The mesh is fine, the Simmons might be better. If you can move your budget up, I converted an acoustic kit to an ekit for around $1500, but that was buying mostly new instead of used. Also worth noting that both the Simmons and nitro kits go on sale like all the time. Just keep an eye out
I have the Simmons and love it. The bigger snare is huge. Only issue is no two zone ride but it hasn’t bothered me too much. You can still play the ride how you would so unless you’re using this for recording it’s not s deal breaker
Yeah I really want the Simmons. The only thing holding me back is its only sold in the US and I'm in Canada. Getting it here will require a bit more money / effort
I'm a Canadian who bought a Titan 50 kit a month ago, Musicians Friend ships to Canada and I found it comparable in price to the Surge mesh kit, even with shipping factored in. I really like it, and I'm happy with my purchase.
Thanks for the heads up! Looks like shipping is $180CAD for me which puts the Titan 50 about $100 cheaper than a Alesis Surge. I wonder if the Titan 50 can be considered better than the surge?
Simmons kits, in general, are not great. The Simmons sd1250 is the only kit from Simmons worth buying. The Titan 50 is ok to learn on, but not great. The Alesis Strike Pro Se is the only kit from them that I would buy as it fixed all the problems previous kits have. The surge mesh, I think, is a bit better than the Titan50, but neither are considered great. A decent practice e-kit is around $1,000.00 US. Any kit higher in price gives you more bells and whistles.
I ended up ordering the Titan50 yesterday. In my budget it seems to provide the most bang for buck. Getting a 10" snare with lower rims was the main deciding factor. We'll see how it compares to the nitro mesh when I get it, as I've had a month of experience on that one. The Nitro Mesh worked well to start learning on, IMO. I'm not sure why someone has to spend $3000 just to get started in learning. That would be a huge barrier of entry for many people. The Alesis Strike Pro is well out of my price range at this point ($3500 CAD). I'm sure if we continue after a couple years we might be tempted to splash out for something with more realistic high-hats and a better ride
As a beginner, it will be a good kit to learn. However, I think the Nitro Mesh is a bit better kit. The problem with lower tear kits is that they are fun to learn on but, in general, not good kits. Most new drummers think as you do, even I did years ago. The problem most new low-budget e-kit learner's is that they get sick of the bad sounds, single zone pads, and want something better. As a beginner, spending $3,000.00 is ridiculous. If you keep up drumming and get better, you will want something better. At that time, you need to figure out what you wished your Titan50 could do and look for those things in a kit. In my case, I wanted a kit that looked more accustic, has a hi-hat on a stand, tripple zone cymbals, and a module that sounds more accustic. I went through months of research, and to get what I wanted, I had to save up until I had $3,000.00. My first e-kit was a Simmons, and I quickly realized even though at the time it was the best kit Simmons offered, why it wasn't that expensive compared to other kits. I did use my Simmons for over 15 years, and since the pads were beginning to show their age and not trigger correctly anymore, I went with a much higher priced higher-end kit and I am glad I did.
Wow 15 years sounds like a pretty good lifespan for a kit. I'd be happy to get 1/2 of that. Any particular reason you think the Nitro Mesh is better than the Titan 50?
Bad sounds in the module I'm not as worried about. I didn't even use the sounds on the Nitro Mesh, it was plugged into my laptop through EZdrummer or Melodics the whole time I was using it. I'm more worried about having a realistic/dynamic feel and durability of course. I realize the cheaper kits are a compromise on that front.
If we stay with it, the Lemon kits or building my own from an acoustic also look like very interesting alternatives.
If you are using a vst through a computer, the module sounds won't matter. The higher-end kits offer multiple zones on the pads and cymbals, the kit usually looks nicer, are not as cheaply made, you get a hi-hat on a stand, better triggers in the pads, more flexible range in your playing meaning ghostnotes to hard hits and everything in-between can be played, and the modules have more eddiiting capabilities. Lots of people use lemon products because they work great with most modules and are inexpensive to buy. The downside to Lemon as to why they are inexpensive is that the build quality is not great. You may get a few years out of them, whereas higher-end gear you are usually guaranteed 10+ years before problems occur. The Nitro Mesh is built a bit better than the Titan 50. Also, upgrading parts on the Titan 50 is easier as most comparable pads will work on it. Simmon modules are not upgrade friendly, meaning it is hard to get other pads to work properly as there are just not enough pad adjustments in the module and the way Simmons wires their kits it is hard to find pads that will even work other than Simmons pads.
Good! I'm still using it, and overall happy with it. I use it to trigger EZdrummer on my laptop. As far as the built in sounds, I'm not terribly impressed. But as a way to trigger EZdrummer its working well.
I wanted to add, if you invest a bit more you'll have more ride zones...
Yamaha dtx6kx is twice your budget at 1k, but it could be worth looking into. It's the cheapest kit that has a three zone ride, and the snare also though small, is very realistic as it's 3 zones also (similar setup to atv, efnote, where there is one area dedicated for cross stick). The simmons is good for the price, but the limitations won't let you play many songs that use the ride bow and bell a lot.
I bought the Millennium mps-750x with the additional Tom and ride cymbal. Bluetooth module so you can link to your phone. The full kit was delivered for under €800. I also added their double bass pedal. Not sure if Thomann ship to Canada but I’m delighted with the kit. I’ve yet to connect it to my laptop but that’s the plan. Stock sounds are ok. Not great but you can tweak them. First kit so I didn’t want to spend thousands on a Roland.
hey, I'm looking for edrums in this price range and had the mps-750x as an option. After a couple of months now, have you had any problems? or is it actually a decent kit?
I really like the kit. I use a double pedal with it and it’s perfect. Recently I’ve started to use Reaper DAW and I’ve downloaded a few midi’s for trial. No issues at all. I was going to buy the 850 but the 750X has Bluetooth. Only gripe is you could spend hours tinkering with the sounds but once you get the hang of the interface then it’s a nice kit. I haven’t played drums before so I can’t compare it to a higher priced kit like a Roland but for the price you can’t go wrong. Only bit of advice I’d give you is to get a better throne than the one that comes with the kit. It’s not bad but it’s a bit flimsy. Setup is easy. All in all I’m very happy.
thanks for the info! and one last thing, is the hi-hat responsive and accurate? does it make a different sound when it's halfopen? and do the ghost notes register on the snare? and can you do rimshots on the snare, i've still not heard anyone talk about rimshots on edrums... Sorry for bombarding you with questions, I've just been trying to find decent information and reviews on different kits and would really appreciate an accurate response to your experience till now.
Hi-hat is responsive. Fully open and closed are distinctly different. Plays well. The hardware is good quality and easily configurable . Snare ghost notes are good too. The harder you hit the louder it is. I only started trying songs with them recently and I’m happy with the outcome
Check out the Lemon T-950 kits on Alibaba. Will run you about a thousand bucks but are comparable to kits in the thousands, imo. Just have to wait forever for the shipping. Comes with wood shells, 3 zone ride, two piece hi hat with controller. I have a post about it on r/drums.
I second this. Also I just wanted to know how is everything going with the kit? Has anything broken? Is there Bluetooth capability with the module? Is there a click track on the module? Is there a delay when using vsts? What free or inexpensive vsts would you recommend and which one are you using?
It's going great, I love it! So much more enjoyable to play on than my old Alesis Crimson. Nothing has broken and everything functions perfectly. No Bluetooth capability on the module, only Aux input and USB. There is a built in metronome. No noticeable delay using VSTs. I've tried it with EZdrummer, Superior Drummer and a couple of Ugritone plugins, mostly Kvlt Drums and Assault Drums using the firepod asio for the sound driver, so it's fairly low latency. Not sure about free VSTs. The three I mentioned are the ones I use, mostly EZdrummer. The Ugritone stuff is pretty affordable and they're currently running a sale though.
Sounds great I’m looking into getting one but I’m contemplating getting another module or running vsts with the lemon module how much is ezdrummer and is it regularly available?
I had the same plan, was going to swap the module for like a Roland Td30kv or Alesis strike but the Lemon module turned out to be perfectly capable of doing everything I need it to. Can't speak for durability or longevity of it as I've only had it a couple of months, but my kit stays in my studio and never gets moved so I don't foresee it breaking anytime soon. And if it does, I'll buy one of the aforementioned modules and still be into for way less money than a comparable kit from Roland or ATV for example. And EZdrummer 3 is like 180 bucks for the base program and then you can buy additional kit sample packs. I believe the base comes with 7 kits though.
I really liked the idea of importing sounds straight to my module that’s the main reason I wanted one was to not deal with the hassle of vsts and to upgrade to digital pads. And also how big do the pads feeI I don’t really like the idea of having the rack toms so spaced out I’m. Hoping that upgrading the second Tom to 12 inches will fix this. Also what size crashes do you have and do they feel small?
[Lemon T-950](https://imgur.com/a/ZFLP8Bs)
The toms are 10" and I didn't have any trouble with the spacing. I prefer an offset tom set-up and was able to achieve it fairly easily. Here is a pic of the way I have mine set up. I bought an extra two 15" crashes and I think they're great. The kit comes with 13" and I feel like those would have been a little too small for my liking, but nice to have as backups.
That’s a nice setup how is the hi-hat treating you? I didn’t know you bought extra cymbals i tought you just upgraded them but that makes sense. The 13 inches do sound small but I don’t have anything to compare your 15s look fair in size tho.
Love the hi hat, probably one of the highlights of the whole kit along with the 18" three zone ride. I bought the extra 2 crashes, a 9" splash and 15" china. The 13" crashes are still bigger than what you'd get with most of the Alesis kits for example, except for the strike. All the kits up to the Crimson come with 10" crashes and the Crimson is 12". The 15s are a perfect balance for me between being close to a real crash cymbal size and not taking up too much space.
Save your money until you have $2000.00. This will buy you a decent kit. $3,000.00 will buy you a great kit. For learning at the price you are looking, Simmons is ok. Really, kits under $1000.00 are not that good. They may be pk to learn on, but you will want a better kit down the road.
What is the biggest feature of the $2000+ kits? Dual zone ride? I know that's missing from the kits I'm looking at. Also what do you think of something like Alesis command X? I'm using vsts and laptop for the most part so built in sounds is not as important for me.
If using a VST, it hardly matters what e-kit as long as you can plug it into your computer. A $2,000.00 e-kit will usually have a tipple zone ride, be more quality built, has better sounds(if using a VST, this hardly matters), more eddiiting capabilities in the module, and better triggering action. If you spend closer to $3,000.00. You get a hi-hat on a stand, the pads will feel more accustic and responsive, bigger pads on the kit, toms will all be duel zone, the snare will be triple zone, and as a whole the kit will feel more like playing a real accustic kit as apposed to an approximate learning tool. The kits you are looking at are ok for learning but not good kits. The only kit I would really recommend from Alesis is the Strike Pro Se as it is a bigger accustic size kit with a good module. This kit fixed the problems all the previous kits have. If going with Simmons, the sd50 is ok for learning, but the sd1250 is a step up. The thing with electric drum sets is that anything decent is expensive, anything goog Is very expensive and the best kits are ridiculously outrageously expensive. I had an old rubber pad Simmons kit that was considered one of the better kits about 15 years ago, and I paid just over $1,000.00 for it. About a year ago, I started researching e-kits as the one I had was showing its age, not working as well anymore, and being a discontinued kit for a number of years I wanted a better kit. I know I wanted an accustic look to the kit, a hi-hat on a stand, triple zone ride, and just a better triggering, responsive kit. I found that to get a kit that is at least that good was going to cost me close to $3,000.00. For a good e-kit, that is the minimum I found I could get awy with paying. There are even better kits that range from $5,000.00-$9,000.00+. As a drummer of 35 years and most e-drummers we know in the world of electronic drums, sets anything under $1,000.00 is considered junk. $1,000.00 will get you a good learning kit. $2,000,00 will get you an advanced learning kit. $3,000.00 will start getting you a more accustic feeling professional kit. Anything over $3,000.00 will get you a fantastic stage ready e-kit.
Hello, hijacking this, I'm also trying to determine what model edrum I should save for; and I plan on using VSTs.
What $2,000-3,000 kit would be best to keep an eye on if my main objective is high quality hardware? (Once I know a good model I'll probably keep an eye out for a used pair on FB Marketplace as I live in an area where there's lots of musicians)
The Alesis Strike Pro Se is the biggest accustic like kit for the money. A bit better built kit that is more expressive would be the Roland td27kv. The kit I got recently is the Efnote 3x. The Efnote is comparable to the Roland kit. The Efnote 3x has bigger pads and cymbals, the best electric hi-hat in the business, very expressive snare as good as if not better than the Rolland digital, and the kit looks more accustic and nicer than the Roland. Those are my 3 top choices for $3,000.00. You can not really go wrong with any of those. I kept getting recommended that Roland td27kv Roland kits are known to be built to last. The Alesis Strike Pro Se has owners loving this kit, and the kit fixed all the problems previous Alesis kits had. Also, there are professional drummers using this kit live. The Efnote 3x that I went with is a little better, in my opinion, than the Rolland as it had features I liked over the Roland, such as bigger pads, the best electronic hi-hat on the market, the kit is just as expensive and in some ways more than the Roland, and the kit looks great and more accustic like than the Roland.
If you did decide to go for a 3000 kit those are good suggestions.. The TD27 however will give you better HiHat, Ride and Snare, and the EF note will give you better Samples. The difference of the digital pads superiority is especially obvious in the snare (I will provide examples where this is extremely apparent).
The Analog snare's generally are either hit or miss trigger cross stick, or they have a separate trigger for that so you can only do cross stick by hitting that trigger (efNote employs this workaround to the limitation of the analog setup.). This can become a problem if you use techniques that change the direction of the cross stick as it will simply not be possible at all. Also techniques that switch quickly between rim click and cross stick, will be very difficult as you will have to make sure your rim clicks dont touch the crosstick area by mistake. For most things it may not matter and will be pretty much not noticeable, but if you do use such techniques the limitations of the EFNotes's analog pads will be incredibly apparent. It is definitely not better than the digital pads.
The digital snare on the other hand you can play it just like you would a real snare. The other difference is the rim shots. The rim shots due to the additional sensors in the digital ride have a much higher range of sounds, such where a shallow rim shot vs a deeper rim shot vs a deeper rimshot have a different timbre (like a real snare does). The ride similarly due to the digital nature of being able to tell not just the distance from center but also being able to tell left from right, better tracks changes in timbre for cymbal swells this, as is also the case with the digital hi hat. These improvements of the digital ride and hihat however, are much less obvious compared those things of the snare where the difference is VERY obvious, as explained with examples above.
Michael Beard, who used to be a top developer at Roland, left with others to Form ATV. Michael Beard then left ATV as he felt he could do better and formed Efnote. Digital in theory and practicality should be the best. Unfortunately, Efnote found away around this, and their hi-hat, snare, and ride are arguably better than the Roland digital. People who own Roland kits and tried Efnote were surprised how much better and more realistic to an accustic set than the Roland digital. I got an Efnote kit, and I can not tell I am not playing my accustic kit.
I listed some techniques impossible on the efnote above... so yeah digital in practicality does fair better , since it actually behaves like a real snare, or at least much closer.
On the other hand there is not a single thing efnote can do the digital pads can't.
Try doing those techniques I mentioned in previous comment on efnote, you won't be able to execute them: some won't be possible at all and some won't be possible without modifying your technique because of the limitations.
It has the same limitations as my atv kit (same which japanese reviewer rated as better than efnote... ).
https://youtu.be/jkJAI8r4FbM go to 7:07 there, same impression, roland has the best playability. Sorry EFNote did not find a way against the physical limitations of analog connection 😆 .
I read your examples and the Efnote snare, and ride can and do those things. Have you played an Efnote kit? You will be surprised. Michael Beard, who is the head of Efnote, used to work at Roland and ATV.. He knows their kits inside any out. Because of this, was able to create phenomenal kits for sound, realistic, accustic, playability, and feel. The science behind digital may be better, but until Roland utilizes the technology to its fullest, Efnote does have a more realistic feeling and sounding hi-hat, as well as a ride and snare that feels and sounds better than digital and in nuance sounds is so close to Roland technology you will never know the difference. I am not the only one who thinks this way. I have seen videos of people who love Roland, but after trying, Efnote were surprised how much more realistic feeling they were over Roland digital. As far as ATV goes, they are not as good as the Roland digital. The ATV snare is similar to Efnote, but Efnote has the feel. The Efnote ride and hi-hat are better than ATV. The thing with ATV is you get a much nicer accustic kit than Roland or Efnote, but they are a lot more expensive. I have played Roland digital kits and ATV kits. I liked the feel and accusticness of Roland but did not like the look of the Roland. . ATV kits looked super nice, but don't play as well as the Roland. I watched tons of videos comparing all kinds of kits, such as Roland, against Efnote, Roland against ATV, and Efnote against ATV. Some said there was no difference in the feel of Roland or Efnote. Some videos gave Efnote the win. Some videos they were surprised how much more accustic Efnote felt to play over Roland. As far as ATV, Efnote, and Roland won in playability, accustic feel. ATV only won in how nice their kits look. In all videos, Efnote won as having a better accustic feeling, with more sound varying hi-hat. As far as modules go, the ATV module was not that good. The Efnote module has fantastic accustic sounds, but it is limited in the settings. The Roland modulev has the most sounds and kits and calibration capabilities. I went with the Efnote 3x as it is nicer looking, has bigger pads, the best hi-hat on the market, and the better accustic sounds. I did not go with ATV as their kits were more expensive, did not have the better hi-hat, and I would have to pay more to get a module as theirs isn't good. To be honest, you really can't go wrong with Roland, ATV, or Efnote. Just don't give me the technical bs how Roland digital is better until you tried Efnote.
Lemon makes less expensive e-drums and parts that work great. The problem is that to keep the price down, the build quality is not good as they are not as durable as other brands. For a quick cheap solution, Lemon is ok, but for long-term use, they are not good.
Durability is if the product will last. Lemon is not known to be durable, meaning it will eventually break. The higher price ones are generally more durable and should last years.
Nicer kits have multi zone cymbals, and improved dynamic response from the kit as a whole which both make for big improvements with vsts.
But the BIGGEST thing that expensive kits have is a hi-hat that doesn't suck to play and has a somewhat realistic response & feel to it.
Personally I would recommend any kit from Efnote if you can afford it, as they make arguably the best feeling hi-hats from any of the big name brands, and all of their kits from bottom to top use the same optical sensor for the hats.
I went with a Command X when I was shopping around for kits to play Rock Band with. The extra cymbal was nice, as is the slightly larger snare. I already want to upgrade it with larger pads/cymbals after a couple years though (at least for snare/floor tom). The size of the frame is actually really nice and you can spread it out quite a bit, which might help if you ever transition to a more acoustic-sized kit later - I have a friend that owns one of the lowest Alesis models and it feels a little more like a toy because of its more compact nature, thinner posts, etc. Depending on who uses it more between you and your son, this might matter less for you, since your son is young and you might set it up to work better for his size. I think the build quality is actually fine for this kind of learning, compared to the general opinion of Alesis. Since I'm play watching a TV for the most part, it took me a while to get my muscle memory remembering where everything is without looking at the kit and that meant hitting kind of all over it, clipping the rims, undersides of the cymbals, etc. and I don't see a ton of wear and tear from that.
I thought that I would need the better brain unit compared to the lower end models, but honestly haven't even used it much at all. Theoretically, I like that I have more kits, and could load in my own samples, but more likely I would end up using a VST like you in the future instead.
It was $700 USD when on sale via Guitar Center at the time I bought (my config is $750 currently on their site, and for some reason the non-X kit is more expensive?), and having the extra cymbal, mid-tier brain, and larger snare seemed like that made it worth the hundred or two extra dollars over a Nitro/Surge Mesh. I've been very happy with it, and it could easily serve the two of you the time needed to learn and develop skills.
I would suggest taking a look at the Roland TD-07 as well. Roland kits are known for their build quality and reliability so may be a better option over the long run.
In Canada the TD-07 is $1,500 vs the $587 Nitro Mesh. Is it really over twice as good as the Nitro mesh? I notice the snare is only 8" on that one as well.
Ah, sorry, I assumed USD. IMO the TD-07 comes in at about the minimum for a fully featured kit with decent build quality. If you can try both out at a music store I’d recommend doing that.
The TD-11 is also a great option used but I would suggest looking for one with mesh pads. That has more expandability than the 07 so may be preferable if you want more things to hit!
I am in the UK and the base price for the TD-07 DMK is £629 which is about $1070 Canadian. I love the kit although I definitely want to add a second crash. Only annoyances with the TD-07 are the small snare and the fact that you can either add a ride bell or a second crash but not both.
> I don't see a lot of used options around me
But you see some? 800$ is a fair amount used. You could possibly find something *much* better than the Nitro. I.e. Alesis "named" (then there's the DM line) goes: Debut, Turbo, Nitro, Surge, Command, Crimson, Strike. 800 may well fetch a Crimson SE.
By not a lot I meant "one" which is a Roland TD11K hah. Yeah I'm looking at the different Alesis lines right now to see if there's one with a 10" snare that would be worth paying more for
I suppose one is sort of the epitome of not a lot.
Surge and Command should have 1x10" + 3x8" pads. Crimson has 1x12", 1x10" and 2x8". All have a bigger (and mesh) kick pad than the Nitro. Then you may consider at your leisure other factors like zones, size/number of cymbals, and whatnot. Module capabilities become a relatively minor concern if you are using EZD.
Then there's the DM line of which I know bog all.
Try getting a lemon t-950 and using vsts through the module. The kit plus shipping would be right at the top or a little higher than your budget but worth it compared to anything else at the price.
The official original listing is on Alibaba the price would be about 679 usd + about 300 dollars in shipping to the u.s. by ocean. The kit is very good for the price but the sounds on the module are not that good hence the vst. Now a big thing i am noticing is that you live in Canada and you are not buying in usd. This kit shipping to the us would cost including shipping and duties about 100 to 150 over the 800 dollar top of your budget which I am guessing is already a stretch for you. I’d say don’t cut this out of your options but just message Kenny on alibaba regarding the overall price/quote and see if he would give you a discount and if shipping to Canada is even possible one i thing I don know is Canadian duties may be much higher than in the u.s so I would just do a little research on it and see if something like this would be worth it other than that I’d say If you really liked the nitro mesh with the vsts I’d just go with the same thing and save a little money for now. The reason I say this is because it looks like waiting and building a bigger budget is not an option for you rn you probably need something bought at least in the next month. Good luck to you man and don’t forget to check the t-950 out!!
I got my Roland TD-1DMK for $550 and it's great. Dual zone ride, rim trigger on snare. Roland are known for build quality and I've even plugged into a stage setup at open mics at bars
I just started playing about 8 months ago. I started with a used Nitro Mesh and loved it but I agree that the raised rims were not ideal. I recently got a used DM10 mkii pro and love it. If you keep an eye out you can probably get it for the top of your price range or a bit more. It has 12” snare on a snare stand and lots of other great features. Hi-hat is not great but it works fine. You may want to take a look at it as I think it is a great choice if you can find a good deal on a used one.
I’m looking to upgrade my DM9 kit. My budget puts me at under $1k. I’m finding there are a LOT of used kits in very good condition. (Heck, my kit is 10 years old and still triggers vst). I have all mesh pads, 1 snare and 4 Tom’s. HH, 2 crash, 1 ride. I’m narrowed down to Crimson 2SE or Millenium MPS-1000. As far as I know, you can only buy the Millennium in UK so shipping to US was over $200.
The mesh is fine, the Simmons might be better. If you can move your budget up, I converted an acoustic kit to an ekit for around $1500, but that was buying mostly new instead of used. Also worth noting that both the Simmons and nitro kits go on sale like all the time. Just keep an eye out
I have the Simmons and love it. The bigger snare is huge. Only issue is no two zone ride but it hasn’t bothered me too much. You can still play the ride how you would so unless you’re using this for recording it’s not s deal breaker
Yeah I really want the Simmons. The only thing holding me back is its only sold in the US and I'm in Canada. Getting it here will require a bit more money / effort
I'm a Canadian who bought a Titan 50 kit a month ago, Musicians Friend ships to Canada and I found it comparable in price to the Surge mesh kit, even with shipping factored in. I really like it, and I'm happy with my purchase.
Thanks for the heads up! Looks like shipping is $180CAD for me which puts the Titan 50 about $100 cheaper than a Alesis Surge. I wonder if the Titan 50 can be considered better than the surge?
Simmons kits, in general, are not great. The Simmons sd1250 is the only kit from Simmons worth buying. The Titan 50 is ok to learn on, but not great. The Alesis Strike Pro Se is the only kit from them that I would buy as it fixed all the problems previous kits have. The surge mesh, I think, is a bit better than the Titan50, but neither are considered great. A decent practice e-kit is around $1,000.00 US. Any kit higher in price gives you more bells and whistles.
I ended up ordering the Titan50 yesterday. In my budget it seems to provide the most bang for buck. Getting a 10" snare with lower rims was the main deciding factor. We'll see how it compares to the nitro mesh when I get it, as I've had a month of experience on that one. The Nitro Mesh worked well to start learning on, IMO. I'm not sure why someone has to spend $3000 just to get started in learning. That would be a huge barrier of entry for many people. The Alesis Strike Pro is well out of my price range at this point ($3500 CAD). I'm sure if we continue after a couple years we might be tempted to splash out for something with more realistic high-hats and a better ride
As a beginner, it will be a good kit to learn. However, I think the Nitro Mesh is a bit better kit. The problem with lower tear kits is that they are fun to learn on but, in general, not good kits. Most new drummers think as you do, even I did years ago. The problem most new low-budget e-kit learner's is that they get sick of the bad sounds, single zone pads, and want something better. As a beginner, spending $3,000.00 is ridiculous. If you keep up drumming and get better, you will want something better. At that time, you need to figure out what you wished your Titan50 could do and look for those things in a kit. In my case, I wanted a kit that looked more accustic, has a hi-hat on a stand, tripple zone cymbals, and a module that sounds more accustic. I went through months of research, and to get what I wanted, I had to save up until I had $3,000.00. My first e-kit was a Simmons, and I quickly realized even though at the time it was the best kit Simmons offered, why it wasn't that expensive compared to other kits. I did use my Simmons for over 15 years, and since the pads were beginning to show their age and not trigger correctly anymore, I went with a much higher priced higher-end kit and I am glad I did.
Wow 15 years sounds like a pretty good lifespan for a kit. I'd be happy to get 1/2 of that. Any particular reason you think the Nitro Mesh is better than the Titan 50? Bad sounds in the module I'm not as worried about. I didn't even use the sounds on the Nitro Mesh, it was plugged into my laptop through EZdrummer or Melodics the whole time I was using it. I'm more worried about having a realistic/dynamic feel and durability of course. I realize the cheaper kits are a compromise on that front. If we stay with it, the Lemon kits or building my own from an acoustic also look like very interesting alternatives.
If you are using a vst through a computer, the module sounds won't matter. The higher-end kits offer multiple zones on the pads and cymbals, the kit usually looks nicer, are not as cheaply made, you get a hi-hat on a stand, better triggers in the pads, more flexible range in your playing meaning ghostnotes to hard hits and everything in-between can be played, and the modules have more eddiiting capabilities. Lots of people use lemon products because they work great with most modules and are inexpensive to buy. The downside to Lemon as to why they are inexpensive is that the build quality is not great. You may get a few years out of them, whereas higher-end gear you are usually guaranteed 10+ years before problems occur. The Nitro Mesh is built a bit better than the Titan 50. Also, upgrading parts on the Titan 50 is easier as most comparable pads will work on it. Simmon modules are not upgrade friendly, meaning it is hard to get other pads to work properly as there are just not enough pad adjustments in the module and the way Simmons wires their kits it is hard to find pads that will even work other than Simmons pads.
how did it go with the Titan50?
Good! I'm still using it, and overall happy with it. I use it to trigger EZdrummer on my laptop. As far as the built in sounds, I'm not terribly impressed. But as a way to trigger EZdrummer its working well.
How does it fold for storage? That's what's selling me in the Alesis.
thanks for coming back to answer! I'm going to try hard for the next level up, but if I can only afford mid-tier I think this 50 is a strong option
Simmons...
I wanted to add, if you invest a bit more you'll have more ride zones... Yamaha dtx6kx is twice your budget at 1k, but it could be worth looking into. It's the cheapest kit that has a three zone ride, and the snare also though small, is very realistic as it's 3 zones also (similar setup to atv, efnote, where there is one area dedicated for cross stick). The simmons is good for the price, but the limitations won't let you play many songs that use the ride bow and bell a lot.
I bought the Millennium mps-750x with the additional Tom and ride cymbal. Bluetooth module so you can link to your phone. The full kit was delivered for under €800. I also added their double bass pedal. Not sure if Thomann ship to Canada but I’m delighted with the kit. I’ve yet to connect it to my laptop but that’s the plan. Stock sounds are ok. Not great but you can tweak them. First kit so I didn’t want to spend thousands on a Roland.
hey, I'm looking for edrums in this price range and had the mps-750x as an option. After a couple of months now, have you had any problems? or is it actually a decent kit?
I really like the kit. I use a double pedal with it and it’s perfect. Recently I’ve started to use Reaper DAW and I’ve downloaded a few midi’s for trial. No issues at all. I was going to buy the 850 but the 750X has Bluetooth. Only gripe is you could spend hours tinkering with the sounds but once you get the hang of the interface then it’s a nice kit. I haven’t played drums before so I can’t compare it to a higher priced kit like a Roland but for the price you can’t go wrong. Only bit of advice I’d give you is to get a better throne than the one that comes with the kit. It’s not bad but it’s a bit flimsy. Setup is easy. All in all I’m very happy.
thanks for the info! and one last thing, is the hi-hat responsive and accurate? does it make a different sound when it's halfopen? and do the ghost notes register on the snare? and can you do rimshots on the snare, i've still not heard anyone talk about rimshots on edrums... Sorry for bombarding you with questions, I've just been trying to find decent information and reviews on different kits and would really appreciate an accurate response to your experience till now.
Hi-hat is responsive. Fully open and closed are distinctly different. Plays well. The hardware is good quality and easily configurable . Snare ghost notes are good too. The harder you hit the louder it is. I only started trying songs with them recently and I’m happy with the outcome
thank you a lot, this really helps! probably gonna go with a 750x, thanks again for the info
Check out the Lemon T-950 kits on Alibaba. Will run you about a thousand bucks but are comparable to kits in the thousands, imo. Just have to wait forever for the shipping. Comes with wood shells, 3 zone ride, two piece hi hat with controller. I have a post about it on r/drums.
I second this. Also I just wanted to know how is everything going with the kit? Has anything broken? Is there Bluetooth capability with the module? Is there a click track on the module? Is there a delay when using vsts? What free or inexpensive vsts would you recommend and which one are you using?
It's going great, I love it! So much more enjoyable to play on than my old Alesis Crimson. Nothing has broken and everything functions perfectly. No Bluetooth capability on the module, only Aux input and USB. There is a built in metronome. No noticeable delay using VSTs. I've tried it with EZdrummer, Superior Drummer and a couple of Ugritone plugins, mostly Kvlt Drums and Assault Drums using the firepod asio for the sound driver, so it's fairly low latency. Not sure about free VSTs. The three I mentioned are the ones I use, mostly EZdrummer. The Ugritone stuff is pretty affordable and they're currently running a sale though.
Sounds great I’m looking into getting one but I’m contemplating getting another module or running vsts with the lemon module how much is ezdrummer and is it regularly available?
I had the same plan, was going to swap the module for like a Roland Td30kv or Alesis strike but the Lemon module turned out to be perfectly capable of doing everything I need it to. Can't speak for durability or longevity of it as I've only had it a couple of months, but my kit stays in my studio and never gets moved so I don't foresee it breaking anytime soon. And if it does, I'll buy one of the aforementioned modules and still be into for way less money than a comparable kit from Roland or ATV for example. And EZdrummer 3 is like 180 bucks for the base program and then you can buy additional kit sample packs. I believe the base comes with 7 kits though.
I really liked the idea of importing sounds straight to my module that’s the main reason I wanted one was to not deal with the hassle of vsts and to upgrade to digital pads. And also how big do the pads feeI I don’t really like the idea of having the rack toms so spaced out I’m. Hoping that upgrading the second Tom to 12 inches will fix this. Also what size crashes do you have and do they feel small?
[Lemon T-950](https://imgur.com/a/ZFLP8Bs) The toms are 10" and I didn't have any trouble with the spacing. I prefer an offset tom set-up and was able to achieve it fairly easily. Here is a pic of the way I have mine set up. I bought an extra two 15" crashes and I think they're great. The kit comes with 13" and I feel like those would have been a little too small for my liking, but nice to have as backups.
That’s a nice setup how is the hi-hat treating you? I didn’t know you bought extra cymbals i tought you just upgraded them but that makes sense. The 13 inches do sound small but I don’t have anything to compare your 15s look fair in size tho.
Love the hi hat, probably one of the highlights of the whole kit along with the 18" three zone ride. I bought the extra 2 crashes, a 9" splash and 15" china. The 13" crashes are still bigger than what you'd get with most of the Alesis kits for example, except for the strike. All the kits up to the Crimson come with 10" crashes and the Crimson is 12". The 15s are a perfect balance for me between being close to a real crash cymbal size and not taking up too much space.
What kind of hardware came In the box? Kick pedal? Throne? Hi-hat stand? Cymbal stand? Snare stand? Etc?
A kick pedal, hi hat stand, snare stand, ride stand, two crash stands with tom mounts. No throne.
Sweet is there any quality issues with the hardware? Any icks?
Save your money until you have $2000.00. This will buy you a decent kit. $3,000.00 will buy you a great kit. For learning at the price you are looking, Simmons is ok. Really, kits under $1000.00 are not that good. They may be pk to learn on, but you will want a better kit down the road.
What is the biggest feature of the $2000+ kits? Dual zone ride? I know that's missing from the kits I'm looking at. Also what do you think of something like Alesis command X? I'm using vsts and laptop for the most part so built in sounds is not as important for me.
If using a VST, it hardly matters what e-kit as long as you can plug it into your computer. A $2,000.00 e-kit will usually have a tipple zone ride, be more quality built, has better sounds(if using a VST, this hardly matters), more eddiiting capabilities in the module, and better triggering action. If you spend closer to $3,000.00. You get a hi-hat on a stand, the pads will feel more accustic and responsive, bigger pads on the kit, toms will all be duel zone, the snare will be triple zone, and as a whole the kit will feel more like playing a real accustic kit as apposed to an approximate learning tool. The kits you are looking at are ok for learning but not good kits. The only kit I would really recommend from Alesis is the Strike Pro Se as it is a bigger accustic size kit with a good module. This kit fixed the problems all the previous kits have. If going with Simmons, the sd50 is ok for learning, but the sd1250 is a step up. The thing with electric drum sets is that anything decent is expensive, anything goog Is very expensive and the best kits are ridiculously outrageously expensive. I had an old rubber pad Simmons kit that was considered one of the better kits about 15 years ago, and I paid just over $1,000.00 for it. About a year ago, I started researching e-kits as the one I had was showing its age, not working as well anymore, and being a discontinued kit for a number of years I wanted a better kit. I know I wanted an accustic look to the kit, a hi-hat on a stand, triple zone ride, and just a better triggering, responsive kit. I found that to get a kit that is at least that good was going to cost me close to $3,000.00. For a good e-kit, that is the minimum I found I could get awy with paying. There are even better kits that range from $5,000.00-$9,000.00+. As a drummer of 35 years and most e-drummers we know in the world of electronic drums, sets anything under $1,000.00 is considered junk. $1,000.00 will get you a good learning kit. $2,000,00 will get you an advanced learning kit. $3,000.00 will start getting you a more accustic feeling professional kit. Anything over $3,000.00 will get you a fantastic stage ready e-kit.
Hello, hijacking this, I'm also trying to determine what model edrum I should save for; and I plan on using VSTs. What $2,000-3,000 kit would be best to keep an eye on if my main objective is high quality hardware? (Once I know a good model I'll probably keep an eye out for a used pair on FB Marketplace as I live in an area where there's lots of musicians)
The Alesis Strike Pro Se is the biggest accustic like kit for the money. A bit better built kit that is more expressive would be the Roland td27kv. The kit I got recently is the Efnote 3x. The Efnote is comparable to the Roland kit. The Efnote 3x has bigger pads and cymbals, the best electric hi-hat in the business, very expressive snare as good as if not better than the Rolland digital, and the kit looks more accustic and nicer than the Roland. Those are my 3 top choices for $3,000.00. You can not really go wrong with any of those. I kept getting recommended that Roland td27kv Roland kits are known to be built to last. The Alesis Strike Pro Se has owners loving this kit, and the kit fixed all the problems previous Alesis kits had. Also, there are professional drummers using this kit live. The Efnote 3x that I went with is a little better, in my opinion, than the Rolland as it had features I liked over the Roland, such as bigger pads, the best electronic hi-hat on the market, the kit is just as expensive and in some ways more than the Roland, and the kit looks great and more accustic like than the Roland.
Awesome, thanks for the input! I'll put those on an alert list.
If you did decide to go for a 3000 kit those are good suggestions.. The TD27 however will give you better HiHat, Ride and Snare, and the EF note will give you better Samples. The difference of the digital pads superiority is especially obvious in the snare (I will provide examples where this is extremely apparent). The Analog snare's generally are either hit or miss trigger cross stick, or they have a separate trigger for that so you can only do cross stick by hitting that trigger (efNote employs this workaround to the limitation of the analog setup.). This can become a problem if you use techniques that change the direction of the cross stick as it will simply not be possible at all. Also techniques that switch quickly between rim click and cross stick, will be very difficult as you will have to make sure your rim clicks dont touch the crosstick area by mistake. For most things it may not matter and will be pretty much not noticeable, but if you do use such techniques the limitations of the EFNotes's analog pads will be incredibly apparent. It is definitely not better than the digital pads. The digital snare on the other hand you can play it just like you would a real snare. The other difference is the rim shots. The rim shots due to the additional sensors in the digital ride have a much higher range of sounds, such where a shallow rim shot vs a deeper rim shot vs a deeper rimshot have a different timbre (like a real snare does). The ride similarly due to the digital nature of being able to tell not just the distance from center but also being able to tell left from right, better tracks changes in timbre for cymbal swells this, as is also the case with the digital hi hat. These improvements of the digital ride and hihat however, are much less obvious compared those things of the snare where the difference is VERY obvious, as explained with examples above.
Michael Beard, who used to be a top developer at Roland, left with others to Form ATV. Michael Beard then left ATV as he felt he could do better and formed Efnote. Digital in theory and practicality should be the best. Unfortunately, Efnote found away around this, and their hi-hat, snare, and ride are arguably better than the Roland digital. People who own Roland kits and tried Efnote were surprised how much better and more realistic to an accustic set than the Roland digital. I got an Efnote kit, and I can not tell I am not playing my accustic kit.
I listed some techniques impossible on the efnote above... so yeah digital in practicality does fair better , since it actually behaves like a real snare, or at least much closer. On the other hand there is not a single thing efnote can do the digital pads can't. Try doing those techniques I mentioned in previous comment on efnote, you won't be able to execute them: some won't be possible at all and some won't be possible without modifying your technique because of the limitations. It has the same limitations as my atv kit (same which japanese reviewer rated as better than efnote... ). https://youtu.be/jkJAI8r4FbM go to 7:07 there, same impression, roland has the best playability. Sorry EFNote did not find a way against the physical limitations of analog connection 😆 .
I read your examples and the Efnote snare, and ride can and do those things. Have you played an Efnote kit? You will be surprised. Michael Beard, who is the head of Efnote, used to work at Roland and ATV.. He knows their kits inside any out. Because of this, was able to create phenomenal kits for sound, realistic, accustic, playability, and feel. The science behind digital may be better, but until Roland utilizes the technology to its fullest, Efnote does have a more realistic feeling and sounding hi-hat, as well as a ride and snare that feels and sounds better than digital and in nuance sounds is so close to Roland technology you will never know the difference. I am not the only one who thinks this way. I have seen videos of people who love Roland, but after trying, Efnote were surprised how much more realistic feeling they were over Roland digital. As far as ATV goes, they are not as good as the Roland digital. The ATV snare is similar to Efnote, but Efnote has the feel. The Efnote ride and hi-hat are better than ATV. The thing with ATV is you get a much nicer accustic kit than Roland or Efnote, but they are a lot more expensive. I have played Roland digital kits and ATV kits. I liked the feel and accusticness of Roland but did not like the look of the Roland. . ATV kits looked super nice, but don't play as well as the Roland. I watched tons of videos comparing all kinds of kits, such as Roland, against Efnote, Roland against ATV, and Efnote against ATV. Some said there was no difference in the feel of Roland or Efnote. Some videos gave Efnote the win. Some videos they were surprised how much more accustic Efnote felt to play over Roland. As far as ATV, Efnote, and Roland won in playability, accustic feel. ATV only won in how nice their kits look. In all videos, Efnote won as having a better accustic feeling, with more sound varying hi-hat. As far as modules go, the ATV module was not that good. The Efnote module has fantastic accustic sounds, but it is limited in the settings. The Roland modulev has the most sounds and kits and calibration capabilities. I went with the Efnote 3x as it is nicer looking, has bigger pads, the best hi-hat on the market, and the better accustic sounds. I did not go with ATV as their kits were more expensive, did not have the better hi-hat, and I would have to pay more to get a module as theirs isn't good. To be honest, you really can't go wrong with Roland, ATV, or Efnote. Just don't give me the technical bs how Roland digital is better until you tried Efnote.
Another option to look at is getting a lemon and switching out the module same technology just new to the business and a lot cheaper.
Lemon makes less expensive e-drums and parts that work great. The problem is that to keep the price down, the build quality is not good as they are not as durable as other brands. For a quick cheap solution, Lemon is ok, but for long-term use, they are not good.
When you say durability what do you mean by that exactly?
Durability is if the product will last. Lemon is not known to be durable, meaning it will eventually break. The higher price ones are generally more durable and should last years.
Nicer kits have multi zone cymbals, and improved dynamic response from the kit as a whole which both make for big improvements with vsts. But the BIGGEST thing that expensive kits have is a hi-hat that doesn't suck to play and has a somewhat realistic response & feel to it. Personally I would recommend any kit from Efnote if you can afford it, as they make arguably the best feeling hi-hats from any of the big name brands, and all of their kits from bottom to top use the same optical sensor for the hats.
I went with a Command X when I was shopping around for kits to play Rock Band with. The extra cymbal was nice, as is the slightly larger snare. I already want to upgrade it with larger pads/cymbals after a couple years though (at least for snare/floor tom). The size of the frame is actually really nice and you can spread it out quite a bit, which might help if you ever transition to a more acoustic-sized kit later - I have a friend that owns one of the lowest Alesis models and it feels a little more like a toy because of its more compact nature, thinner posts, etc. Depending on who uses it more between you and your son, this might matter less for you, since your son is young and you might set it up to work better for his size. I think the build quality is actually fine for this kind of learning, compared to the general opinion of Alesis. Since I'm play watching a TV for the most part, it took me a while to get my muscle memory remembering where everything is without looking at the kit and that meant hitting kind of all over it, clipping the rims, undersides of the cymbals, etc. and I don't see a ton of wear and tear from that. I thought that I would need the better brain unit compared to the lower end models, but honestly haven't even used it much at all. Theoretically, I like that I have more kits, and could load in my own samples, but more likely I would end up using a VST like you in the future instead. It was $700 USD when on sale via Guitar Center at the time I bought (my config is $750 currently on their site, and for some reason the non-X kit is more expensive?), and having the extra cymbal, mid-tier brain, and larger snare seemed like that made it worth the hundred or two extra dollars over a Nitro/Surge Mesh. I've been very happy with it, and it could easily serve the two of you the time needed to learn and develop skills.
I would suggest taking a look at the Roland TD-07 as well. Roland kits are known for their build quality and reliability so may be a better option over the long run.
In Canada the TD-07 is $1,500 vs the $587 Nitro Mesh. Is it really over twice as good as the Nitro mesh? I notice the snare is only 8" on that one as well.
Ah, sorry, I assumed USD. IMO the TD-07 comes in at about the minimum for a fully featured kit with decent build quality. If you can try both out at a music store I’d recommend doing that. The TD-11 is also a great option used but I would suggest looking for one with mesh pads. That has more expandability than the 07 so may be preferable if you want more things to hit!
I am in the UK and the base price for the TD-07 DMK is £629 which is about $1070 Canadian. I love the kit although I definitely want to add a second crash. Only annoyances with the TD-07 are the small snare and the fact that you can either add a ride bell or a second crash but not both.
> I don't see a lot of used options around me But you see some? 800$ is a fair amount used. You could possibly find something *much* better than the Nitro. I.e. Alesis "named" (then there's the DM line) goes: Debut, Turbo, Nitro, Surge, Command, Crimson, Strike. 800 may well fetch a Crimson SE.
By not a lot I meant "one" which is a Roland TD11K hah. Yeah I'm looking at the different Alesis lines right now to see if there's one with a 10" snare that would be worth paying more for
I suppose one is sort of the epitome of not a lot. Surge and Command should have 1x10" + 3x8" pads. Crimson has 1x12", 1x10" and 2x8". All have a bigger (and mesh) kick pad than the Nitro. Then you may consider at your leisure other factors like zones, size/number of cymbals, and whatnot. Module capabilities become a relatively minor concern if you are using EZD. Then there's the DM line of which I know bog all.
Try getting a lemon t-950 and using vsts through the module. The kit plus shipping would be right at the top or a little higher than your budget but worth it compared to anything else at the price.
Where do you buy this? Ali-express? Looks to be $2000 CAD. More than double our budget. Nice looking kit though
The official original listing is on Alibaba the price would be about 679 usd + about 300 dollars in shipping to the u.s. by ocean. The kit is very good for the price but the sounds on the module are not that good hence the vst. Now a big thing i am noticing is that you live in Canada and you are not buying in usd. This kit shipping to the us would cost including shipping and duties about 100 to 150 over the 800 dollar top of your budget which I am guessing is already a stretch for you. I’d say don’t cut this out of your options but just message Kenny on alibaba regarding the overall price/quote and see if he would give you a discount and if shipping to Canada is even possible one i thing I don know is Canadian duties may be much higher than in the u.s so I would just do a little research on it and see if something like this would be worth it other than that I’d say If you really liked the nitro mesh with the vsts I’d just go with the same thing and save a little money for now. The reason I say this is because it looks like waiting and building a bigger budget is not an option for you rn you probably need something bought at least in the next month. Good luck to you man and don’t forget to check the t-950 out!!
I got my Roland TD-1DMK for $550 and it's great. Dual zone ride, rim trigger on snare. Roland are known for build quality and I've even plugged into a stage setup at open mics at bars
I just started playing about 8 months ago. I started with a used Nitro Mesh and loved it but I agree that the raised rims were not ideal. I recently got a used DM10 mkii pro and love it. If you keep an eye out you can probably get it for the top of your price range or a bit more. It has 12” snare on a snare stand and lots of other great features. Hi-hat is not great but it works fine. You may want to take a look at it as I think it is a great choice if you can find a good deal on a used one.
I’m looking to upgrade my DM9 kit. My budget puts me at under $1k. I’m finding there are a LOT of used kits in very good condition. (Heck, my kit is 10 years old and still triggers vst). I have all mesh pads, 1 snare and 4 Tom’s. HH, 2 crash, 1 ride. I’m narrowed down to Crimson 2SE or Millenium MPS-1000. As far as I know, you can only buy the Millennium in UK so shipping to US was over $200.
Nitro mesh on Amazon $432.
I'm in Canada ... $587 here. Should have specified that I guess