Customer Reviews

Alesis DM10 Studio Kit Professional Six-Piece Electronic Drum Set

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a long time drummer and will always prefer acoustic drums; however, edrums do provide excellent practice and recording opportunities. Having a wife and young son and being busy with work and life, I usually only get a chance to practice late at night. For years I just couldn't practice on the kit but then I got into edrums (note, I still gig on acoustic kits). I started with a Pintech kit that had a module from Pintech (EZ)- I moved to an Alesis D4, then a Yamaha DTX2.0 and then a Roland TD6V- the kit was nice for practice, but I was never satisfied with the way ghost notes were expressed (etiher no sound at all or way too loud even when striking very softly). I also found the mesh head too boncey to use for a practice kit, but that is my personal opion- many people love mesh heads (they are quieter, feel good, and can be much easier to play faster). Since I use an ekit to practice I really don't want it to be easier to play faster - I don't want to try to execute something on a gig (while I'm playing acoustics) and find that I can't really do it on a straight up kit.
I had a lot of experience with Alesis' D4 and DM5 modules and knew that they were solid (there are still guys using D4 with acoustic triggers- they really are solid units). WHen the DM10 came out I was very interested- especially given the price.
I needed to replace some components on my ekit (frankenkit) and decided that it was time to move to a new kit altogether. When Aleis came out with the DM10 Studio 2011 (four leg rack) I new it was time to pull the trigger- then when it went on sale a couple weeks ago (down to an incredible $799) there was no way I could NOT buy it (the module itself is $699, which I think is a great price for what you get).
I see people griping about needed to tweak it- the thing is almost every edrum kit needs tweaks before it feels and plays the way you want it too. For me, the DM10 was actually the fastest/easiest to tweak. Of course, I always used the Pintech kit with other manufactures modules and I never had the top of the line modules, but it always took significantly longer to get the other modules dialed in.
I don't think it makes since to look at acoustic and electric drums as either/or- I don't believe you can ever replace the feel of a great acoustic kit- but it is often not possible to play an acoustic kit. Also, edrums open up worlds of sound that would cost a fortune to access via acoustic instruments. Add to that recording benefits (no need to buy mics, get a good room, etc.) and edrums are a wonderful tool to have in the tool box. One drawback is that edrums do go out of date or obsolete relatively quickly (consider that I gig with acoustic kits from 1968, the 1980's, 1990s as well as from the present). AN ekit is likely obsolete in less than a decade. With this in mind I just can't justify spending the 5-7K for Yamaha and Roland's top end kits. Yes, they are excellent kits, but I don't see paying almost ten times what I gave for the DM10. Yes, I agree that you get what you pay for; however, every once in a while you do get a whole lot more- that is the case here. If you are a frustrated drummer looking for a way to practice late at night you really need to check out this kit, I couldn't be happier with it.

I looked forward for the DM10 Studio Kit to become available for months, and even downloaded the manual from Alesis when it became availble so I could hit the ground running when I made my purchase. When the unit showed up on my door step I grabbed the hand truck and axiously moved it to its new home. I opened the box and everything was neatly packed and protected. I began unpacking all of the individual boxes and frame peices and spread them around the room. I located the installation instructions. The instructions for putting the entire unit together was on an 8x11 peice of paper in 4 different languages with the diagrams and printing so small it was difficult to read. I immediately went to the Alesis website and down loaded the instructions so I could easily zoom in on my laptop. Problem 1 solved. The frame was fairly easy to put together and rigid enough to support all drums and accesseries. All of the clamps that hold the frame, cymbal and drums to the frame are plastic and I accidently cracked one by hand tightning. Would have been better to have aluminum clamps. There are no ball joints like you would find on an acoustic set for ajusting the tom drums,as it is an L rod that allows side to side ajustment. The clamp attached to the frame will allow up and down movement but can be tricky to get at once the tom is mounted. I mounted the sound module to the frame with the included clamp and proceded to run the cables to the triggers on the drums and cymbals. All cables were clearly marked as well as the back of the sound module. There were two cables in which the desciption did not match what was written on the back of the sound module, I just plugged them into the next available spaces. The cables are pre-cut to length so you cannot vary the placements of the drums and cymbals. Even when placed like the instructions show there is not a sufficient amount of cable to neatly attach to the frame. I actually had to move the sound module to under the hihat cymbal as to not stress the wires on the back of the sound module.
The one major design flaw seem to be the base drum module. It is very top heavy and has no support legs on the sides. It wobbles alot while playing, especially on carpet as it actually tipped over. Be careful that you retract the spikes before putting it on hardwood, vinyl or ceramic tile floors. I also could not get much sound out of the base drum pedal. I think it may have been defective as no matter what I did the volume would not increase like I could get the rest of the triggers to do. The hihat pedal felt nothing like a "real hihat pedal" even though thats what Alesis calls it. I could not get it to calibrate and perform as advertised. Do not buy this unit thinking that when you are done putting it together that it is ready to play. This unit needs alot of calibration and adjustment. Plan on spending a couple of hours doing this. The sounds that the module produces are good and the menues are easy to navigate. As far as the drum heads are concerned, Alesis claims in their advertising it is just like playing acoustic drums and no need to change your playing technique. It could not be farther from the truth. The drum heads themselves may be real but thats about it. I do not know what the material directly underneath the head is but it is a hard spongy type material and fairly noisy. I was impressed with the cymbals as they seemed high quality like you would find on a Roland or Yamaha set.
Like I mentioned earlier I had problems with calibration and getting sound out of the base drum pad. I called Alesis waiting on hold 45 to 60 minutes at a time and giving up. I should not have to wait that long. Just being curious I called Roland and Yamahas customer service departments and had a rep within minutes. After that little experiment, I re-packaged the entire unit and sent it back for a refund. I am now saving up for a Roland or Yamaha unit.

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

Bottom line - Great kit. Good feel, excellent potential. Perfect for my small studio.

I bought this drumkit maybe two month ago and wanted to wait with the review until I can have a more informed opinion - it is my first drumkit and I am a beginner.

Anyway - this product is incredible bang for you buck.

I am very impressed with the cymbals and the module. The Toms and Snare are a matter of taste - I never had a real drum kit so it doesn't make much sense for me to emulate real drum heads and I ordered a mesh head conversion kit to get i more quiet...

... and yes - you have to fiddle with the trigger setting for hours until it's up and running, but I could even make it to proper snare, cross stick and rim shot on the snare. Also you one might say that choking could be done more subtle, the bell is only an undersensitive switch on the ride and the edge for the third zone could be more sensitive (or could do less cross talking), but again - then you might have to spend 5x the money on a Roland or Yamaha. You just have to learn to play this like every other instrument. I am anyway only writing this for the people coming from real drum kits - I never had one, so I can't actually compare. Another little issue was the hi-hat pedal. It is possible that it registers open, if you close it very slowly. I called Alesis and the guy on the support line was very friendly and explained the technology behind it. Again - it's not a real drum kit - just learn to play this one. After a few hours it didn't happen anymore, because I had my playing adjusted to it. The pedal is very sensitive by the way and emulated a hi-hat just fine. I think the sound of this module is great all around - but it really shines here.

I am very happy with this purchase and would recommend it anytime.

I purchased the DM10 Studio Kit and I am very satisfied with it. I use it in my studio for recording and rehearsals. All my fellow musicians had nothing to say but good comments about it. In my opinion it is much better than real drums. Of course you will need the right amplification to do the job, but the drums have a great feel, they are fun to play. The only thing I did not like was that it did not come with the kick pedal and the sticks.

My set came from guitar center and was better than I expected. It does take some tweaking to get all of the triggers dialed in, but that is the case with all of the better high end electric drum sets. The drum brain is easy to use, but you will benefit from reading the manual. There is not a better set on the market for this price point.

This is a very good item by its price. It was worth for me to purchase it in Amazon because I'm not United Statian and I live in a so called "third world country", so the alternative would be to buy some Yamaha/Roland/whatever for almost or effectively twice the price (including local shipping taxes from U.S.A). The item itself is marvellous: it feels like an acoustic drum set at playing; it is fairly user-friendly when you try to use an set it up; it is constructed with high quality, as well. Have no complains... Thanks to Amazon and its commercial electronic system.

I really love this better than the DM7.
It takes a while to customize the DM10 module how you want it, but after that, it's a very great kit.
It has a really close feel to a real drum set.
The hi-hat pedal is much more responsive than the DM7 one, and the sounds sound very good.

The only cons that I have found are:
The kit is too sensitive/has cross talk issues.

This is especially annoying if you play this kit with Rock Band 3. I had this working with the Madcatz MIDI Pro Adapter but I found it too sensitive. If I accidentally hit the rack, the hi-hat will go off.
I have switched it back to the Ion Drum Module and it works just as it should.

I'm surprised to see VM Innovations here in amazon. I got this kit from them through ebay.

Good seller.

If you wanna buy this kit for quietness and bounce you better checkout Hellfire mods at dmdrummer.com for mesh heads.

You don't have to follow it to the T. Specially with the new models. Just put the piezo in the center and leave the black foam on top and the white at the bottom. That way you won't desolder and void Alesis' warranty.

Remember to change your expectations from an acustic kit as ekits are not quite there (unless you wanna get close by buying Roland's TD20 for 6500 USD)
For an ekit and at this price this is the best you can get.
Also I recommend buying it if you really want to make this kit yours. The module is really configurable and I've seen configurations with up to 10 toms and 8 cymbals, but you'll need the trigger i/o for all that.

This module works fine with Roland, HART and Pintech drums. Not so good with Yamaha.

Update:

@dmdrummer.com forums anyone can communicate directly with Alesis Engineers. What other drumming company offers that?

For example:

[...]

I've been playing drums for over 35 years and I play an acoustic set, but the wifey has finally started complaining after all these years about the noise. So I started to research electronic drums in my budget and I narrowed it down between the Alesis kit or Yamaha dtx500k. The Alesis look really nice in the picture with the black color, full round cymbal pads and drum pads with rims. But I actually went to a well known music store and saw the two sets on display and I'm glad I did. I sat down behind both kits to give them a try. The first thing I noticed on the Alesis kit were the pads were really hard. I would probably compare it to hitting a hard covered book. There was no "bounce" at all. Though they do have a kind of rubber material over the pad, it's still hard and there were also dents on the black pad covers. It didn't take me long to try the the Yamaha kit. As soon as I started trying it out I knew it was the one to go with. The sound great and the bounce from the pads is great. Though not like a real kit, the bounce from these pads do help. It's just like having a full practice pad kit. The drum sound really nice, I especially like the maple kit setting. There are other sounds in the module but they are less to be desired and I probably won't use the majority of them. For my budget, the Yamaha's were a nice buy and if you're a beginner they will work out nice as you practice and first kit without disturbing your wife, parents, brothers and sisters, or neighbors.