One of the biggest shifts in the drum industry occurred when Roland purchased the DW brand. From that point, we all knew that something cool was going to come. Well, it finally arrived in the form of the DW DWe drum kit.
This is one of the highest-quality electronic drum kits to ever be created, and it’s slowly being shipped out to the world.
In this review, we’re going to see what’s it’s all about, and we’ll discuss whether its worth its ludicrous price tag.
The biggest feature to mention here is that you get both an acoustic and electronic kit with this package. The DWe kit has Collector’s Series shells, but it comes with special electronic drumheads that send signals to a drum module.
If you remove those and place normal drumheads, you have a typical acoustic kit.
The electronic aspect of the kit is completely wireless, as Roland and DW created new technology to make that happen for the set.
You get the DW Soundworks software with the kit, which is where you can get the sounds from when playing.
In terms of hardware, you get the DW 5000 Series hardware set.
The sound library included with the kit has a bunch of professionally recorded DW drum sets. With DW being one of the most premium drum brands, all of these samples sound incredible.
The acoustic version of this kit also sounds great, as it’s one of DW’s flagship Collectors’ Series shell packs.
One thing that we noticed was how smooth the triggering was. You’d typically expect a bit of delay with wireless technology, but we didn’t notice that at all with this kit.
We were incredibly impressed by the overall quality, and we could easily feel how this is one of the best electronic drum sets ever created.
The construction quality is fantastic as well. The whole idea of having a convertible kit isn’t new, but we definitely think the DW and Roland did the best job with the DWe.
It’s very easy to take the electronic drumheads off the kit and replace them with typical heads. You then just need to swap the plastic cymbals out with normal ones, and you’ll be good to go.
We also need to mention the included DW 5000 hardware, which is some of the best hardware on the market.
We could easily see the Roland quality when checking out the electronic side of the set. The sample sounds are so good, and the triggering seems very seamless.
The only thing we noticed that may be a bit of a downside is that the cymbal pads were very loud. They’re much louder than any rubber pads that come with other e-kits. This won’t be a problem for most drummers, but it’s not great if your plan is to keep volume down when playing.
A lot of people get electronic drum kits for that reason, so we wouldn’t say that this kit is the best option in that case.
Now, let’s get to the big elephant in the room. You can get this drum set in a few different versions, but every single one of them costs close to $10 000. Some are less, some are more.
That is insanely expensive for a single drum kit, and we immediately didn’t think it was worth it when we first heard that price tag being mentioned.
However, you need to remember that you’re getting a DW Collector’s Series shell pack here. Many of those cost above $5000 anyway. Now, add on a high-end electronic kit that competes with the likes of the Roland VAD706 and TD-50K, and it makes the price tag a bit more understandable. Still very expensive, though!
To wrap things up, we’re massive fans of this kit. It’s such a great piece of equipment that any drummer would love to have.
It’s just not reachable for most drummers due to the insanely high price tag. Would we recommend getting it? Yes, if you have the money and don’t mind spending so much.
However, there are electronic drum sets for half the price that are more than good enough.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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