I don't expect to buy another electronic drum set anytime soon. Don't be discouraged by it on your first play. With patience and a little tweaking you can achieve most of which you have in mind.

Sound
Right out of the box, it sounds decent. The best sounding drum on it is the snare. I give it a 10. The dual zone feature was kinda glithy though. So I eventually just unplugged the rim tap feature from the module. I've never been a big rim tap kinda guy anyway. I really love the ride cymbal too. It's very crisp and clear, but you might need to decrease the sensitivity of the toms. I was getting a lot of crosstalk initially. I give the toms themselves a 9/10. The bass drum sounds great, but I'm uninterested in most of its voices. Seems that it may have double-bass capabilities too. I can double tap the bass with my Tama pedal if I place my foot further from the mallet and it sounds pretty good. The hi-hat serves its purpose but it isn't fantastic. Don't expect to achieve quick Neil Peart-like opening and closing. You can improve it by fiddling around in the module for awhile, but it will never be as accurate as a real hi-hat. 7/10. I use studio headphones to listen to it and to record I just plug it into my mixer. For live sound, I'd recommend running it through a PA or better yet a keyboard amp. Keyboard amps are designed to to produce the highs and lows of a keyboard. Bass amps and guitar amps can't pull it off.

Features… read more
It has 20 preprogrammed drum kits on it. Most are fun to play with, especially the rap one. But I wouldn't consider recording with them. You can download another kit from Alesis but I haven't done so yet. You can make your own kits on here and you even have control over the tone of each drum so its very customizable.

Ease of Use
Like most things, it takes awhile to get used to it. But once you get the hang of it its a breeze to operate. Setup was a pain. Make sure you have plenty of room space and be patient. Allow yourself anywhere from one and a half too two hours to put it together. It comes with all the cords you'll need (minus midi cables of course), and if you don't have a drum key, don't worry. It has two of them. No screwdrivers, hammers or hacksaws are required. Most of the problems I encountered were small things I overlooked. So if you get stuck in assembly, don't toy with everything you already did to fix it. It's probably something simple, like improper alignment. I suggest two people for assembly. The bass pedal and expression pedal have velcro on the bottom, so if you're playing on carpet you don't have to worry about it moving around on you.

Quality
If everything's tightened correctly, it's pretty sturdy. Sure, the stand sways a bit when you play, but there's no chance of it falling over. The drum heads seem durable. If you live in a building with neighbors below you, you might consider getting a mat to put under it. From someone downstairs point-of-view, the bass drum sounds like someone erratically using a hammer.

Value
After playing this kit, I'd buy it again for the exact same price if I had to. It can achieve most of what the more expensive kits do but for half the price.

Manufacturer Support
I haven't had to contact Alesis yet for any of their products that I own. I also own the Alesis Micron synthesizer and an 8 channel USB mixer by them and I've never had any problems that I couldn't fix on my own.

The Wow Factor
I was sitting in my chair at my computer, I looked over at it and I considered buying it flowers and asking it to come to Maui with me for a weekend.

Musical Background:
Active Musician

Musical Style:
Progressive Rock. read less