I've owned this Electronic Drumset for about a month now, and every review of it I've read said the exact same thing "great as a practice set, but not the kind of set you would want to play out" I really can't agree more.
The stand: The stand is mainly aluminum bars which are good for making it cheap and light. The latter being both a good and bad thing depending on how you look at it. Light weight = easily manageable, but also means it moves around a lot while you're playing.
The kick pad: on the flip side of that, the kick pad is pretty good at staying put. Of course it helps that I've got the whole set sitting on top of a set of puzzle piece gym flooring, as well as the spikes down from both the kick stand and the pedal as far out as they will go. For the Pad itself, I don't have too many bad things to say about it. it's great in that it accommodates a double kick pedal, which has helped immensely with my foot work. it doesn't exactly feel like a real kick drum, but I'd say it's about as close as you'll get with a pad this size. The kick also very rarely misses a trigger.
Drum pads: if I had to rate the pads on a scale of 1-10, I'd give them a 5. They're definitely 100 times better than the practice pad setup I had been using before, However, there are much better quality Electronic drumsets out there for a hell of a lot more money which more accurately replicate the Real drum feel. These also rarely miss a trigger, but the Velocity sensitive nature of the pads leaves a lot to be desired. This may have more to do with the Drum Brain than the pads (I don't have another to test this theory), but occasionally some pads go from tap tap to THUUUD! with the smallest of differences in stroke.
The DM5 Pro Brain: This is definitely one of this set's biggest shortcomings. If I had the choice to improve one thing about this set, it would definitely be this. First off, being that I use this primarily as a practice set, I can't emphasize how badly this thing needs a METRONOME. seriously. I've resorted to putting an ear bud in my ear under my headphones just so I can keep time more easily while practicing. Secondly, the idea that this set might be useful as a Midi Controller for recording purposes was pretty much crushed right from the first attempt. Yes, it does work as a make shift Midi Controller, if you don't mind about a half second to a second's worth of latency. (depending on how many notes you've just hit) Also, please somebody correct me on this because I want to be wrong, but the ability to change each pad's output to a different Midi note really shouldn't affect The input to the controller.... or in simpler terms, when you set it up to run a certain set of notes on your computer (via midi) it shouldn't change the notes on your pads when you listen to the headphones through the drum brain. snare on the crash cymbal... cowbell on the kick... dumb. just dumb. Not to be completely down on it though, this drum brain does provide a fair variety of semi-decent drum sounds to play around with. Extremely refreshing to change it up once in a while and give you a different perspective on your playing. And it does have a few extra plugs in the back to provide for expansion if you choose to add a cymbal.
The Cymbal Pads: Highly dependent on how you set up the drum brain. I've seen complaints on other sites about how "this cymbal misfires, and there's too much cross talk" These kinds of problems are Fixable through the DM5 Pro. I won't say "easily fixable" because it does take some tinkering and experimenting, but when you get it set up right it's manageable. As for the plastic wing-nuts that hold down the cymbals between the felts, they tend to come loose occasionally. This is probably easily fixable with some locktite or something, but I just haven't tried yet. there's really not much sense in setting the cymbals loosely between the felts. it doesn't make them feel real, and usually just causes more problems with triggering than it's worth. The Hihat was my biggest issue at first, I had huge problems with my style of playing (accenting the 1's and 3's) when the hat was "open" because one of the notes was making it mis-trigger and make a super quiet hihat sound that cut off the loud open sound. (long dumb explanation I realize, but if you play them you'll see what I mean) but all of that is fixable if you change around the drum brain settings.
Overall: I still believe this Technology is ridiculously overpriced, but I suppose with a small target group of customers you have to price to stay in business. This Electronic drum set is definitely on the lower end of ALL E-Drum sets, but I'd say this is on the higher end of it's price class. If you're looking for a great set to practice on at times when you can't be loud, I'd say this is the way to go, but I wouldn't get my hopes up too high on the versatility. It was worth the money to me, but if I wanted an electronic drumset to play out or record with, I'd definitely fork over the extra bucks for a better set.
-B- |
Pros- This kit is a great deal for drummers. It's very realistic just like an acoustic drum set you can upgrade the symbol pads to real looking symbols with electronic symbols. Sound input is great I would recommend a Simmons DA50S Amp or DA200 watt Simmons amp. I have the 200 watt amp simmons and it sounds great, well balanced tone . The module is very easy to use. Also alot of sound choices to add for cuostom drum kit
Cons- Hi hat pedal has a little lag on to it. But with a pedal upgrade buyers will be happy. Takes alittle time to get use to the module controls to adjust the drums. Along with setting up was alittle confusing.
Note: I would'nt let the cons stop you from buying this kit it's a very good sounding kit, support from Alesis is very postive, more you play it the better you'll get an understanding on the sound,tuning from the module,along with how hard you wantit to sound when playing. Would recommend for drummers !!! |
"an Okay buy for the money"
"Shipped an Empty box!!!"