Alesis Drums Surge Mesh Kit - Electric Drum Set with Mesh Pads, 385 Electronic / Acoustic Drum Kit Sounds and 60 Play Along Tracks

Product Information

Yes! you can connect up an MP3 player, phone, Tablet to the Aux input on the module and be able to play along with your favorite tunes. Even though the kit doesn’t sound completely like a real drum set, you’re getting amazing value with the Surge Mesh.

Now that being said, it is rather difficult to replicate everything you can do on an acoustic drum kit, so I’m still happy with what you get with the Alesis Surge Mesh. Why do the more expensive Roland electronic drums sound so much better, you may ask? Using drum VST plugins, you can get different software like Addictive Drums 2, EZ Drummer, Steven Slate Drums, or GetGood Drums. Alesis offer 40 free drum lessons with this kitfrom Melodics their software partner. Once connected, the software recognises the drum kit and will show the players performance and progress in real time. Many styles are covered and it makes learning fun. If you already own the Surge Mesh, or a similar kit, it’s very easy to expand the sounds of your drums. This means, that you’re getting a different sample of the same drum when you tap the drum near the rim versus hitting it hard in the center.The hi-hat pad is a single zone pad and works along with the included foot pedal. This isn’t the most dynamic sounding hi-hat pad to play, but it gets the job done for a budget kit. The foot pedal is a little springy but it is also smooth and functions just fine. There aren’t a lot of subtleties in the hi-hat positions on with this pad and pedal. You pretty much just get open, closed and half-open sounds. Depending on what type of drummer you are this may or may not be an issue. To practice without being scored, press Play/Practice( PRAwill appear on the display) After a count-in, the beat, rhythm, or pattern will repeat so you can practice it. While the Surge Mesh is a fine electronic drum set for a beginner, we think you should consider looking at Roland or a higher-end model from Alesis.

The Surge Drum Module equips the kit with a powerful brain that brings your playing to life. Play one of 40 drum kits (24 presets and 16 user kits) that feature 385 individual sounds that can be custom-assigned to any pad trigger or cymbal. Despite the Alesis Surge Mesh having incredible velocity recognition for playing quiet and loud dynamics, they dropped the ball in one area: the samples.High-hat pedal – the pedal connects to a cable to electronically control the high-hat open/close sound It has come to my attention that I was originally a little bit too harsh on the Surge Mesh. Having realized what great value lies in this kit, I have updated the review. Alesis is a fantastic company that makes everything from keytars, to MIDI controllers, to electronic drum sets, at an affordable cost. Overall this is a solid budget e-drumkit for beginners + you get a solid VST that is plug and play - already programmed for this alesis kit.

The kit is also extremely convenient. It doesn’t take up too much room and can easily be folded and put into a corner to save space in a room. Now don’t get me wrong. I do like a lot of products that Alesis makes, but I have never been too big on their electronic drum kits. They have always seemed very cheap to me, but I believe they are beginning to turn themselves around. The Surge Mesh Kit is a complete 8-piece electronic drum kit that includes everything a drummer needs to play like a pro. Not only do the mesh heads deliver unmatched response and playability, the compact size means the Surge Mesh Kit goes where larger kits can’t. This article answers popular questions about the features and functionality of the Alesis Surge Mesh kit. You can reassign pads and create kits on the fly. There are 40 ready-to-go drum kits right out of the box. Yes! there are 2 ways of practicing on this module, the first is not being scored. Second is with a scoring system. Below are how to set them up accordingly.I think it’s hard for people to grasp this concept, but this is exactly why this kit sounds like a machine gun to me. BUT, this isn’t a deal-breaker. The Surge drum module allows you to edit some overall kit characteristic as well as individual sounds. This allows you to do a little bit of sound editing and craft the sound of the kits to your liking. The real appeal of the 'special edition' is access to the trimmed down version of BFD. Alesis are fully aware of the brutal brown sounds emanating from their ancient drumming module, so to release this kit without making the advertised software available is a bit of corporate robbery imo.

I have bought this drum for my home studio. I live in the apartment so I have to keep things quiet. This is an ok drum in it's budget range. But don't expect a superb product because it's not. The module sound/kits are cheesy (but let's be honest - so is 99% of other modules), so I recommend using the VSTs. With this kit you get a free BFD Player + basic library (Mahogany Kit). The VST is also ok, but nothing spectacular (has basic options for mix, but honestly - that's all you need, especially if you just want to jam out or you don't want to spend an eternity to mix your own drums in the song). The only downside of this VST is that it has some kind of "humanize" option added to it which I couldn't turn off, so the hi-hat varies in loudness when you play it. I guess they didn't want to have that machine gun effect, but they got carried away with it. To play and be scored, press Start/Stop,After a count-in 9 (EXM will appear on the display) the beat, rhythm, or pattern will play once without the drum part. Play the drum part as accurately as possible. In the end, you will receive a score (SCO) based your accuracy. To improve your score, practice the beat, rhythm, or pattern without being scored (see above) and try again! To start recording, press Start/Stop, or hit any pad. The Record LED will light solid. (To cancel recording instead, press Record again.)

Setup & Assembly

After a small amount of mixing (mostly turning the cymbals way down), the kit balance sounds good and every note is complemented by the feel of the mesh heads. The hi-hat pad had a little too much movement for our liking but this was easily rectified by adding an extra felt to hold it in a more secure position. The selection of kit patches is decent, although there are a few, let’s say less inspiring, choices - particularly the toms on the jazz-style kits. To adjust the volume of the drum part - Press Song, Then press the Song/select until DRM appears on the display. Then us the < and > to adjust the volume.