BY NORMAN WEINBERG
Why, when I was young, we had to hand-crank our old generator to get electricity! Back then, there were only a few electronic drum kits available, and only a couple with MIDI. You had your Simmons SDS-9 and your Roland DDR-30. If you wanted to use an electronic kit to interface with a computer of play sounds from a sampler, you had those two choices. Each had only a few onboard sounds, they played like crap, and they cost over $2,000. Today, you young whippersnappers have electricity running into your house 24/7. On top of that, you’ve got half a dozen kits with hundreds of sounds, plenty of kit memory, MIDI, and even USB connectivity. Plus, they’ve got a street price below $500! What a time to be alive.
We’re going to be looking at kits from Alesis, Ddrum, KAT, and Yamaha. All of these kits have certain attributes in common. All of them come right out of the box with everything you’d need to start playing except a bass drum pedal and a throne (although some come with a bass drum pedal). You’ll get pads for drums and cymbals, a rack-mounting system, hi-hat pedal, all necessary cables, and sometimes even a pair of sticks.
Each kit has five pads designated as snare, three toms, and sometimes, a dedicated kick drum pad. Three cymbal pads are provided with each kit: ride, crash, and hi-hat. Each of the hi-hat systems offers one sound when the pad is struck with the pedal down (normally a closed hi-hat) and a different sound when the pedal is up (open hi-hat).
To get an idea of how the kit feels under your hands and the responsiveness of the pads, you’re going to have to play the kit in person. But all these kits come with rubber surfaces that are designed to minimize impact sound while giving a somewhat natural drum-like response.
These kits have sound modules have the ability to select between a number of different kits and assign different sounds to each of the pads. Each brain also has a number of built-in songs that serve as playalongs for your practice. In addition, all modules have an auxiliary input for connecting an iPod or other music player. They also include a metronome and tap-tempo capability.
For some, the money-saving features applied to these kits may be a minor problem. After all, lower costs means fewer bells and whistles, and some corners just have to be cut to bring this much technology in at this price point. But let’s face it, those who are buying a kit in this price range want a good value for the money, but likely aren’t expecting true professional features or performance. Does that mean anyone interested in a kit like this is only an amateur weekend warrior? Absolutely not.
There are many reasons why a professional might want one of these kits. For one, they are inexpensive. They can serve as practice kits while your main kit is at the club, in the truck, or otherwise not available. They are perfect for those who want to practice in an apartment or home where an acoustic kit just isn’t possible due to the volume. For those who are into sequencing and home studios, having an electronic kit to input rhythms and grooves, as well as creating loops, is as essential as a piano player owning a digital keyboard.
ALESIS DM6
The newest version of the DM6 has recently changed its name to DM6 USB. As you might guess, the new name indicates that the DM6 brain now has a USB output in place of a MIDI output. In addition to the USB port, the back of the module sports 1/8″ mini-jacks for headphones, main output, and auxiliary input. There’s also a power switch and a small switch that selects the type of bass drum trigger you’re using, allowing the module to substitute a simple footswitch. The pads hook into the brain with an included cable snake that makes hooking up the pads easy and quick.
The front of the DM6 has several dedicated controls: master volume, tempo, click on/off, pattern select, start/stop for patterns, drum off (for muting the drums in the included patterns), kit select, voice select, volume (for individual control of kits, voices, patterns, and metronome), and save/rec. Yes, this last control is used to enter record mode. Of the kits included in this guide, the DM6 is the only one that lets you record your own pattern. Okay, so there’s only one user pattern location for your recording, but there’s plenty of memory – about 5,000 notes – allocated for your recording. And, it’s one more recording location than the other kits have.
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Another important item that separates this kit from the others is a stereo snare pad. With a stereo pad, you can assign one sound to the head’s surface, and another sound to the rim (rimshot, rim-click, cowbell, etc.).
ALESIS DM7X
The newest version of the DM6 has recently changed its name to DM6 USB. As you might guess, the new name indicates that the DM6 brain now has a USB output in place of a MIDI output. In addition to the USB port, the back of the module sports 1/8″ mini-jacks for headphones, main output, and auxiliary input. There’s also a power switch and a small switch that selects the type of bass drum trigger you’re using, allowing the module to substitute a simple footswitch. The pads hook into the brain with an included cable snake that makes hooking up the pads easy and quick.
The front of the DM6 has several dedicated controls: master volume, tempo, click on/off, pattern select, start/stop for patterns, drum off (for muting the drums in the included patterns), kit select, voice select, volume (for individual control of kits, voices, patterns, and metronome), and save/rec. Yes, this last control is used to enter record mode. Of the kits included in this guide, the DM6 is the only one that lets you record your own pattern. Okay, so there’s only one user pattern location for your recording, but there’s plenty of memory – about 5,000 notes – allocated for your recording. And, it’s one more recording location than the other kits have.
DDRUM DD1
The front of the module supports a number of individual function buttons. There are dedicated controls for volume, save, start/stop, kit selection, song selection, drum mute (for the percussion parts of a song), metronome, increment and decrement, pad selection, and tempo. The back panel of the DD1 module offers up the power-input jack and the on/off switch, along with nine trigger inputs, a MIDI output, a stereo output, and an auxiliary input. The headphone jack and the control for the volume of the aux input are located on the left side of the unit.
One of the features that separates the DD1 from some of the other units in this group is the ability to adjust the sensitivity and crosstalk rejection of each pad. There are 15 available settings for sensitivity and higher values make the pads more sensitive to softer strikes. There are also 15 levels of rejection for each pad. The DD1 also lets you adjust the pitch of a sound over 15 different values.
The DD1 does not come with a bass drum pedal. You’ll need to get one of those if you want to play the kit as soon as you get it home.
KAT KT1
The KAT brand is a relative newcomer to the electronic drum kit market. The top panel of the brain is clear and clean. There are power, mode, and page buttons on the left side; with the master volume and click on/off on the right side. Two larger buttons labeled + and — sit in the middle and control the value of different parameters. The back has ports for 9V power, USB, MIDI-Out, stereo outputs, auxiliary input, and headphones.
Getting down and dirty with the KT1 is straightforward. There are four main modes: pattern, drum kit, voice, and click. You press the mode button to access one of these four choices, then the page button to scroll to the command you want to adjust. From there, the plus and minus value buttons do the rest. While the module lacks dedicated buttons for individual actions, some people may prefer the simplicity of this interface.
One unique feature of the KT1: while all the pads are single triggers. The crash cymbal is chokeable. Like the DD1, the KT1 does not come with a bass drum pedal.
YAMAHA DTX400K
Yamaha has been creating electronic drum kits for a good long time, and the 400K offers a few unique features. Rather than having controls on the front and back of the brain, this unit incorporates the top and the sides, making everything easy to access.
The 400K doesn’t come with a bass drum pad, but it does come with the freestanding KU100 electronic bass drum pedal. Yamaha states that this pedal system is quieter than a pad-based kick. A freestanding hi-hat pedal offers open, closed, foot closed, and foot splash sounds.
The 400K sound module is laid out in a way that is both easy to understand and ergonomic. There are controls for the ten pads, kit and song select, metronome, start and stop, tempo, volume, and drum mute. From the very beginning, Yamaha has stressed education in its electronic kits, and the 400K keeps this tradition alive. There is a specific command for “training” that takes you into commands for working on your rhythmic accuracy (groove check, rhythm gate, measure gate, tempo, and change up), playing drum patterns (easy session and groove tracker), learning new drum patterns (pad gate, part mute), and something called “fast blast” (a game where you can score more points by playing faster).
FINAL ANALYSIS
As I stated earlier, your final decision should be based on how the kit feels beneath your hands and feet, and how the on-board sounds fit with your needs. Hopefully, this guide can help you limit your choices to just a couple of kits with the features that you want or need. From there, it’s up to you. But you really can’t loose with a functional electronic kit at this price.
All the kits included in this article have a street price under $500 even though the list prices are significantly higher.
Model & List Price
Alesis DM6 $699.99
ddrumDD1 $872.50
KAT KT1 $849.00
Yamaha DTX400K $799.99