seven pages and a MIDI supplement that lists the messages a pad produces, so its silence is evidence, as the RD-9's 38 pages are. It prints no MIDI implementation chart.

TWELVE PADS, AND THE NOTES ARE DEFAULTS SET ON THE INSTRUMENT. "This page determines which MIDI in NOTE will trigger a pad, or MIDI out note will be produced if you play a pad." (manual p. 44), and "MIDI note assignments are not individually selectable for each Pattern." (manual p. 44). "The default note assignments are:" (manual p. 44) twelve rows, Kick on 36 to Perc 1 on 65, with key names that put 36 at C1 and so middle C at C3: "Middle C is 60." (manual p. 63). The table names each row by its sound and prints no pad numbers, so the voices below are named as it names them. Twelve notes is the default and not a rule: two pads given one note stack into one sound (manual p. 60). The map is changed on the instrument itself, so note_map is learned, and the twelve below are where it starts. Until 2026-10-13 the field was left unset.

AND A SECOND MAP REACHES 120 NOTES. In the Note Map's MULTI-DRUMSET mode the twelve pads of ten drum sets answer to notes 0 to 119, twelve to a drum set with pad 1 on every C (manual pp. 47 and 48): "Any of these drumset groups can cover MIDI notes 000 through 119." (manual p. 47). The page puts it "Within each Pattern, MIDI notes can either be mapped to 12 different sounds in NORMAL mode" (manual p. 47) but does not say whether that choice is kept for a pattern, a drum set or the instrument, and prints no display or instruction for it. In that mode a program change from 00 to 49 selects a drum set group (manual p. 47), and "Note that while in this mode, you cannot record notes into a Pattern via MIDI." (manual p. 47). The twelve voices below are the normal mode's.

NOTES ARE SENT AND RECEIVED, EACH BEHIND A SWITCH. DRUM IN takes notes with one of two velocity curves, "ON V1 is a normal linear velocity curve" (manual p. 43), or ignores them, and DRUM OUT sends them: "To have the SR-16 output MIDI note data from pad hits or when playing a Pattern/Song, use the INC/DEC buttons to select ON." (manual p. 43). "Playing a pad on the SR-16 produces the following MIDI data:" (manual p. 63) a note on, a note off and a velocity, whose range it gives as 1 to 127, though the pads resolve eight levels and no page says which values those go out as; and sounds triggered by MIDI "respond to all 127 MIDI volume levels" (manual p. 4). So velocity is recorded both ways.

SIXTEEN VOICES. "The SR-16 can play up to 16 voices at a time" (manual p. 33), from twelve pads.

A HUNDRED DRUM SETS BY PROGRAM CHANGE. "There are 50 preset Drum Sets and 50 user-programmable Drum Sets." (manual p. 29), and with PRG CHNG on, "Program Changes 00-49 select the 50 User Drum Sets. Program Changes 50-99 select Preset Drum Sets 00-49." (manual p. 47); "Program Changes 100-127 select User Drum Sets 00-27." (manual p. 47). No page says the SR-16 sends a program change.

CLOCK AND START BOTH WAYS, AND STOP SENT, ON WHAT A MASTER AND A SLAVE DO. CLOCK IN and CLOCKOUT are two settings (manual p. 45), and "The SR-16 emits 24 timing messages per quarter note." (manual p. 64). No page names start or stop as a message the SR-16 sends or receives; the sync chapter says what each end does. As the master it drives slaves set "to accept external MIDI Clock and Start/Stop data." (manual p. 57), and as a slave "Press PLAY on the system master. The SR-16 should start at the same time, and progress at the same tempo." (manual p. 58), which is why a module should "set CLOCK IN to OFF so that timing signals don't start playing a Pattern" (manual p. 45). No page describes a received stop, and none names continue. Song position is described both ways too - "If the slaves respond to Song Position Pointer, you can start an SR-16 Song at any point" (manual p. 57) and "If the master generates Song Position Pointer, you can start the master at any point, and both units will synchronize from that point on." (manual p. 58) - which this format has no field for.

THE CHANNEL AND THE MODE. "The display shows the MIDI CHannel (1-16) or Omni." (manual p. 42), and "00 selects Omni mode." (manual p. 42), in which it "receives data appearing on any of the 16 MIDI channels; transmits data over channel 1" (manual p. 42); the supplement names the two modes, Omni On/Poly, Mode 1, and Omni Off/Poly, Mode 3 (manual p. 64). No page says which the SR-16 starts in, so the mode is not recorded. None of the nine MIDI setup pages prints a default: their pictures of the display show OMNI, ON V1, OFF, ON, ON, OFF and OFF (manual pp. 42 to 47), which are one display's settings and are not carried. "All the parameters on the following pages remain as set, even if you turn off power, until changed." (manual p. 42).

SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE CARRIES PATTERNS, SONGS AND DRUM SETS. The backup chapter sends "all Patterns, Songs, and Drum Setups" (manual p. 50) to a storage device or another SR-16; single patterns, pads' parts, drum sets and songs go to another SR-16 too (manual pp. 27, 28 and 41); and "The SR-16 will automatically load SR-16 system exclusive data present at its MIDI input." (manual p. 51). No layout is printed.

NOT NAMED ANYWHERE as a message the SR-16 sends or receives: pitch bend, aftertouch, NRPN, RPN, all notes off, local control, active sensing, continue and song select. Pitch bend and the modulation wheel appear only in the supplement's general account of MIDI (manual p. 62), and the supplement says the SR-16 offers modes 1 and 3 without saying it answers to the mode messages (manual p. 64).