Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)For some crazy reason, I decided to start drums. I have a small home studio and play some guitar and getting drum tracks into the music I create has always been a problem. I know I could have gotten a (better?) acoustic kit for the same price, but by the time you add mics to get it recorded, it ends up being more expensive. And with Electronic drums you have an endless array of sounds available and the ability to edit your performance after the fact. So anyhow, for my purposes, this kit seems very good.
I read a couple of posts on the internet and expected it to take between 45 minutes to an hour to set up. 4 hours later I had a roughly organized initial setup. I had never played drums before and had no idea where I wanted things to be. I ended up having to reverse some mounts to get the drums in the position I think they should be. There is a curved bar for the front top - it was unclear in the very limited setup directions which way this bar should be mounted. I have no idea if I have it correct or not, and it would take another hour to change it if it is wrong. The setup directions need to be a lot better. The supplied wiring seems short in places. If the supplied wiring can only be attached one way, then the directions should show you that one way, and they don't. The hihat pedal is also not as responsive as I would expect. I have read that the Roland hihat pedal will work with this kit and is a better choice so I probably will get one and use it.
The other electronic aspect I have not been able to solve yet is that the kit is supposed to be able to use the USB connection to transmit and receive midi. I have yet to get that working on a PC, but I have heard that it works on a mac. Perhaps Alesis is just behind in getting proper PC drivers out for it.
Other than that, the brains (DM-10) has very good sounds and very good adjust-ability for sensitivity and response.
The drums themselves play fine. The good news is that there are instruction for mods on the internet that will allow you to convert these to much better drums, for about $12 each. At that point, for $999 + ($12 x5) = $1060 you have the equivalent of some $2500+ electronic kits. As I get a little better with my playing, I plan on making those mods.
Alesis should really consider splitting package into 2 separate boxes to make shipping easier (via common UPS etc). The problem is a single box weighs 75lbs and that exceeds the UPS limit. Freight shipping was a nightmare. It went through at least 3 different companies, the final which refused to deliver to a residential area with their large trucks. I ended up having to go pick these up myself after paying $160 for shipping. No store within 3 hours drive plans on stocking a kit like this, so shipping was the only option. I still feel ripped off to pay that much for delivery and have to go pick it up myself at the shipping companies convenience.
Bottom line - Great kit. Good feel, excellent potential. Perfect for my small studio.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Alesis DM10 Studio Kit Professional Six-Piece Electronic Drum Set
Professional 6-piece electronic drum set, DM10, RealHead 10" snr, 4x 8" toms, DMPad HH, 2x Crash, 3-zone Ride
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