Portability question

rbwalter

Junior Member
I've been researching some options for buying a electronic drum set mainly just for fun around the house and, optimally, to be able to be used at church on occasion. I don't have a ton of room, so I was hoping to find something that could be stored out of the way when not in use.

I've mainly been looking at the Yamaha DD-65 and the Alesis DM Lite. I know there is quite a bit of info out there on the DD-65, but the Alesis kit is new enough that I can't find much on it besides those who are trying to sell them (and obviously biased). I know Roland makes a good, portable e-kit, but that's really out of my price range.

I'd appreciate any opinions on the above gear or any ideas that possibly I haven't thought of. Unfortunately, it's tough to try stuff out where I live because there aren't any decent music stores close by, so I'd like to educate myself as much as possible before heading out to "the big city"... Thanks.
 
I own the DD65. The pads for the cymbals are raised up a couple inches higher than the pads for the snare and toms, which makes playing patterns feel somewhat like playing on a normal kit, just with a diminished range of motion.

The kick and hi-hat pedals are flat with buttons in the middle that you step on, so the feel is different than that on a normal kit, although it's not a very hard transition to make. You still move your feet up and down to operate them. You lose the full range on the hi-hat, though. It's either open or closed. You can purchase Yamaha's HH65 controller for around $90 to get a more realistic hi-hat feel.

The sounds are OK. The toms and kick sound a bit compressed and electronic, like 1990's drum machine samples. The snare and cymbals are pretty realistic.

I'm not familiar with the Alesis unit, so I can't comment on that.
 
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