| Adam End from Jersey City, NJ |
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| Subject: | First V-Drum Kit and not so happy |
| Quality:
| It's pretty quality. Very sturdy and the cymbals are awesome and it doesn't seem like it was cheaply made. |
| Features:
| The brain comes with liek 20 different preset setting that are ok. None of it blew me away and I was hoping for more crazy stuff. I guess it's kool because I just record the v drums via midi to my presonus and then I can change teh drum sounds to whatever I want through Logic. |
| Sound:
| Don't really like any of the sounds it came with and the triggers are not sensitive at all... I get missed trigered often if i don't pound the crap out of it and even then I still get missed triggers... |
| Overall:
| It's really cheap but you get what you pay for. I am not a drummer. I only got this to play some of my self recordings without making noise and to record others at my lil home studio. |
| Value:
| Really cheap but not a keeper... Go for a roland! That will be my next one. |
| Appearance:
| Looks ok. Wish it had the mesh drum pads but its just black shiny plastic that looks horrid after couple hits. The cymbals look awesome though! |
| Do you own this product?:
| Yes |
| Date submitted:
| 03.18.09 |
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| David Girardin from Prescott AZ |
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| Subject: | Problems with sysex transfer |
| Quality:
| Quality of the hardware and sounds were good, but Alesis should not sell a module that doesn't work with the hardware unless you load an update. |
| Ease of Use:
| This kit is not usable as sold, it must be updated with the sysex data from Alesis via MIDI, which in my case would not work via XP and an EM-U MIDI interface. |
| Sound:
| Some folks complained about the sounds, but I thought they sounded great. Obviously you need to monitor though excellent full range speakers if you want the drums sounds to sound like real drums. |
| Value:
| Value would be good, feel and sounds were very good, but without downloading and installing the sysex dump from Alesis its unusable. Even after working with Alesis I could not get the drum module to accept the sysex dump, so I had to send it back. |
| Durability:
| Fine for studio use |
| Do you own this product?:
| I did, but had to send back |
| Date submitted:
| 2/17/2009 |
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| brian M from DECTAUR ILLINOIS U.S. |
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| Subject: | absolutley amazing!!!!! |
| Quality:
| yes its made well its top notch for the money |
| Ease of Use:
| this thing is very easy to set up, use, and if your not hooked on it in 5 minutes your probly not a drummer |
| Sound:
| so many sounds to choose from its incredible!! |
| Value:
| are you kidding.... i feel guilty for pay so little for it. |
| Durability:
| yes its very sturdy it can take a beating |
| Do you own this product?:
| yes i proudly own it |
| Date submitted:
| 2-1-10 |
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| www.melowilliams.com from Augusta, GA |
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| Subject: | Really good value! |
| Quality:
| I've had this set for 2-3 weeks and they seem to be very sturdy/well-made. I can't see any part of the set needing to be replaced any time soon. (The drums are pretty adjustable on the rack, and the rack is really solid.) |
| Features:
| It's pretty much a standard drumset. Comes with all the necessary cables you'll need to hook it up. I wish it had chokeable cymbals, but I since I use it strictly for production/recording, I can always just cut the note off in the editing stage (on my computer). I'll probably buy another crash to add to it, but that's just my personal preference. Won't take too long to get used to as it is pretty comparable to a real set. Like others have stated, the hats are not exactly like those of a real set, but everything's close enough to get the job done. However, this is just my opinion. I've played around on the drums since I was a kid, but I'm a keyboardist/producer. Still, the drummers I've had playing on them really like them after a few minutes of getting adjusted. |
| Sound:
| DM5 module is pretty basic. Not a whole lot of unnecessary stuff in there, but there's enough to get the job done. (Every once in a while, I find myself playing it using the sounds from my keyboards for all the "extras", but for a standard drum sound, you'll be ok. Be sure to go the Alesis website and undate the DM5 or you will be VERY frustrated. Straight out of the box, the snare rim actually triggers the crash. Imagine that...lol. The update fixes a lot of problems that you'll run into, but after the update, everything's fine. |
| Overall:
| I love this set. I purchased it to give some of my tracks more of a live feel and couldn't be more satisfied. Yeah, you might need to get adjusted to it, but then again, you have to get adjusted to any new set, right? The heads have a nice "bounce". The cymbal feel a little stiff, but you'll get used it. You'll definitely want to use some headphones to overcome the striking noise. But yeah...I love this set! (Again, don't even think about using this set without updating your DM5 module because it's almost unusable unless you do.) |
| Value:
| Great value-especially compared to the competition. (Comes with a pair of sticks and two good drum keys. Don't forget to buy a kick pedal!) |
| Appearance:
| Looks great after you organize the cables. Especially with the real-looking cymbals. |
| Do you own this product?:
| Yep. |
| Date submitted:
| 6-19-09 |
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| YSB from Airmont, NY, USA |
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| Subject: | Could be really great or really lousy depending on your needs |
| Quality:
| Construction quality is about as good as you can get. No set will take unlimited abuse but I really can't think of any part that seems 'cheap' or poorly constructed. |
| Features:
| How good this set is for you depends very much on what you want out of it. For practice and small jobs this set is great. For recording and large performances you could do better.
The weakest item in the set is the module. First, it does not have any form of 'line in' so you have to buy a separate mixer to mix in music while practicing. 16 note polyphony is not enough and causes dropped notes. Not enough sounds or adjustments. Overall not on par.
The drums have real heads, not mesh. The feel is more realistic but they're louder and have less bounce. Good for practice since it feels closer to acoustic but bad for performing. They are replaceable with any 10 inch head. I got a coated head for the snare to get an even better look and feel.
HH pedal is not velocity sensitive which is not good at all.
Surge cymbals are great but the dual-zone on the ride is hard to filter well. Alesis makes chokable surge cymbals but this set doesn't have them since the module won't support it. |
| Sound:
| Sound is OK but not great. It is more than sufficient for practice or small gigs. When higher quality is needed though this module won't cut it. |
| Overall:
| Put a better module on this set and include the chokable cymbals and you have the perfect practice set. For recording, you may still prefer the quieter impact and un-realistic bounce of mesh heads but for practicing, you will be far, far better prepared for acoustic drums if you practice with these drums than if you practice on rubber or mesh heads. If you can do a good roll on these drums you can do a roll on any drum. If you do 1000 great rolls on rubber or mesh you still may not be able to do anything on acoustic drums.
If you are primarily looking for a practice set and the slightly louder impact volume of these heads and cymbals doesn't bother you then this is THE set to get.
For larger gigs you may want to buy the surge cymbals alone and connect them to another set.
For recording this set may not cut it at all. |
| Value:
| When you consider the quality of the parts this set is a bargain at half price IF it satisfies your needs. If you need recording quality, you won't get it from this set. You'll get a really realistic play experience though! |
| Appearance:
| These drums look better that any other electronic set I've EVER seen. The surge cymbals look real. The drums have wood shells with silver-sparkle wrappers. It almost looks like an acoustic travel set. |
| Do you own this product?:
| Yes, for four months. |
| Date submitted:
| 4/24/09 |