I had an Alesis drum machine back in the mid 90's. It was basic, and looked fairly similar to this one. I never really figured how to take full advantage of all its features, but there were enough pre loaded beats to be useful. Over 20 years later, I seem to have a newer and better version of the old one. It sounds great. I just don't have a lot of patience, but the basic functions are easy enough to figure out.