Day One Review
 
So my Alesis SR-18 arrived yesterday, which I'd bought second-hand on eBay. I proceeded to spend the rest of the day happily playing along with it and oscillating between polar opinions; one minute it was pure joy, the next it was a worthless piece of sh...er questionable engineering choices.
 
Gripe #1: the automated bass is useless, and you can't have it off by default. You have to mute the bass every time you turn the thing on.
 
Gripe #2: and this is the big one, tempos are stored with the patterns. That means when you select a patch preset, it comes up at the tempo it was saved at. This makes it impossible to try different patterns while you're playing, something I've done with every other drum machine I've had. WTF were they thinking?
 
Gripe #3: changing tempo during playback is a two-handed operation. You have to hold the Tempo button down while incrementing or decrementing the tempo in steps of 1 with the up- and down-arrow buttons. Obviously impossible to do while you're playing your instrument, unless you're using a (shudder) looper. The guy in that new FabFilter video would have no problem.
 
Gripe #4: 99% of the factory patterns are overly busy, making them pretty much unusable. It sounds like the drummer's on meth. I will have to spend a long time programming this thing before I can ever use it live.
 
Gripe #5: there is no organization to the factory patches. You'd think "Rock 1" would be followed by "Rock 2", wouldn't you? Nope, if you start up Rock 1 the next one in the list is "Blues 1". Rock 2 is after that and Rock 3 is 12 more selections down the list, with various Hip-Hop and Techno beatz in between. Rock 1 comes up at 130 BPM, but don't jump over to Rock 2 while you're playing because that'll switch you over to 95 BPM.
 
Those are just the first day's complaints. I'm sure there will be more as I gain experience.
 
How is it that Japanese engineers have given us so many marvelous-sounding devices over the years but never figured out the black art of user-friendly UIs? 
 

Well, then I am glad I got the SR16 and if I decide to get the SR18, it will be to use as a sound module.
Those are some pretty weird choices Alesis made! The SR16 will stick around longer, but the SR18 will probably get upgraded from those reports. I imagine you are not the only griper! LOL
Michael

I would have thought "gripe one" would have been the sounds and overuse of reverb!!   But you watched the Youtube and were warned!!  Actually, a huge success story for Alesis and their drum machine lines.  I had a HR-16 that I wore out and bought SR16 for gifts, when I saw them for $40 used in the stores.  Lots of times they had nifty road cases with them that fit sooo perfect too.
I personally used a Digitech JamMan as it could record 16hrs of .wav files.  No...you couldn't really jam if you had a prerecorded drum track...but I put a couple of fav patterns in for that.
However, I can spot an Alesis drum sound from a mile, nowadays.
Good luck!!

FWIW, last year I started using my iPad for live gigs, including a one-man show. It worked very well, indeed, and have since used it again in a band situation where we had no drummer (just rehearsal so far).  Using apps such as Amplitude studio, I transferred songs I created in Sonar by exporting the VST tracks as audio, then importing them into Amplitude Studio via wi-fi (very easy, actually).  THen for live performance, I hook up my Roland RD 300 via an iRig pro interface, use apps such as Sample Tank for IOS and voila, I have a pretty dang good live performance rig that is super easy to carry, too! 
For a long time I resisted the idea of using an iphone or iPad to create or perform music, but now the quality of the samples makes it very possible and even desireable. There are some minor issues and limitations, and other programs I have, such as Cubasis for IOS, seem a little more complex and unreliable, albeit with more features. The samples are not as good as you get with a high quality VST such as Orangetree samples for Kontakt, etc., but it's pretty good enough, and the imported tracks have the same high quality as their original source, of course.
Expensive? Well, yes, a bit...apps aren't too bad but an iPad with enough horsepower and storage space is top of the line, only. But still a lot less than a laptop would be.  
I think the revolution has arrived, and I might be an older guy, but I like it just fine.

That fun is the best part of whatever you paid for it, regardless of the learning curve or limitations! So, congratulations!
Michael

There was a time when I almost tossed my 505 in the trash becuase it just sat in a deep box of old gear and never saw the light of day for 10 years. But then I found a use for it as a way to record myself and clients when we didn't use a real drummer. 
Over time I've used it many different ways including midi sync to my Atari. 
 
Now I leave it plugged into the midi input/output of my interface and use it from time to time to determine the tempo of a song. Sonars tempo control requires a lot more fuss than the big knob of the 505. Once the tempo is determined you can then set Sonars tempo and use the midi output to sync the drum machine. Now the clock will be solid. The 505 drifts because of the static knob. 
Not only that but I don't use the internal sounds. I just point the midi input at Session Drummer. This way you can also turn down part you don't need and say, just have a hi hat or kick. 
So the result is a quick and easy drum machine pattern to help get a song going and without the annoying old school sounds. I just find it very convenient to work this way. I also find it faster to be able to switch patterns on the fly as the client plays until you find a good match for the song and they agree. My 505 is laid out in a logical way and I have it memorized. 
Sometimes I then record the audio output to a track to use as a quick drum track to build on latter.