Renaming kits

CAMILOSTATIS

Junior Member
New to the forum, first off, good to be here.
Quick question, I notice alot of lower end kits are all the same kits but rebranded..for example the alesis dm6 is basically the ion pro drummer kit, and the medeli dd506 is also osp digital and legendary...3 different companies but the same kit? what is the purpose of this?
Also what is your opinion on what the best entry level kit is for under $400? I dont need anything special for now, just something to control software like addictive drums. Thanks
Camilo.
 
New to the forum, first off, good to be here.
Quick question, I notice alot of lower end kits are all the same kits but rebranded..for example the alesis dm6 is basically the ion pro drummer kit, and the medeli dd506 is also osp digital and legendary...3 different companies but the same kit? what is the purpose of this?
Also what is your opinion on what the best entry level kit is for under $400? I dont need anything special for now, just something to control software like addictive drums. Thanks
Camilo.

First off, to clarify, you are talking about electronic kits. There are acoustic kits as well, and they actually suffer on the very low end from generic rebadging as well.

And that's what it is. Very few manufacturers actually manufacture the lower-end stuff themselves. It's some third-party company in Taiwan or China making them. They send 2,000 to Alesis and 2,000 to Ion, and they rebadge them at the warehouse and send them out.

For under $400, getting something that can actually be used as a controller... whoo, best of luck. I can't think of one off the top of my head, but maybe used in your area?
 
To the first question, there are many reasons. Back in the day companies used to do it because one store might have a no compete clause. So store 1 has a clause that they are the only ones that can carry brand a. So The company makes brand b so that store 2 can carry those.

Another reason in modern day times is that sometimes brands don't want their name in certain places because it creates a negative stereotype. For example maybe Alesis doesn't want their stuff in WalMart because then real musicians will automatically associate the brand with junk because it's not at a real music store. So they have their cheap stuff also as Ion brand stuff that can be carried at WalMart. The normal person doesn't associate the two.

As alparrott said, the last reason is that they don't make it in the first place. This happens more often than you think as well.

To the second question. Alesis used to make a set that didn't have a module, just a in/out box that converted to USB/MIDI so you could use whatever software you wanted. It was pretty inexpensive, but I don't know if they make it anymore.
 
Yeah the kit youre talking about is the ALESIS usb studio/pro kits, I believe they are discontinued but found them online for around $600...might grab one of those since I plan on using steven slate drums.
Thanks for the help.
 
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