#winning Digital Drum Sticks

Product Information

Being that this an electronic drum kit that’s pretty affordable, I didn’t expect the sound to blow me away. These kind of sticks really suit precise, consistent playing – one of the hallmarks of a truly great drummer. We liked ‘American Vintage’, ‘Purple Heart’ and ‘Collectors’ for their obvious DW referencing and there are plenty of presets to cater for most styles of music.

If you’ve got close neighbours, or people around you who won’t appreciate the considerable noise of an acoustic set, then electronic drums are definitely the way to go. This enables us to produce accurate, well-balanced and real-life electronic drum set reviews to help you easily figure out whether the kit you’re interested in really is the best choice for you. Are the components - such as wing screws, cymbal arms, ball and socket joints, module mounts - of an adequate quality and designed to last? Their line-up covers beginner to pro e-kits, with their main feature being the use of TCS (Textured Cellular Silicone) heads over more traditional rubber or mesh, although they do now offer mesh options with some kits. piece electronic drum set — included is the TD-50X drum module, 14″ digital snare drum, 18″ KD-180 kick drum, 10″ PD-108 toms (2), 12″ PD-128 floor toms (2), 18″ CY-18DR digital ride, 14″ VH-14D digital hi-hat, 16″ CY-16R-T crashes (2), and the MDS-Stage 2 chrome rack.With ex-Alesis Man Marcus Ryle at the helm, this could be a serious proposition and set the e-drums world on an entirely new path. If you want convenience, then headphones win every time - but if you want a more ‘live’ experience, a speaker (also known as an electronic drum amp or monitor) is the way to go. Nothing feels better than locking in with the hits from your favourite artists so this is a super cool feature. Other noteworthy features include balanced left and right XLR master outputs, a routing engine which allows the kit mixer to control only the headphone monitor mix without altering the front-of-house mix and 10-channel USB audio that allows multi-track recording straight to a computer. It’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the level of realism Roland engineered for this instrument.

People may use them to trigger ‘one-shots’ - single sounds like hand-claps, synths or similar - and some people use them to trigger entire backing tracks.

Most low-end drum modules only offer the ability to get a stereo output of a recording directly from the module. The lower-end models have always disappointed me, due to the fact that they often sound robotic with no sample changes with differing velocities.

The audio quality will be poor due to the files having to be so heavily compressed, and you won’t be able to mix any of the individual drums later on - leaving you stuck with exactly what you recorded, and nothing else. Beginner e-kits are usually the hardest to build as rack systems often need to be built tube by tube, whereas top-end kits usually ship the rack in sections that can be pieced together relatively easily.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. There are three kits in the 402 line-up, but for us the 402K is the best for tight budgets and offers plenty to help first-timers get started. The economical design of the pads means that they do feel small - we’d like a larger snare and floor tom pad - but overall the DTX6K3-X has all the hallmarks of a quality e-drum set and is one of our top choices. VH-14D digital hi-hat — as is with the ride, the digital hats provide the most authentic playing experience when compared to an acoustic drum kit. Using a hybrid setup can turn your basic acoustic kit into a powerful performance tool - and it’s so much fun.

The Alesis Nitro Max is another budget-friendly all-mesh kit, that boasts a sleek new module that features 32 drum kits from BFD, the leading drum sample library for Mac or PC. This is useful if you plan on recording your performance into a Digital Audio Workstation, such as Logic or Pro Tools. With the Roland TD-17KVX, you get dual-zone mesh drum pads, V-cymbals, the TD-17 drum module, a kick pad, and a custom hardware stand explicitly made for compact V-drums. Featuring Yamaha's TCS silicone pads in the snare and tom positions, one of the most comfortable bass drum towers we've tried and an acoustic-style hi-hat (stand included), there's a lot to be excited about.Drum shells adorned with Gloss Natural, Gloss Ebony, Pearl White or Gloss Cherry prove you’ll always turn heads, whether in the studio or on stage. The module then triggers the appropriate drum or cymbal sound for that pad at the correct volume, and it plays back through your headphones or speaker. Alesis does offer this kit in a version with mylar drum heads, but I really don’t like the feel of these and they’re pretty loud when played. They may have less history in the e-kit world but there are some truly impressive Alesis electronic drum sets on the market. I first settled on the Alesis Strike Pro, but I also currently own the Roland TD-50K-S, EFNOTE 5X, Alesis Nitro Mesh, Alesis Nitro MAX, Donner DED-400, and others.