Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Alesis DM10 Studio Kit Professional Six-Piece Electronic Drum Set
Professional 6-piece electronic drum set, DM10, RealHead 10" snr, 4x 8" toms, DMPad HH, 2x Crash, 3-zone Ride
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