Customer Reviews

Alesis DM8 Pro Kit Professional Five-Piece Electronic Drumset

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've had a Yamaha DTXpress setup for years. In my opinion, this drum set is a better product. First of all, the looks of these drums are amazing. When I look at the 12", 10", and 8" pads, the set looks like I spent 3k on it. The feel of the real head pads are great. I don't like the feel of hitting rubber pads. The bounce you get off the of the real head pads are just like hitting a real acoustic drum set. This drum set does need some tweaking when you first get. No big deal. Just take the time to adjust the sensitivity and cross talk. Another thing I like about these drums is the fact that I can change out the heads of the drums with any drum head I want as long as they are the right size. I can also do a Mesh conversion if I want for cheap. I can't forget about the cymbals which come in very nice sizes. You can choke them and they have multiple zones. Finally the module. This module has some great built in drum sets. You can customize your own drum set if you want. You can also plug a MP3 player up to it and play to your favorite bands. Overall this is a great drum set for the price. You will NOT be disappointed.

Features
DM8 high-definition drum module with over 750 Dynamic Articulation(tm) sounds
RealHead 8", 10", and 12" drum pads with tension-adjustable drumheads
12" dual-zone Snare, 8", 10", and 12" Toms, and 8" Kick, which works with single and double pedals (sold separately)
DMPad 12", 14", and 16" multi-zone cymbal pads with natural motion
16" 3-zone Ride with choke, 14" Crash with choke, 12" Hi-Hat with RealHat continuous pedal
StageRack with four-post design, integrated cymbal booms, and wingbolt-adjustable clamps
StageRack includes convertible boom/straight cymbal arms, mounted in the downtubes
Premium instrument library multi-sampled from real drums and cymbals
Play along with tracks and record yourself with the three-part sequencer
Mix input for practicing with external music players
USB-enabled for tracking and programming with virtually all music software

I purchased this for an aging Yamaha kit, I had for several years.
I have had this drum set for about 4 months now.
Overall, it is well designed kit which has held up well to extensive play.
Some components were replaced immediately as I prefer to use Alesis Surge cymbals for a better feel, however the baseline kit is extensive based on what is included.
The high hat pedal is a major upgrade from previous kits.
Its strength in durability and construction, full size drum pads, and good quality sound from the DM8 drum module brain.
One downside is the response from the drum pads and feel. Its not quite up to the standards of rebound from a Roland or Pintech mesh design.
Under heavy play, your fingers will begin to become numb due to shock after a hour or so of play. Anti vibe drumsticks will eliminate much of the hard shock due to the pads.
The other downside is the the drum module does not have the full versasity of higher end drum brains.
Granted if you own a Roland v-brain module, higher end Yamaha, or even an Alesis DM10, you will easily see the difference.

Bottom line, for the cost, you really cannot do better for an intermediate level drum kit.

Bottom line, the drum set is great! This arrived from UPS in TERRIBLE shape. The box was torn, banged up, and taped in many places. I was worried that it would be broken, have missing pieces, or both. Customer service was fast and courteous. Turns out, nothing was missing and the set works fine. Zero stars to UPS for mishandling the box, but 5 stars to the vendor, SonicSense, for their fine service.

I recently purchased this set, it is great. I like it more than my real drum set most of the time. It has a lot of great features and feels like you are playing a real set, no doubt about it. Great quality and easy to put together. I would definitely recommend it to any drummer.

Very easy to set up, very good sounds. Really feels like a traditional Drum. Probaly as a recomendation, this product should include a Pedal, I bought a Pearl, and is really good..

Alesis has been known for being affordable, unfortunately we have seen that it usually is accompanied by a bunch of kinks and iffy quality. This kit is absolutely an exception to that reputation.

This is an intermediate level kit, it has multizone crash and ride, and has room for an extra trigger. The sounds are pretty good, it isn't all that difficult to create your own kit and alter triggers and sounds to get a "real" sounding kit of your preference. The hihat pedal is pretty good, haven't had any real big problems, though I do see a few "ghosts" of pedals past from Alesis. Occasionally during fast play the open and close sounds will fight each other and you get a very unnatural sound, which has definitely thrown me off for a second. The chokable cymbals are nice features but when you choke them the sound goes immediately to 0, not exactly a good replication of a real cymbal choke.

I would recommend this kit to any beginner, because for the same price as an entry level, you get a few more features and some room for it to grow with you.

My main beef with this is that the pads with the "real head" technology are a bit counter-effective. The RealHead technology is really nothing new at all, it's just an option for you to put actual drumheads over the trigger. However the gap between where the head rests and the trigger itself is millimeters at the most, and the trigger is not forgiving. Like others have said, the pads will hit back. They are very loud so don't get this if you are looking for a kit you can play quietly, and you will find them uncomfortable to play on. Vibe-reducing sticks and really good noise-cancelling 'phones are must-haves. I'd be glad to answer any questions you have, leave em in the comments.