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Thread: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

  1. #1

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    Default To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    So, I'm looking into getting an electronic kit, and my price range will probably be a maximum of $500 or so, and seeing the reviews on what I think look like nice kits, are really making me doubtful. The ddrum DD1 LP looks like it will do very nicely, but I've seen reviews saying it sucks, it sounds bad, it's cheap, etc. And a couple of the Alesis kits in the $500 range looked good, but I've also heard they absolutely suck! Opinions, please? Are these kits actually bad? Should I let the bad reviews stop me from getting one? And above all, what would YOU recommend in my price range? I may be able to pay a little more than $500, but it's definitely an if.

    Thanks!

  2. #2

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    Go used, and try the kit out for yourself. Play with the settings try with good headphones, not earbuds, try through a good moniter. Dont trust some strange faceless persons on the internets opinion.

  3. #3

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    Ever read a movie review where the Movie Critic hates it but the Casual viewer loves it?
    Read up and narrow your search and then as NRNeck mentioned you need to go to the
    store and try the kit out. Personally I would stick with 2 brands. Roland and Yamaha.
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  4. #4

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    Buying anything is a gamble. What works for me might not work for you. I like watching You Tube videos of gear. Sometimes people point out mechanical flaws such as parts that are too weak for steady gigging. That might be OK for home use but I prefer robust gear.

  5. #5

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    Like NR stated go try the kit out in person if you can't then stay away from the whole deal.

  6. #6

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    If you do buy used, have someone with not just a bit, but a lot of experience with electronic gear go and suss it out with you. It's like when I'm purchasing classic and vintage drums....I know a fair bit, but not everything, so I'll bring a mate who does along and get their opinion. Or like when I picked up another second-hand synth today, I got a friend's opinion (who has been gigging with synths since I can remember) along with me to check it out, as no way am I expert on such items....that will come with time though, but my mate's a walking encyclopedia when it comes to that sort of vintage synth gear. Same with cars....I'll try and get a mechanically-minded friend's opinion before I lay down my hard earned cash.
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  7. #7

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    Two words

    Used, Roland



    Two more

    Mesh heads


    Piece a kit together if you must.

  8. #8

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    I don't own an e-kit but I've done a little research. True...Roland and Yamaha seem to garner the highest ratings.
    With used, you aren't out too much $$ if you aren't happy with them and want to sell.

    all the best...

  9. #9

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    I play an Alesis DM-10 kit at our church every week end. We bought the kit, probably around 2 years ago, and it's really held up well. ONLY thing is that the preset sounds aren't to fabulous, not the worst on the market but still not the greatest. So we use Addictive drums running through my Macbook for our output sound and use the drums as triggers. Alesis also has an add pack you can buy save to a flash drive and use, but I've never tried that option. If you could score a cheap used DM-10 kit and then afford the Addictive drums software too, I think you would be fairly happy with it. I know I have. We have our drums in a built drum booth and I've even had people tell me they thought I was playing a real kit, not an e-kit. But, that's just my 2 cents!
    Last edited by drumnut30; 05-02-2014 at 08:37 AM.
    Born to DRUM!!

  10. #10

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    I would say definitely trust online reviews. Two years ago, I did a lot of research on edrums, as I knew if I wanted to get back into drums, I had to get edrums. My price range was originally yours (entry level kits), and after all my research, I decided on the Yamaha dtx500.

    I'm not going to go into detail about how much i love my kit, but I will say that based on my experience with kits in your range, the online reviews have proven quite accurate. I went a little above my original price range because from what I read, it was worth spending a bit more.

    At the entry level especially, you really need to ask yourself if this is just a practice kit, or one you see as your main kit. If the former, then forget sound quality and go for durability. If the latter, then I would highly recommend spending a bit more and going with the Yamaha...

  11. #11

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    Im also a Yamaha fan. I own 4 drum kits and they are all Yamaha but only my last drum kit is an E-Kit and it was the DTX-500 and I bought a 3 zone cymbal plus the deluxe stand for it, which gave me two crash cymbals and a 3 zone ride.

    I practice with mine sometimes at night and it beats setting up the 6 piece acoustic kit. I also play a number of paying gigs with the kit and it sounds great going thru the board.

    The price ended up a bit over 600 bucks but darned well worth it.
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  12. #12

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    Default Re: To trust, or not to trust reviews on electronic kits?

    Hi

    Well my opinion on alesis is that they do suck in both sound and quality. After two weeks the high hat trigger went and the sound wasn't that good in my opinion. I just went through the process my self and I bought the Yamaha DTX 522k it's a little more than you may want to spend. Check out the Yamaha dtx 450 which I believe is in your price range new, you won't regret it because you can upgrade the pads down the road and the mod sounds were better than the alesis. Yamaha makes drums Roland is good but pricey and they as well as Alesis don't make drums. That's why I went with the Yamaha. I don't have an opinion on the ddrum DD1 LP never tried those I tested out the simmons which in my opinion were better than alesis but I wasn't crazy about the mod. One think to keep in mind I found out that once you start to use your drums to trigger drum software such as ez drummer or steven slate drums you find the mod built in sounds will not matter running your mod to trigger the software will give you an awesome sounding kit. As long as the mod will allow you to add additional kit pieces your good. so with all that said My vote is Yamaha hope that helped.

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