(see rating details)

I've been playing on this kit for about a month and a half; and I can say that it's built to last, and the upgrades over the previous TD-17KVX2 (which I owned before this one), are very impressive. I do have a few gripes though: my first is that a lot of the preset kits don't sound all that great. This is not to say there aren't some excellent samples in here, it's just that you are going to have to learn to make your own adjustments or download some of the expansions (which are excellent sounding), if you want the best sounds without using software. Now, this doesn't really bug me, as I quite like making custom kits, and this module is very powerful and intuitive once you get the hang of it. I know some people want it to be a plug-and-play kinda deal, which it isn't IMO....I will admit it is a pretty scummy move on Roland's part to put the best samples in the expansions and then paywall them. You do get a free 6 month access to the expansions if you buy the kit, after that though, you have to either buy the packs up front or sign up for a membership. Corporations are gonna do what they're gonna do I guess. My second gripe is that some of the sounds (mainly the snares) seem to be lacking some round robins, and can sometimes have a bit of a machine gun effect. It's pretty mild, and you probably won't notice unless you are trying to. My final gripe is that the advertisement of there being over "1,000 included samples" is pretty misleading. The reason being that the vast majority of those samples are just electronic and fx sounds. Now, obviously I would like my electronic kit to have some good fx and electronic sounds, but a lot of those sounds included here are kinda just useless filler. There is still a decent collection of acoustic drum and cymbal samples though: stock, there is 22 kicks, 11 snares, 4 sets of toms, 6 hi-hats, 15 crashes, 7 rides, 3 chinas, 4 splashes, and 3 stacks. So, overall, while I think there are a few things Roland could have done better; it's still a good, reliable, and highly responsive instrument that should serve any drummer well for years.