Electric Drum Sets Compare Prices And Buy

Review by Andrew Sonin:

[...] it wasn't even listed on the Ion Audio website yet, but bought it on a lark. Build is solid. Sound quality is excellent (not quite what a 00 Roland will provide, but really quite good) with the included headphones (and drumsticks). Control panel is fairly straightforward, but I strongly suggest reading the instructions. Feel of drum surfaces is very good; that of cymbals somewhat rubbery.

I'm not a drummer, but have been a musician for 35 years and wanted something to fool around on without a) annoying everyone in the house and b) having to listen to my two boys bash it to pieces. I've only had it for about 2 weeks, but I'm very pleasantly surprised.

Note: This set appeared on the Ion Audio website about a week after I bought it!

Review by Robert Speziale:

I bought this drum set about 5 weeks ago at the local Wholesale

Membership store due to the Cost, about 2/3 of the quoted price

here on Amazon. The set was on display, and after listening

to the cymbals on the headphones I decided to buy it. I purchased

the set specifically to add a more realistic drum track to my own

music, which I record on a multitrack recorder.

If you read reviews of electronic drums of every price range, there's

a host of problems that can occur, from loosening of the glue that

holds the pads, to broken foot pedals, to malfunctions of the computer

chips and wiring connections. At this price point, I decided I could

take a chance. Included with the set was a very nice Numark 125

headphone, a pair of large unvarnished drum sticks, 2 foot pedals,

4 pads, 2 cymbals, the drum module, and a sturdy PVC frame.

After using the set for several weeks I can say I am quite happy with it

so far. It assembled in about an hour, just using the diagram that came

with it. There is a small chrome wrench included that tightens all the

connections. My wrench is hanging from the frame so I don't lose it.

Initially I had a major problem in that there was no documentation in the

manual or on the ION Audio website of the 108 drum sounds and 15 patterns. The

prospect of scrolling through more than a hundred undocumented numbered

sounds to change the pad sounds seemed absurd.

I tried calling their customer service department, but perhaps due to the

newness of the product, and after a total of 45 minutes of musical hold

(and being transferred to three different people who said they couldn't

help but would transfer me to someone who could) I just hung up the phone.

Then, after two emails through the ION website contact form, and a couple

of additional emails to their customer service department, the ION customer

service reps finally came through and emailed me a list of the sounds and

patterns.

I don't know if this set will last, though it seems quite sturdy to me. I

hope the parts I can't see are as good as the parts I can see. I am

quite pleased with the quality of recordings I have done. As an amateur

musician, and a first time drummer I found the dynamics, sound and no

apparent lag time to be just what I was hoping to get. I did find that

to record direct to the multitrack recorder I needed to use the phones out rather

than the line out. The line out generated a lot of noise into an unbalanced

line in on my multitrack recorder. However the phones out generated a beautiful

clean recording.

Review by MR. FISH:

I bought this set on sale as a local music store was closeing, I never heard of this brand before, but at 70% off, I couldn't pass it up. I figured at this price it would be ok to practice quitely at the house. I was very surprised when I set it up. it really sounds pretty good. I was used to a roland electric set, and it dosn't have as many bells and whistles in the computer, but we travel and play gigs with it, and it has played very well. a lot of the "voices" are just worthless jokes, but their are a few good sets programed in, and I have set up a couple custom sets I really like. I was looking at spending ,000 on a roland set, but now I think I may just buy another one of these OSP set and put them together to have all the toms and cymbals I want at one time. I would highly recomend it for beginers to intermediate drummers.

Review by Victor Velasquez:

I was hoping more people would go in depth and review this product before i bought one, hopefully people can find something useful here. I live in the barracks where sounds are easily heard. This is also my very first electric sett, i didn't know what to expect.

Its an all around OK instrument, nothing outstanding except for the price, becuase any other electric drums run crazy $$$ but i suppose those ARE outstanding. The brain offers a metronome, songs, savable customizable kits, and preset kits, etc. No complaints there except for the fact that it took me awhile to figure out how to program the metronome without playing the song. For some odd reason it would start the click where i wanted it and then it would jump all of a sudden to 250BPM with the song. This only happens when you change the Beats Per Minute from lower or higher. You fix this problem by pressing the click button twice, but you need to do that each time you want to change BPM, which is annoying after awhile.

CONS-This product cannot do rim shots, however it does have a sensitivity to each pad, which makes up for it. The pads are all very responsive, no complaints there, BUT the ride is terrible and the bass drum even more terrible. The ride will not register every time, this lack of consistency really makes me want to replace it. As for the bass drum, sadly its prolly the worse thing on the sett. Same problem like the ride it doesn't register all the beats when hit. This problem has annoyed me so much that Im buying a Roland drum kick to replace it. Beside those two the kit registers everything else fine.

CON-As I said previously people live below, above and to the side of me. The drums are not completely quiet like the Yamaha or Rolands. It makes a wood knocking sound everytime i do a stroke which can be heard outside my door. Not a loud knocking but still it could be quieter. I remedied the problem with buying 8' drum quiet pads. Putting em underneath the head. Theres prolly less than an inch of softness between the metal sensor and the actual drum head. Hit it hard enough and you get that annoying knock.

IMPROVEMENTS MADE ON PRODUCT: Needed to replace bass drum becuase it does not register all the beats. Need to replace the Ride cymbal, becuase it registers like 75% of the time. Need to get quiet pads to counter tapping sounds made by underneath metal sensors.

OVERALL: I guess i get what I pay for, but its not like these problems take a lot for the company to fix. The DD502 Mk ii Electric drum set is great for beginners, but needs basic improvements to be considered high-end for intermediate and above.

Thank you for your time.

Review by Thomas Aldrich:

I have had this set for a couple of days and, for the money, this seems to be a great value. Really easy to set up, the wires are run inside the frame so you don't have cords hanging everywhere. I have only played it through the headphones, and overall the sound is very good. The pads and cymbals are very sturdy and fairly responsive and should hold up for a while. The kick is decent and the hi-hat function is o.k.; I have not had any of the problems, mentioned by others, with the mis-triggering zones. I would agree with the other reviewer about the pre-set patterns, which are really weak; if you are looking for some rock beats you will be disappointed. I am a medieum level drummer and this is a great set for me, since an accoustic would be way too loud; this set is a homerun for a beginner or anyone (especially a kid), looking to give drumming a try.

Review by jazz drum guy:

I've been a professional drummer for more than 40 years and it's always been a pain in the butt practicing without offending someone - parents, girlfriends, wives, neighbors - so I've always used a practice pad set or muffled my drums and cymbals with pads, which are less than optimal. It hasn't been worth 00 for an electronic set but I paid less than 0 for my Singing Machine set and I love it. I've recommended it to my students as well. The drum/cymbal preset sounds are great and altering any of them is easy. The play-along tracks cover many musical styles and are fine for practice - better than a metronome (which it also has) and you can speed them up or slow them down, depending on your skill. And you can record yourself alone, or playing along, which is great for students. The drawbacks include the pad positions don't allow much flexibility but are fine for the standard kit setup; the bass "head" is too taut, making it too easy to play faster than you could on a bass drum; the snare has both head and rim shot sounds, which is nice, but you can do a rim shot just by hitting the rim, rather than having to strike the head and rim simultaneously. But all in all, for the price, this is a great product.