Electric kits

Bradastronaut

Senior Member
Hey guys i was wondering what the best electric kits below 600 pound would be?
ive been looking at the alesis dm5 but i have seen mixed reviews :S
thanks, and sorry for all the questions im just totally desperate for practice on something other than a pad D:
 
I will watch this space with interest. My issue as well. Another important factor for me is space; I don't want a whole rack of stuff.

I keep trying out the Roland V-Drums Lite in shops but it never grows on me. Trouble is, the module only has a limited range of kit sounds (10) with only two normal acoustic kit settings, and neither are quite what I want.
 
I got a TD3 with mesh head snare a few years ago for about 700 USD. Should be able to get a used one reasonably cheap now. Been thinking on selling mine but the benifits of having it are too good. Played a house party with it last week. Never thought I would use the rubber kit on the road but it worked well!
 
Glad to see someone in the same position as me...i guess, means we should get double the help :p
Yeah the roland v lite is nice, just the pedal, i cant use that at all, and the toms are so small its annoying.
I cant find the td3 used anywhere locally, but it does look awesome. Do people not get any other brand of kit? or is roland the way to go, cause noone has recommended me anything yamaha or alesis so far :S
 
Glad to see someone in the same position as me...i guess, means we should get double the help :p
Yeah the roland v lite is nice, just the pedal, i cant use that at all, and the toms are so small its annoying.
I cant find the td3 used anywhere locally, but it does look awesome. Do people not get any other brand of kit? or is roland the way to go, cause noone has recommended me anything yamaha or alesis so far :S
Well I can tell you the TD3 is not Awesome but it does work. There are limited sounds compared to the higher roland stuff but way more then 10.
I know nothing of the other brands low end kits..sorry.
 
My nephew (he's 13) just bought a Yamaha DTXplorer kit off Craigs list for $500. That was pads, module, rack, amp, pedals, wires, throne, everything.​
I just put an e-kit together. Off eBay, I landed a Yamaha rack, and 5 pads, for $174. A buddy had given me a Roland TD-7 module. Shop around, you can find modules in the $250-$300 range. Easily, you can get into a kit for $500-$600.​
Personally, I'd stick with Roland or Yamaha. They are the 2 leaders in e-kits. Roland is the largest drum manufacturer in the world. And they don't even make acoustic drums. Yamaha, since they do make acoustic drums, samples their drum sounds from their acoustic kits. I think the Yamaha's sound a little truer, in nature.​
Pictures of the pads and rack mixed in with crap I already own.​
 

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I've just bought a Roland TD6 with the mesh snare off Ebay for £350 ($560 at todays rate). Although it's a few years old it's in great condition, even has the wrapping around the rack legs. It came with a throne, gibralter bass pedal and Sony headphones.

I've now had it just over a week and my practice times have doubled. It's much easier to practice with my headphones on especially with a busy household. Just load up my ipod with my bands tracks and off I go. I've also found it useful with instructional DVD's. I route the sound through the TD6 brain so I can play along to them.

I'm very pleased with it but it isn't an acoustic kit. The hi-hat isn't anywhere near as articulate as mine normally is and the double zone cymbals and pads take a bit of getting used to.

Best to look at Craigs ist and Ebay for one. You just have to be patient and now is a good time of year.
 
A used TD6 with mesh heads would be a perfect solution. I agree Roland and Yamaha are the way to go. Try them both. They use different technology. You can buy Roland drum software off the internet, for a range or real sounding kits.

Davo
 
...OK slightly off topic...

...but I have a friend who plays drums and he thinks that electronic drum kits are cheating, I tried to explain to him that it isn't cheating without turning this discussion into a difficult argument...

...can anyone please give a few arguments as to why e-drums are not cheating...

BTW...his argument is that e-drums allow drummers to tune the mesh head tightly and therefore have faster rebound without compromising for sound.
 
Are keyboardists cheating when they play organ or synth instead of acoustic piano? They're different instruments.

Some may make a fair argument that electronic instruments don't have the depth and sensitivity of acoustic ones but it's nice to have different sounds at your disposal. It's also nice not to annoy your neighbours too much.
 
Are pianists cheating when they play organ? They're different instruments.

Yeah, I was asking myself if pianists cheat by playing a digital synthesizer, you know with the gate arpeggiators, "virtual voices", pads and auto-loop and whatnot.

...but electronic drumkits, that is emulating a drum kit...!...I tried to tell him that it can be used to produce sounds not possible on an acoustic and that it can be used to complement an acoustic kit (like Danny Carey or Niel Peart does)...

...he hasn't changed, I should tell him that some drummers don't have as much space in their place as he does for his Sonor kit with the deep power toms...

...and that some drummers have other people that live in vertically adjacent housing.
 
i own an alesis DM5 (without the sweet new surge cymbals or whatever they are... jsut the ole rubber ones) and it has been wonderful for me. ive been using it for practice in college cause i cant bring my real kit and whatnot. i mean its definitely not as good as a roland sound-wise or feel-wise (it took some getting used to playing it) but i am pretty happy with it myself. i have only twice had a problem with it and ive had it about a year. the problem was while playing it just stopped making sound. it would still recognize i was hitting the pads but nothing came out. turned it off. turned it back on and everything went just fine. haven't had that happen in many months now. if you just need something for practice, the alesis DM5 is great for the price.
 
Just checked online at a local store. It seems That the Alesis DM5 costs less than the Roland V0Drums Lite - and has 530 more sounds. No contest.

The reviews of the Alesis sometimes complain about glitches and not being able to stand up to heavy punishment, although others give it glowing reports (I'm not a heavy hitter anyway). The only advantage of the V-Drums Lite as far as I can tell is they are simpler and more compact.
 
...OK slightly off topic...

BTW...his argument is that e-drums allow drummers to tune the mesh head tightly and therefore have faster rebound without compromising for sound.

Well he's right on that point. Every tom can feel like a super snare. All it takes is money!
Mesh head pads are pricey. I will say I find it easier to play the Rolands then my big old school Pearls. But so what really. I have them for practice and exercise. Don't get the cheating thing so much. Cheating who? Who looses?
 
Personally I went from TD9 (costs about 2000 euros) to TDW-20 module (module alone costs more than TD9 kit) with TD-9 pads plus additional pads and pedals. But I still wasn't satisfied. Machinegunning (check out Langs DVD for great examples =P) and crappy sounds. The expansion board helped a little, especially snare and hi-hat are almost good already. But I still wasn't satisfied about the sound. Then I started to run midi through a firewire external sound card and run then through Superior Drummer 2.0 and Metal Foundry on my iBook pro. Now I have a decent sound I can almost gig with. Latency can be an issue with certain things and still it lacks a bit of the character of an acoustic kit. Lower end dynamics are sort of capped at a certain treshold because cross talk (hitting a pad trigger some other pad also because they are so sensitive) start to happen. So I'm forced to stay away from those so it's quite hard to play really anything quiet and delicate stuff on an low volume intro for example.

But this is what I have to play with for now. I'm forced to live in an apartment where I have neighbours down stairs, upstairs, left and right. And the space is also very small. I have to take my kit every week to practice, tear it down and set it up couple of times a week. So no acoustic kit for me, yet. =(

But time will tell if I ever actually buy one. You can do things with e-kits you could never do with acoustics and vice versa. But e-kits are coming closer and closer. When certain technicalities are solved I think in most cases e-kit will do even better. You won't need to be able to do cymbal harmonics for example to be able to play extreme metal. =P I think head bending is going to work in the future. Brushes, well I certanly hope so but I don't know if it's possible with the current mesh head trend.

But for best kits under 600. I dunno really. I wouldn't buy one. TD9 is propably the way to go for a beginner. Most guys start with that, and hey there were a TD-9 on Groove Essentials 2 too. =) But yeah, I understand, Roland overprizes everything because of lack of decent competition. (1000 euro kick pad, errm what?!) Let's see what NAMM brings us...
 
I will watch this space with interest. My issue as well. Another important factor for me is space; I don't want a whole rack of stuff.

I keep trying out the Roland V-Drums Lite in shops but it never grows on me. Trouble is, the module only has a limited range of kit sounds (10) with only two normal acoustic kit settings, and neither are quite what I want.

Hi Polly, One of the bands I play in has a set of Roland TD12s. I think they are great for rehersal and playing in small clubs. I have had them home to dial in sounds. The other good thing about them is they are so quiet. I was screwing around playing to some of the loops that were in the brain, my wife comes down stairs and says, Do you know its 2:00am. Time flies when you are having fun. But in real life I can't stand playing them, They just are not real drums, You cannot be as dynamic as you can with real drums and the rubber hi hat and cymbals are a joke. They hurt my hands and wrist for some reason. Brass bounces better.
I think one or two pads and a decent brain would make a great addition to a drum kit.
 
Hi Polly, One of the bands I play in has a set of Roland TD12s. I think they are great for rehersal and playing in small clubs. I have had them home to dial in sounds. The other good thing about them is they are so quiet. I was screwing around playing to some of the loops that were in the brain, my wife comes down stairs and says, Do you know its 2:00am. Time flies when you are having fun. But in real life I can't stand playing them, They just are not real drums, You cannot be as dynamic as you can with real drums and the rubber hi hat and cymbals are a joke. They hurt my hands and wrist for some reason. Brass bounces better.
I think one or two pads and a decent brain would make a great addition to a drum kit.

Thanks for the info, Doggie. It Thing is, it costs over $6k in Oz. I won't be spending much more than that on my next car!

I'll probably just end up getting a kick drum practice pad to augment my current "setup" - a quiet pad on a djembe with two books on top to raise it up higher than the louder pad on my computer chair, plus putting some old towels over my ride cymbal ... and hustle for the band to gig more often :)
 
They hurt my hands and wrist for some reason. Brass bounces better.

I agree the rubber is silly, but hurting wrists are only a technique issue. You can't believe how many times that comes up on e-drum forums. And the only solution is to correct your technique. I for one think it's a good thing. =) I have never had hurting hands since and it isn't like you need a special technique for rubber playing. No, you just need to really know how to play with free strokes. Rubber absorbs more energy than a cymbal wanting you to hit it more forcefully, but if you don't know how to hit it without absorbing the energy to your hand, you will have hurting hands. I had it bad, like 5 mins playing and then I had to stop for the night. I think in many ways e-drums are good for practice. This rubber thing is one, mesh heads being silent is one, you can adjust volume which is good for your ears. Then of course you can setup any sound to any pad. Makes it really easy to practice 4-way coordination for example and you can setup closed hihat voices on your bass drum pad and work on your precision. The possibilites are quite endless.
 
Thanks for the info, Doggie. It Thing is, it costs over $6k in Oz. I won't be spending much more than that on my next car!

I'll probably just end up getting a kick drum practice pad to augment my current "setup" - a quiet pad on a djembe with two books on top to raise it up higher than the louder pad on my computer chair ... and hustle for the band to gig more often :)
My wife got me a set of Vic Firth drum mutes for my B-day. I don't know if its a present for me or for her lol.
 
My wife got me a set of Vic Firth drum mutes for my B-day. I don't know if its a present for me or for her lol.

I hope she enjoys the toolkit she's getting :)

The only bummer about mutes is, unless you have two kits, you have to keep setting you kit up and tearing it down when you're playing for real. If you have the space for two kits they're a great idea!
 
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