Electronic Drum Kits (sets)

Well two things really.

I don't know the first thing about them, and I've always thought it was a cool idea. My first time ever seeing one used, live, was Uberzone. And it blew my mind away.

I'd love to hear if anyone here actually uses one. And to what degree they bring it into their performances? Or if you just use one in the production aspect of setting up your drum loops?

To me, production wise, I've always been someone who preferred banging on things rather than clicking dots. So, it makes sense to me. Wondering if anyone else has gone this route though.

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I'm thinking about picking up an inexpensive one for my nephew, as a combined birthday/Christmas present (He's going to be turning 6). I know his parent's won't get him anything of the sort, and I really believe music is important. So, this is my way of getting an active kid to sit down and smash on things, and make good use out of his time. And I've been told I'm not allowed to get him anything "loud" (yes, I was specifically told that) so I figure an electronic drum kit is the way to go, since he could use it with headphones or whatever.

Anyone have any suggestions? Or am I best off just looking around online?

I mean, I kind of want to stay on the sub-300 range. But, I don't want it to be unusable.

Right now I'm looking at:

$400
http://www.zzounds.com/item--ALEDM6KIT

or

$170
http://www.zzounds.com/item--IONIED11


Anyone have experience with these things? Any thoughts or pointers?

Those Ion audio are crap. Cheap electronic drums will just crumble after a while due to bad construction. And don't even think of transporting them, the lifetime goes down manifold that way.

Alesis - best of the cheap
Yamaha, low-end Roland - best of the mid-range
Roland high end - the best

I use Electronic drums for some drum recording, but that's mostly non EDM music where a live drummer sound is expected. One of the Org co-producers is using Roland electronic drums for some of the Orb EDM stuff.

I've enjoyed them live with Pig Face, they have two drummers, for a bit one guy was using the electronic kit either to trigger samples or drum samples, blew it up. I think maybe for a kid the rock band kit wouldn't be bad, teach some fundamentals, it is tied to a game, there is a volume control. Give them something to beat on, isn't a real instrument, is priced right and leads with out pushing in a musical direction.

a few places have the Dm8 pro for like 450. its a bit on the loud side, but an excellent entry level kit in my opinion.

imho i´d check craigslist for old analog drumsets and trigger them.

Yeah, after posting this I started looking on craigslist... and it looks like you can get most retail sets for about 50% off if you buy them on there. Which, honestly, probably will be what I'd want to do.

something like: http://capecod.craigslist.org/msg/3102376299.html

Unfortunately I'm just doing my research now, and don't have the cash to spend. But I still think it's going to be a great gift for my nephew. I want to stay away from the game controllers A) because he doesn't have any of those gaming systems and B) because I really want to have it be more of a music instrument, not just a toy. Something that maybe next year I'll get him some drumming lessons, or my uncle-in-law also is a drummer, and maybe could get him interested in teaching the kid.

Either way it's neat to look into. Once I get myself setup in a bit better space, I'd love to have something of this sort just to mess about with.

And it really looks like you can find some really decent sets on craigslist of rich parents who bought something cool for their spoiled kid, and the kid wanted to just play video games instead. I guess sometimes there are perks to not having much else to do except music :P

i used to have a cheap millenium kit that i bought from thomann for about 300quid. the pads weren't half bad at all tho the actual rack was pretty crap. not a biggie for me as i only used it at home for programming beats anyway. if i wanted to gig with it i'd just have bought a more sturdy frame. i had an old alesis d4 that i used to convert the triggers to midi.