Paul Harrison
December 19, 2006

Rating: 10/10

Ok, i thought this would be "One of those cheap rip offs of the V-Drums series lookey-likey's",but i was surprised when i finally took it out of the box and gave the ION drum kit a go. Firstly, a little background about me: I'm a Serious musician, and if it's not right for me, it goes back. 'Nuff said. Firstly to the setup: Setup was really easy, once you get it out of the box, assemble the rack and get your pads in order/wired up. it's as simple as turning on a kettle. i found the pads are slightly prone to mis-triggering. but all these kits are like that. so it was off to the module for some "Sound-diving". after a couple of minutes setting velocities, the kit was playing like a dream. THE MODULE: all i can say about this module is I have used Alesis SR16's for the best part of 10 years and this module has just replaced it. Beautifully crafted sounds, velocity levels are dreamy and changing individual drum sounds is second to none.

After a while i decided to use this kit via MIDI and Reason, just to see what i could do with it. So with laptop in one hand, Reason Drums in the other, and a USB-MIDI converter, i was drumming away til the early hours of the morning without even waking up my 2 year old daughter.

Down Sides: there is none really, only that if you do buy this kit, you will probably have to get a set of 5A sticks, as the sticks that come with the kit are bulky, and over time, could do damage to the pads.

Synopsis: Excellent kit. You will not see anything like this again in the sub 500 mark that won't seem "toyish". THIS KIT IS FOR BIG BOYS, AND A TOY IT AIN'T

Highly recommended

Ed.
March 31, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Unbeatable at the price.

Rebadged ALESIS SR-16 drum machine for the brain. Sounds good and with what are now CLASSIC sounds. Seriously a cut above other toy(ish) drum pads at the price. Drum pads nice and bouncy and easy for rolls. Hi-hat pedal will close/trap an open hi-hat hit but won't open a hit. Ah well. I guess that's why it's not 1500 pounds. I'm not a drummer first but it feels more like a kit than any thing you're going to get at the price and as a VST drumkit trigger is unbeatable.

It was a bit of a nightmare assmembly job. Took me a solid two hours. Really fiddly. Instructions first class though. Build quality can only be described as budget and I don't think it would survive long in a gigging situation but as a drum trigger or even drum sound source in a project studio it's fantastic value for money. It looks too good to be true at the price but take a chance. I did and I have no regrets at all. Lastly I was impressed at how perfectly complete the package is. It comes with every cable and even a screwdriver!
Just realised I'm kinda gushing here. Oh well.
Great product and fantastic value for money.