Newbie looking for advice!!!

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Only1parksey

Junior Member
Hey all, firstly I apologise if I'm travelling over new ground here!! I'm an absolute beginner with no experience other than a few lessons and I'm looking at buying a decent electronic drum kit on a minimum budget for now. I am currently learning on a Yamaha DTX500 and seems ok to me (remember it's the only drum kit I have hit) and was wondering if I would be better looking for one of those of a better 2nd hand kit. I have found a dtx500 for sale on ebay for quite a decent price and was hoping for some advice before I bid. Nothing too technical please guys as it may go way over my head lol. Thanks in advance!!
 
The DTX 500 is a decent starter kit, although the limitations are a tom pad for a hi-hat instead of a cymbal pad. and all the cymbals are single zone and those little tiny trapezoid things.

If you can afford it, I would definitely suggest grabbing up the 520. Trust me, the DTX snare is quite the nice pad and if you're just learning to play you'll want the DTX snare to practice your left and right hand technique. It really makes practicing the snare something fun.

And if you want something that feels the best next to an acoustic kit, stay as far away from the Roland Mesh pads as humanly possible. They are WAY WAY to bouncy.

This is just one guy's personal opinion.

Peace, Defender
 
Defender said:
And if you want something that feels the best next to an acoustic kit, stay as far away from the Roland Mesh pads as humanly possible. They are WAY WAY to bouncy.
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I have a roland td12, which has mesh heads, and they are definitely very bouncy, but i enjoy playing them, and I mean are they really any further from an acoustic than any other electronic drums? probably not. They have nice sounds/samples and I can play almost as long as I want because the noise doesn't distract anyone.

Yamaha and roland both make the best sounding samples for their electronic kits in my opinion. stay away from legend, alesis and ashton if you want to score in the sound department. Ultimately, I will never use an electronic kit when performing unless playing techno. But an electric kit is a great start. Try and have a play on an acoustic kit once a week if you can, (not sure if you are in college/school), just so you can get used to both, because playing on an acoustic for the first time can be very strange after playing an electric kit for your whole drumming career.

The yamaha will definitely give you enough options to continue to expand your drumming skills for easily three years, before needing to uprgrade/expand.

Goodluck with your purchase! and have fun with your new drums :)
 
If you really are a day-one absolute beginner, then the DTX500 is perfectly fine. Yes the silicone pads of the more expensive kits are better and yes the experience of using a tom pad as a hi-hat is not optimal, but the DTX500 module only gives you open and closed hat sounds and if you find you are becoming a drummer after you practice a while, you can easily resell the DTX500 and look at the DTX700 range for when you are ready to play more advanced material.

I say this because if you have so far not played acoustics, or silicone, or mesh, then there is nothing wrong with starting out practicing on rubber. You will adapt to any future upgrade in a few minutes. And then if you decide you would rather play the trombone, your drums investment will be have been kept at a minimum.
 
Thanks for the reply guys. I really am a day one beginner in the sense of I've had a handful of lessons and seem to pick quite a lot of it up quite quickly. It's something I'm extremely interested in pursuing and am far far from school/college (31 now lol). The 3 kits I had my eye on are the Yamaha DTX500, Alesis DM6 and the Roland TD3(2nd hand). Regarding sounds etc, as long as it has something as authentic as possible i'm happy. My reasons for electronic is purely down to me having a 2 year old child and wife that may not appreciate the constant beating of a beginner....I'm sure if I had a few years practice she wouldn't mind as with the guitar. An Acoustic set is something that once I'm sure the drums are for me and my ability increases that I will purchase but for now I'm kinda hands tied to an electric!
 
Only1parksey said:
The 3 kits I had my eye on are the Yamaha DTX500, Alesis DM6 and the Roland TD3(2nd hand).
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Between those three the Yamaha is by far the best. Plus it has a decent resale value. The DM6 is not very good in my opinion.
 
wildbill said:
Of those 3, I'd get the Yamaha.
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I'd go with the Yamaha also. While I was looking for my new set I did a mess load of research. The Yamaha set by far has the best samples available in an e-kit.

Then would come the Roland and lastly, I wouldn't even consider the Alesis kit. I've heard nothing but bad things about Alesis. And the fact that everyone says it takes literally forever to tune the pads up right because it's not correct out of the box plus the fact that everyone seems to talk about how unreliable their kits are.

I hope this helps, Defender
 
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