The world of electronic drums was changed when Alesis released their flagship Strata Prime drum set. However, the relatively high price tag only made it accessible to elite players or drummers with bigger budgets.
Here’s some good news. Alesis took most of the high-end features of that kit and packaged it into a slimmer version. Introducing – the Alesis Strata Core.
This is a more affordable version of their flagship offering, and in this review, we’re going to tell you all about it.
The Alesis Strata Core is a full-on professional e-kit with several high-end features. It has a full set of mesh pads with the dual-zone snare drum pad being highly responsive.
The tri-zone cymbals have fully playable surfaces, while the snare and hi-hat pads require their own stands.
The Strata Core drum module includes 75 preset drum sets and an unlimited number of user slots to create your own. It also includes over 370 drum kit sounds, over 800 articulations, and over 140 thousand different samples.
All the sounds come from the BFD sound engine and multi-core processor.
Lastly, the drum module has a touchscreen interface, making it incredibly easy to navigate and use.
The Strata Core drum module is directly influenced by the higher-end Strata Prime module. Alesis recently did a complete overhaul of their modules for their new kits, and you’ll find the sound quality to be miles better than previous options.
Typically, Alesis has been known to produce poorer sounds from their e-kits, but these new Strata modules completely take that away.
So, every single preset drum set offered on this module sounds incredibly high-quality and worthy of a professional environment.
There are also plenty of editing options, allowing you to fully customise your drum kits in hundreds of ways.
There are two aspects of construction that we need to highlight with this kit. Firstly, the mesh pads are fantastic. The snare pad has a large 12-inch size, the rack toms are 8 inches, and the floor tom pad is 10 inches.
The snare pad has independent dual zones, which gives you the option of playing cross-sticks and rimshots. That’s a great feature, considering most other e-kits in this price range don’t offer that.
The 8-inch kick drum tower is also a great addition, providing a solid platform to play bass drum strokes.
With that said, the drum pads are standard within this range. The cymbals are a different story, though.
We’re incredibly impressed by the ARC cymbal pads. They’re fully playable across the surface, and they offer great responsiveness.
The 12” hi-hat pad has the Active Magnetic design, which uses magnetic position sensing to offer plenty of realism.
The last thing to mention is the 4-post drum rack, which steadily holds everything together.
The performance quality of the Alesis Strata Core is fantastic. We would happily compare this kit to Roland’s TD-27. While the Roland kit is higher-quality in most ways, this kit offers plenty of the same with a much lower price tag.
Plenty of drummers just use electronic drum kits as practice options, and this kit will give you everything you need for that purpose.
The drum and cymbal pads combine together to offer an immersive playing experience that just feels like you’re at home.
We wouldn’t ideally recommend this as a live gigging option, though. Most electronic kits aren’t well suited for that setting, and this one is no different.
But if you’re just using it to practice or record some demo tracks, we’re sure you’ll enjoy the performance quality.
Out of all the features available, the price tag is arguably the most attractive. This kit costs around $2000, placing it in the same category as something like the Roland TD-17KVX. We definitely think it’s a better option than that kit, so the value-to-price ratio is really appealing.
With that said, the kit doesn’t include a hi-hat stand or bass drum pedal. Those are two things you need to actually use it, meaning the price will boost a bit if you don’t already have those.
It’s great that it comes with a snare stand, though. Most other kits in this segment don’t.
Overall, we’d say that the price tag is fantastic. We definitely think this kit offers everything and more than you’re paying for.
The Alesis Strata Prime is Alesis’ flagship kit, while the Strata Core is a compact version. The Strata Core has a lower-quality drum module that has many stripped-back features.
The Strata Core is also a bit smaller, considering it doesn’t have the same big acoustic bass drum shell from the Strata Prime.
Finally, the Strata Core costs about $1,500 less than the Alesis Strata Prime. So, it’s a better option for people with a lower budget.
No, the Alesis Strata Core isn’t a good studio set. Typically, you want to always use an acoustic drum kit in studio environments. That’s how you’ll get the best and most natural sounds.
The Alesis Strata Core is better-suited as a practice kit to keep in a rehearsal space. It offers drummers everything they need to practice and still get high-quality performance and sounds.
We’re seriously impressed by the Alesis Strata Core. It’s a fantastic option for any drummer who loves the Strata Prime but is looking for something more affordable.
You get most of the high-quality performance and sound options, along with one of Alesis’ best drum modules.
While we never thought we’d say it, this Alesis kit may just be a better option in this price segment when compared to the Roland and Yamaha kits.
It’s worth checking out if you need a new e-kit!
Founder of TheDrumNinja
I’m crazy about drums, it’s been my passion since I was 12 years old. I played in numerous bands going through different styles like Rock, Progressive, Pop & Jazz-Rock. After being featured in major music publications (Drumeo, Guitar Guitar, AudioIssues, MusicThinkTank) I started this website to share my knowledge and create a resource for drummers of all levels.
We specialize in helping drummers of all levels become rhythmic assassins and develop ninja-like skills, quickly. Our mission is to create the best resources for all musicians and build a community where you can learn and share everything related to your musical journey.
Our team is committed to exceeding our clients’ expectations with uncompromising honesty and integrity. We focus all of our energy on helping musicians of all levels achieve their goals and build a foundation of skills that will last a lifetime.
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“9 Powerful Tips To Get Faster On The Drums (And The Mistakes To Avoid!)”
