| Rick from Utah |
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| Subject: | Great Kit for the price |
| Quality:
| I’ve been playing drums for a long time now so I have tried many different kits. The set is made to take a beating. I played on it every day since I have received it and love it. |
| Features:
| It's got great Features and all is good. I will point out the negatives tho. The hi-hat you really have to push pedal hard to get it to close and the stand for it is hard to use with a double pedal I think I will get a different stand for hi-hat down the road. The brain is great and has lots of cool stuff to play with and play along with also. |
| Sound:
| Okay to start with Cymbals they are great but still don’t sound or feel like the real deal, expected from not being real cymbals. The Module is great and has lots of cool sounds and stuff to play with and tune on your kit just takes some time to play around with. the toms are good and have a good feel have to tune the 3rd tom down some so it don’t sound like a bass drum so much but it’s still cool on some songs that way. Hi-hat I would say is the hardest part having to really put some foot power on pedal to get it to close kind of sucks sometimes but sounds good overall. I still love my acoustic set buy far but sound and practice on this and not bother anyone is awesome. I recommend getting an amp for the kit there not much volume on module. |
| Overall:
| Love the set and sound. It’s great also because the kit feels like more a real setup having hi-hat and extra cymbal and a double kick pedal to play on without up grading bass drum. There allot you can do on set when ya not able to play on an acoustic set or even want to jam in a gig with them. With an amp they jam. When I plug headphones in to amp it works great on sound., with headset plugged into module alone I don’t get enough volume. |
| Value:
| Great value compared to other kits out there. I think rolends still are great but for the price this kit rocks. |
| Appearance:
| Nothing too much here looks like elec kit and just gray and black would have been cool to have different colors tho. |
| Do you own this product?:
| Yes |
| Date submitted:
| 6/11/2009 |
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| Verne from Athens, Georgia, United States |
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| Subject: | Very pleased with purchase |
| Quality:
| All the pads and sound module far surpass what I would expect for an e-kit at this price range. The only part I felt seemed cheaper than expected was the stand. I have owned less expensive Alesis kits in the past and they included much heavier and durable mounting frames than this kit. It is hollow and thin, and to top it off, the red section can be easily scratched with a fingernail (clipped my nails real quick at this discovery). |
| Features:
| To me the best features have to be the trigger module and the cymbals/hihat. Once you customize the kit to your play style it feels very natural to me when compared to an acoustic kit. The amount of trigger and sound customizations far exceeds my expectations. |
| Sound:
| The various preprogrammed kits sound great, but to me, customizing and saving your own custom kit is where it is at with any e-kit and this one does a superb job at that. I use the Yamaha RH5MA headphones with the kit now, and plan to buy an amp later, and the volume to the headphones seems a little low. I solved this with a small headphone amp I have. Without the added amp I tend to hear myself striking the pads along with the sound (I don't play very hard either). You will also likely want to adjust the sensitivity of the pads. I am not a heavy hitter and the triggers were not registering half my hits until I bumped it up. |
| Overall:
| Overall I am very pleased with this kit. The sounds and customization options are far above what I initially expected for this kit. Yamaha packaged it very well since UPS always seems to beat the living crap out of every package I ever recieve from them, but nothing inside was damaged. In fact the box when empty still weighs a considerable amount due to all the packaging material. Each component of the kit comes with its own set of instructions which I found convenient for easily referencing for specific information. The kit was really easy to set up in about 1.5 hours to my liking and off I went. I use a Duallist bass drum pedal and even though the bass drum pad is small it easily accomodates a dual pedal (and sounds great). Another feature I like is the fact that they pre-label the wires which makes breaking down and reassembling the kit much easier. |
| Value:
| Overall I feel that I got this kit for a steal when coupled with the instant rebate offer that was available when I purchased it. I recieved the updated version of the kit with the higher quality cymbals (same as the DTXtreme kit), but even without the instant rebates this kit was the best value I could find when comparing it through research and in shops to the Simmons, Alesis, and Roland kits for under $2000. |
| Appearance:
| Other than the mounting frame, I only have one minor gripe, and that is the appearance of the wires. Yamaha includes about 5 velcro ties to hold the wires together and the pad wires all come pre-bound save for one wire, but you will likely want to go out and buy some more wire ties to make the kit look a little "neater" if you care about that thing. |
| Do you own this product?:
| Yes |
| Date submitted:
| May 9, 2009 |
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| Evan from Linden |
| enassano@verizon.net |
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| Subject: | Simple review for a Complex piece of equipment. |
| Quality:
| Very well made. I've played on it at stores a couple of times ithin the past year, and it just amazes me. It seems to be very durable. So far from what I've heard, Yamaha makes sets that last a long time. It seems like this set can take a beating, no matter how hard you hit it after awhile of playing it. It even supports double bass! |
| Features:
| The drum sounds are awesome. There are so many of them! Ranging from rock, country, jazz, blues, ect. There are also some play-along songs built into it. |
| Sound:
| I have to admit, I'm not exactly a very good drummer, but when you hear how nice this set sounds, your confidence will skyrocket. It has ranges of sound, including a nob on the snare that allows you to tune it the way you prefer. |
| Overall:
| Excellent. If I could afford this, it would be a top priority to get. |
| Value:
| The value isn't that bad. I wish it was around the $900-$1000 range, but of course, that is way too cheap for this magnificent set. |
| Appearance:
| Looks and feels just like a normal drum set. |
| Do you own this product?:
| No |
| Date submitted:
| 2-4-09 |
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| scott from goodyear Az |
| shughey@comcast.net |
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| Subject: | great value in class |
| Quality:
| Overall Yamaha's quality is very good. The rack is sturdy if not a little bit complicated to get all the positions set for each pad and cymbal. The stand does not rock much during play and I have never had any issues with their previous model I owned ( express III special). Pads all held up well as did the cymbals and kick tower.
Within the price range it measures up well. |
| Features:
| Features I like best....hmmmmm. I picked this one over a Roland at the same price as it has more zones on the ride ( 3 zones..bell, bow and edge and is chokeable) also cymbal one is a dual zone with choke. This not so with the similar priced Rolands...which is not a knock on the ROland just that I wanted a 3 zone ride standard as well as a dual zone cymbal with choke. Also I like having a real Hi hat stand verses a pad and foot pedal.
These two elements were the deciding factor.
As far as what would I like to see added.? Not much I suppose at this price range...any additions would just make it more expensive and in that case...get a Higher priced Roland or the Yamaha Extreme. |
| Sound:
| Sounds are fine all the way around. Electronic sets have the snare, tom and floor bass down well enough. Cymbals sound fine. While people comment on the cymbal shortfalls this has more to do with how the trigger and lack of say..finess verses a real cymbal rather than a poor sound. The rides all sound great as well as all the crashes and such.
The issue is ( and is really the same with any Roland, Hart and Yamah set) with the way cymbals trigger in any electronic set. I tested Rolands high end sets and they all lack the finess you have with a true cymbal. I would guess this would always be an issue for electronic sets. For example you can play the bell of a ride with the stick tip or the edge of the shoulder of your stick and each creates a different sound. With an elctronic set you simply get one sound period...which would be expected.
Yet overall the cymbal sounds are great just not the dynamic range of a real set. But for most applications this is not an issue. |
| Overall:
| Overall this set is great within it's price range. You would have to go into a much higher priced set to get more performance..or atleast noticeable improvement.
The gum rubber pads are fine..I have tried mesh heads and I don't see a huge gain in rebound. Some will argue that and I can see why but still I have tested rebound strokes on both and I can't see a huge difference. There is, though, a bit more sensitivity it seems on the snare with a mesh head so maybe a buzz rolls is achievable on mesh while you can't quite get a buzz roll on rubber pads.
The new module is fine although i don't see an real difference between this and the previous version on the Express III...other than looks and layout. Actually i liked the kits better on the older version....just me.
I purchased this for a practice set so i did not drive my family nuts and for that application it is a great value. Nothing is worse than lsitening to ANYONE practice on drums. |
| Value:
| Value is great...'nuff' said. |
| Appearance:
| Nice looking set. What more can you expect from an electronic set....they all look similar..nothing awesome. I still love the looks of a well made maple set...nothing like a real set for looks. |
| Do you own this product?:
| yes |
| Date submitted:
| 01-06-09 |