Style: Drum Set Only
First off I want to say that I bought these when they came with a fifty-dollar gift card to Amazon, so they really only cost $300. It also included one set of sticks and a drum key. I am writing this for two purposes...to critique them from an entry level set perspective, and their ability to work wi
th a double bass. From the double bass perspective, this kit's base pad is sufficient for double bass. The pad is louder when hit closer to the center. As long as the beater hits someplace on the pad it will work. Mine has about an inch of play room on the side of each beater. If I center them, they work perfect. It's only when they stray to the side that they are a little less loud. The pedal I chose does not fit very good as far as where it connects to the pad stand. To center the beaters, I have to move the peddle as far to the right as possible. It's not real secure when I do it this way, and end up having to adjust/tighten it every 15 minutes of use, but this pad was not designed with double bass in mind. I am an engineer and I can just design a better piece to weld on that will be much better. Since I can do the drawing and give it to a friend that welds and is great at manufacturing parts, it's only going to cost me the price of a piece of metal. I would imagine if you paid someone to do it, it would not be an inexpensive kit anymore. I would just buy a larger pad stand,if I didn't have the ability to make one for free. That being said, there are other ways you could do it without welding...you could get some metal, drill holes, and bolt it to the existing pad stand. Also, there might be other pedals that would center easier than mine. I chose the TAMA HP200PTW Iron Cobra 200 Double Pedal, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B4XDWB6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and I am extremely happy with it. I had a DW pedal before, and it didn't come close to comparing with this one. I think the DW was a hundred dollars more than the Tama as well, but this was 15 years ago, and double pedals may have been more expensive then. The performance of the Tama is by far the best of any pedal I ever used, and there are other things you can add to the pedal to make it faster. The point of this before I go in too many directions, is the pad itself has plenty of room for two pedals to strike it in the "sweet spot", or close enough to the electronic trigger, to work perfectly. Finding a pedal that clamps on to the stand right might be a challenge; I don't know, this is the only pedal I tried with it. My previous, and first electronic kit was a Roland brian with Hart Dynamics drums. They were the same price as the Roland drums, only I liked the way they played better, and they came with a lifetime warranty. I'm not sure how long ago, but they went out of business: so much for the lifetime warranty. I had the DW 3000 double bass pedal, which at the time cost about $300 (the cost of this entire kit), and now they cost $250...double bass is much more popular now than it was back then...my hypothesis why the pedal went down that much after 15 years. The point I am making here, is that I am comparing the Alesis kit to that kit...which was from 15 years ago when electronic drums were nowhere near as prevalent as they are now. I also had the same drum throne; I liked it so I got it again. From the entry level perspective: here are the reasons I did not give the kit a 5. It doesn't come with a throne. Beginners might not think of that and be disappointed when it arrives and realize that they still need to order one. That can be a significant addition to the price of the kit. I found a throne I like for just under $60, Gibraltar 6608 Heavy Drum Throne. It's comfortable, functional, and sturdy. I am a big man (about 300 lbs). This is my second one. I had the first one 15 years and it never had a problem, and like I said, I weigh a lot. I purchased both the throne and Tama pedal from Amazon, and I love them both. I copied and pasted the names on Amazon if you want to check them out. This kit does come with a single bass pedal by the way, so you don't have to buy a different pedal. Some other things you will need are: A way to hear the kit - either headphones (the input jack is 3.5 mm), an amp., or a stereo to plug into. I also got some over the ear headphones (OneOdio) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6ZJH96/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 that are amazing for $30. The other thing that is a must have from my perspective it a cable to attach your phone or mp3 player. You will need a 3.5mm to 3.5 mm cable to plug into the headphone jack of your phone or player...same size into the Alesis brain. Here is the one I got...I like long cords when playing drums...hate it when I move and a cord tugs on me. By the way, there is nothing bluetooth or wireless in this kit:. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KWR8OZ4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The headphones I put a link for, also have a cord close to 10 feet, and a bunch of different ways and sizes to hook up that come with the headphones. I put all this extra stuff because if you are new to electronic kits, you might not think of it and be dissapointed when you have to rush out to buy headphones to hear them or a cord so you can hook up your mp3 player and play along to YOUR music. The kit does have some built in songs you can play with. OK, so for the kit's performance. The cymbols scare me as they don't appear real sturdy, but work fine so far. The ride cymbal makes the bell sound when you hit it hard. I like using the bell, so I am wondering how long they will last. They work and sound great now. The only other kit I owned was Roland with drums the same quality. The mesh heads seem great. I get good bounce and they play like an acoustic drum head. The rim around the drum heads it high, and they take some getting used to. An 8" drum isn't a very big target to start with, and if you put a high ring around it...a bit challenging to say the least. The rims do make for easy, good sounding rim shots. All the pads are responsive with no delay. The stand is easy to put together, but this is my second one, and my friend that helped me works with me as an engineer. I would guess we can figure stuff like this out at least as good as the average person. Their assembly instructions suck, and if I didn't understand how these go together already, it would have been really hard to put together. All the drum sounds I have heard so far sounded great. Now, like I said earlier, my previous kit was a Roland brain, and drums I think were at least as good as Roland. Roland is the standard in electronic drums...just my opinion. I got that kit 15 years ago. I am sure all drum kits have evolved since then. Comparing the Roland kit from 15 years ago with this one, I would say the actual drum pads are very similar, and play almost exactly the same. The stand is just as sturdy. The cymbols seem about the same, but the Rolands didn't need to be hit as hard to get the bell sound. Through headphones, the Alesis kit sounds almost exactly the same as the Roland did. I haven't checked all the Alesis brain can do, but I think it probably does more than the Roland (15 years old) did. I am sure the new Roland brains do way more now. I think drums are like cars. The Roland is like a Bentley. Sure, it's a nice car, but not that nice...In my opinion, a big part of it's price tag is the name Bentley. So sure, maybe my new kit is like a Chevy, but it gets me where I need to go, it's inexpensive to maintain and repair, and honestly, I think it looks a lot cooler than a Bentley. I have played drums on and off for almost 50 years. I have been away from it for 3 years, so I just wanted to check out an inexpensive kit for S and Gs, and I am glad I did. I don't know how long it will last, but for now I am very impressed. I would highly recommend this kit. I wonder if anyone will read all this...lol
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Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2019 by Joel Vugteveen Joel Vugteveen
Style: Drum Set Only
A good kit that's just a few notches short of being perfect. Easy to install, responsive pads, solid overall. But there are a few things that keep it from being perfect: 1. Hi-hat pedal is iffy in its response. Sometimes it works exactly like you expect, other times it thinks the hats are closed even
if you have your foot mostly off the pedal. It's really hit and miss. 2. Bass drum sounds extremely tinny through headphones, to the point where I wondered if it was even working, but the control module showed that it was triggering. 3. The crash cymbal choke function works, but the area where you have to grab to make it work is surprisingly small. Still, none of these are deal breakers. If you're a beginner or just looking for an inexpensive kit for an apartment, this is a solid buy (but make sure to buy a throne, as the kit doesn't come with one).
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Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2023 by L-Rez
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Excellent practice kit, little wobbly for a live gig
Style: Drum Set Only
Setup was easy and all the tools are included. Save the twist ties to shore up the cables. Getting it all adjusted to how I prefer to play took a few attempts but it was fairly easy to get things where I want them. The aux in mixes well with the volume of the kit for playing along with tunes. Overall
this kit sounds great and is super cheap for all it can do.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2023 by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer
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Good start, gets the joerb done
Style: Drum Set Only
It is a blast to be able to play the drums at any hour of the day. My biggest complaint is with the cymbals. The drums (as long as you set up your own custom kit) sound quite good, but the cymbals sound and feel electric and canned. The hi-hat specifically has too much give, and doesn't play like an
acoustic kit. On an acoustic kit, I like to hold the hat down real hard to get a tight, tinny sound, and then slowly loosen the pressure during crescendos. On this kit, there seem to be only 3 settings on the hat. Closed, half, and open. I wish there was a way to tighten it further. Also, the cymbals should be made out of a harder material, to better replicate the feeling of drumsticks on metal. One other issue, the rimshots all sound fake, and I end up accidentally hitting them far too often. For that reason, I set the rimshot sound to the same sample sound as the snare itself. It's a workable compromise, but not ideal.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2023 by Bob McBob Bob McBob
Style: Drum Set Only
Compramos esta bateria electronica para nuestra iglesia, queriamos ahorrar en acondicionamiento acustico y microfonos. Esta fue la mejor opcion, nos ahorramos en comprar acrilicos y gastos fuertes, y esto nos permitio controla el volumen general de la bateria para que no opacara el volumen de las voc
es por que es una iglesia pequeña y una bateria real acustica hacia mucho ruido. Los sonidos que tiene son bastante reales y le da un sonido excelente a toda la musica en vivo. Lo recomiendo para la iglesia. Puedes ajustar los sonidos en cada pad y controal los volumenes de cada pad asi como ecualicacion de cada unos y muchas otras cosas mas. Busquen tutoriales en youtube. Excelente compra. Gracias a Roland.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2023 by Alfredo Garcia
Style: Drum Set Only
First, the module is amazing! The mesh heads are perfect. They're extremely responsive. I added an extra tom and cymbal and the whole kit folds up to ab 4' high and 3' wide. Fits perfectly in my closet. GREAT for apartments! Couldn't be more happy or impressed!
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2023 by Joshua Bowling
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This took a little longer than 30 minutes to put together.
Style: Drum Set Only
For the price it is a good practice or beginner drum set. I should have gone with a more expensive set.
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2023 by dkend
Style: Drum Set Only
I bought the stool and double bass pedal separately, but I love this kit. Get a good pair of I.E.M's (In ear monitors), or noise canceling headphones and lose yourself in this thing. I'm still getting used to an electric kit but I'm having so much fun. A much needed distraction.
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2023 by FerrellScales FerrellScales
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This is the kit I've wanted for years
Style: w/ Expansion Pack + Throne & Headphones
This drum kit is 100% worth it for the casual drummer. I am so very pleased. Great price, easy to set up, feels natural, sounds fantastic. The mesh heads are such a game changer - definitely worth upgrading if you have rubber pads. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2023 by Kindle Customer Kindle Customer
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Great electronic kit...but a few flaws
Style: Drum Set Only
After living with this kit for 2 weeks, I'll go through a list of the pro's and cons, in my opinion. First, just a quick note about the company Alesis. I've been using Alesis gear since 1992. Primarily drum machines and drum modules. There is no other company that offers a better performance to cost
ratio, hands down. The "elitists" who think only Roland and Yamaha are quality electronic drumkits are dead wrong. They equate high price with high quality. Alesis has been putting out comparable products at half the price for three decades. Their flagship drumkit, the Strike Pro SE, compares to Roland and Yamaha kits costing twice (or more) as much. Many, many thumbs up to Alesis. The pros... 1) Great sounds. Excellent decay on all the snares, toms, and cymbals. No cutoff whatsoever. Many useful drumkits covering rock, funk, and jazz. Not a bunch of useless novelty kits and sounds. The snare on kit 01 is a beauty! 2) Excellent extra features. Click track, and a ton of play along songs in all genres. You can turn the existing drum track in the play along songs on or off. Midi features so you can hook the brain up to a computer and trigger high end drum sounds (e.g, - Superior Drummer 3, Steven Slate drums), or you can midi into another drum module if desired. 3) The mesh heads feel great. 2 years ago, a drumkit with mesh heads was $1,000+. Definitely superior to rubber pad electronic drums and (dare I say), even the electronic drumkits using real drumheads. 4) Accurate triggering. I use a lot of soft ghost notes on the snare drum when I play, and the triggers pick them up pretty accurately. The open/close feature on the high hat pedal is a little suspect, but this is likely something that you might need to tweak, or it might just be a matter of getting used to it. They're all different. 5) Decent quality bass drum pedal included. 6) Ability to integrate into a higher end electronic drumkit. I plan on upgrading to a higher end kit in the future (likely the Alesis Strike Pro SE). Will I get rid of the Nitro Mesh kit? No way! The pads and cymbals will integrate into another kit perfectly. Hook em up to the Nitro Mesh module, run a MIDI cable to the Strike Pro module, and you can have piccolo snares, timbales, octobans, roto toms, china cymbals, trash cymbals, secondary hi-hats...you name it! Now for the con's... 1) Unpredictable choke feature on the crash cymbal. Out of 10 attempted crash chokes, it seems to work less than half the time. It's almost like there's literally a 1 inch section that you have to grab to get the choke effect. I assumed grabbing the entire rubber area on the bottom would trigger the choke feature. Not so. 2) Difficult to position drums where you want them. I literally can not get the snare and 1st rack tom into a comfortable position similar to an actual drum set. I'm going to have to spend another $50 and get a snare drum stand just to get the snare where I want it. 3) More of a wish list feature, but I wish they could've used 10" drums and 12" cymbals. I'm aware that this would've added another $100+ to the cost (I would have willingly paid it). After playing acoustic drums for 40 years, I'm used to the bigger sizes...14" snare, and 12"-16" toms. It can be challenging doing fast rolls down the toms on 8" pads. Playing some wild bebop on the ride cymbal can result in (unintentional) air drumming (oops!) On the plus side, the 8" drums and small cymbals definitely improve your accuracy when moving back to an acoustic kit. Overall, another home run for Alesis. I'd recommend this to anybody, serious drummer or hobbyist. One wish list note for Alesis. I'd like to see them make actual brass electronic cymbals (similar to what Jobeky in the U.K does). That's the biggest adjustment for drummers moving from acoustic to electronic kits. It just feels "unnatural" hitting plastic/rubber instead of metal. This is a 5 star product, but due to the choke feature and the positioning restrictions, I'm giving the Nitro Mesh a 4.5.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2020 by Michael Grimm
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Nice drum set for beginners or for a practice set. Drum volume not the best through headphones.
Style: Drum Set Only
I bought this drum set for my 8 year old son. For him it's definitely the right size. For adults it might be a little small (I'm 5' 7"), but what's nice is you can widen the whole set by pushing the right and left sides of the frame back away from you. Seems like it has a lot of expandability as well
. The only issue I'm finding so far are the sounds of the drums just aren't very loud through headphones. I've tried two different professional studio headphones (One the Sennheiser DT 990 PRO and the other an AKG K240 Studio), and neither was very loud with the drum module volume at 100%. I've read other reviews that basically say the same thing. But, maybe if you run the drums through external speakers it could be louder. Not sure. Even with the low volume, I'd still recommend this set for kids or for a beginner like me. I can't really imagine a professional drummer liking this though as it seems difficult or maybe impossible to make realistic sounding drum rolls on the snare. It mostly just sounds like a machine gun. But maybe that's all electronic drum sets. Also, I've read some complaints about the crash mute being on only one small part of the symbal. That's true, however I didn't think it was that much of an inconvenience. I guess if maybe you're playing a difficult, fast rhythm and you go to grab the cymbal to mute it but miss then that's a problem. Anyway, like I said, if you're a professional drummer, then maybe look for a higher priced set with more bells and whistles. But if you want a practice set, or a set for your kids, then I'd recommend this one.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2023 by Keith Pierce
Style: Drum Set Only
I was skeptical at first that this wouldn't be as good as my old Simmons set, but it is just as good! Pedals aren't stiff, they're just right. Control panel is easy to use. Overall set up feels natural. 10/10
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2023 by HonestTrailmix
Style: Drum Set Only
First off let me say the set really is a good bargain set. If your just needing something at home you can practice on without driving the family & neighbors crazy, & without hurting the wallet much, it’s perfect... that being said, I do have a few things I think could’ve been done a bit better even o
n a bargain class drum set. 1) I wish the module put out louder volume... I’ve tried different headsets and speakers but unless you’re willing to spend another $150 on a high class pair of headphones or a cheap subwoofer, any ambient noise will make it hard to hear the kick, and soft snare notes. 2) The “Bass Drum” is so small and light you will constantly be stopping to pull it back every 2 to 3 kicks. It moves if a light breeze hits it. (2A:You can remedy this a bit if you put down a place mat or rug to put the set on, and use some Velcro to hold in place) (2B: Or like me you can get a used bass drum from a higher class set that has a little weight plus the typical bar-stands on it. Most individual drums can plug into any module that uses 1/4” aux cables) 3) I also wish the high hat control was a little heavier duty and better built 3A: the amazing thing is the Alesis nitro module does allow you to assign any of the 256 different drum voices to whichever piece you want. Meaning you can assign the same kick sound to both the bass drum and the HH-Control Pedal giving you a double kick ability without having to spend the kind of money it takes to get sets that come with double kicks as standard. (3B: but there’s a minor issue when using the HH control for double kick that comes from the cheap/light build of the pedal... now & then When you are playing with the HH pedal as a kick it will make a crack noise like shutting a highhat and kicking bass at same time. And it still acts as open/close function for the High Hat even when you’ve assigned the kick voice to it. So you have to time hitting your high hat to always be alternating with using the pedal as kick. If you do both simultaneously your high hat will sound like your hitting it while wide open. Summary: all in all... the fact that for less than $500 you can get a complete electronic drum set that comes with all mesh heads (excluding bass drum) and feels and sounds pretty dang good; Is amazing. It’d be great for your kids who are just starting their drum journey, (and great for parents as it is 1,000xs quieter than a traditional acoustic set) but also great for people like me who started playing 25years ago. But after becoming a husband & father, your spouse finally got you to put the set in storage. Then your church asks you to join the worship team and you need a way to practice (without getting a divorce) lol. It’s a cheap and easy fix that your spouse (& neighbors) will appreciate.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2022 by John T.
Style: Drum Set Only
Setting up was a little tricky at first but I watched a video and went very easy after that. I'm not a drummer. .. Yet. These sound amazing. Hooked it up to garage band and it's a lot of fun. The only small complaint I have is I wish you could tilt the snare and the floor tom towards you instead of j
ust horizontally. Very minor. Overall highly recommend
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Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2023 by Todd Malin
Style: Drum Set Only
First off let me say I'm not a drum guru by any means. I'm 36 and I've been playing guitar since I was 13. Over the years I've fiddled around on friends kits, but this is the first kit I've owned. Also, I'm 5'11. Ok, that being said on to my review. For those that don't feel like reading a novel I'll
say upfront why I would not recommend this kit. The first thing is that it's wobbly. The second thing is that it feels too short and compact. The third thing is that the height of the rubber on the rims makes the pads feel small. Now on to how I've upgraded it. First and foremost 90% of the reason I bought this kit was because it was on sale for $265. I would not recommend this kit at it's current price of $380. There are better options which I'll address later. The first thing I did was to add furniture risers to lift the kit up by 5 inches. I prefer the snare drum to sit at about belly button level so what I ended up doing was buying a used 10" pad from that one auction site that everybody knows of for $70. One of the biggest issues with the wobble of the rack is that the snare drum is attached to an arm that swings out and every time you hit it the whole rack flexes and wobbles. So to fix that I bought a snare stand for $30 that sits independently from the drum rack. The snare was really the only pad that I had problems with in terms of the rim being too high and that was fixed with a larger snare. The toms are good enough since I have those angled towards me and the rims aren't an issue. All in all I spent $265 for the kit, $15 for the risers and $100 for the 10" snare and stand coming to a total of $380. And what I have is a Nitro mesh kit with a 10" snare that doesn't wobble as much and 4 toms (I moved the original snare to the tom 4 position). As for my recommendation: If you are a musician and you're looking for something to record with or you want a solid kit I would recommend the Alesis Surge kit. The frame seems more solid and it's more accommodating to taller people, it comes with a 10" snare right away, the pads are all dual zone and both cymbals are chokeable. I have no experience playing the Surge kit, but it appears as though this kit addresses everything that's wrong with the Nitro mesh. It's $200 more than the Nitro, but a (new) snare, stand and risers for your Nitro kit would run about $180. For an extra $20 you'd get a more stable drumset with better toms and cymbals. Plus the Surge kit just flat out looks better with the chrome and black in my opinion. Alternatively if you're just looking for something to play around on I'd recommend going down to the Turbo Mesh for $300. After watching videos it looks as though the height of this set is also able to go above what the Nitro is capable of. Again, I have no experience with this set either, but the pads don't have the huge rubber rim (they're all single zone) and with the way the swing arms sit over the feet it appears to be more stable than the Nitro. I'm giving it 3/5 stars because there are probably worse kits out there in this price range. This kit would be good for a kid that's just getting in to drumming. The module itself isn't half bad and it offers some features that would help somebody with little to no experience; but for an adult that's average in height and/or has a little experience with drums you'll probably want something better. If you go with this kit I'd plan on making upgrades.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2022 by Jeff S
