When looking to buy an electronic drum set, you have the option of choosing a beginner, intermediate, or pro set. Beginner sets typically cost between $200 and $1000 while intermediate and pro sets have a much higher price range and can cost up to $8000.
Electronic kits used to be very expensive in the past, and beginner sets didn’t sound too great. Thankfully, technology has advanced far enough for electronic drum companies to sell affordable kits that sound relatively decent.
A beginner electronic drum kit will always cost less than $1000 with some costing as low as $300. Most beginner sets will be relatively small, and all of them will have a trigger pedal for the hi-hat instead of having a dedicated hi-hat stand.
Beginner drum modules are quite limited, but they typically offer more than enough features for any beginner.
The Command Mesh is a high-quality beginner kit from Alesis. It has a full set of mesh drum pads that are tuneable, allowing you to set varying tensions. The Alesis Command Module has 50 preset factory kits and over 600 onboard sounds to create your own kits with as well.
One of the reasons this is a great beginner kit is that it has a large kick drum pad. It closely resembles how an acoustic bass drum feels, and this pad is a bit larger than many pads on cheaper kits.
You can load your own samples onto the module which is an incredibly valuable tool to have.
Intermediate electronic kits have a much wider price range than beginner ones. Some intermediate kits cost $1500 while others cost $3000. Things to note about intermediate kits are the pad quality, the module functions, and the overall build quality of the set.
Some intermediate kits will have dedicated stands for the snare drums and hi-hats while others won’t. That’s something you need to check out when looking to buy one. Typically, intermediate kits are good enough sets for anyone to use. The gap between quality closes as the kits start getting more expensive.
The Roland TD-27KV2 is one of the best electronic drum sets on the market for its price. Although it has a fairly high price tag, it costs a lot less than the flagship drum sets from Roland, Yamaha, and Pearl, and that’s why it can be considered as an intermediate drum set.
The kit has a digital snare and ride pad, and the rest of the pads are high-quality mesh Roland pads. The TD-27 second gen module uses Roland’s Prismatic Sound Modeling and PureAcoustic Ambience Technology to get the best sounds possible.
Overall, this is an excellent kit to get if you don’t want to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a top-quality professional kit.
With pro electronic drum sets, you’re getting the best of the best in terms of sounds, build quality and drum modules. The starting cost of a pro drum set will be somewhere around $3000.
The top kits on the market cost around $8000. That’s a lot to spend on a drum kit!
You’ll find that many more drummers have pro acoustic kits than they do electronic. This is because professional acoustic kits are more affordable, and they don’t have technology with the potential to be outdated, causing their lifespans to be longer.
With that being said, having a pro electronic drum kit is a fantastic thing if you can afford it.
The TD-50KV2 is Roland’s flagship drum set in the V-Drums line. This kit is highly impressive, and its most notable feature is the large bass drum that it comes with.
All the pads are the top pads that Roland offers, so you’re getting the best-quality electronic drum set in the world at the moment. The only close competitor would be the Roland VAD706 which has acoustic drum shells.
The Roland TD-50X drum module is an amazing device that acts as the driving force behind the kit. There are too many features to mention here, but know that it’s arguably the best drum module around.
You can check out our full review of the set here.
Good electronic drum kits have a starting price of around $600. The best brand to look out for if you want great value-for-money is Alesis. They have several entry-level drum sets that have high-quality designs and sounds.
Electronic drum kits are never going to be as preferable as acoustic drums. Acoustic drums are your best option as those are what you’ll use to play gigs most of the time. However, electronic kits are great for when you don’t have the luxury of playing acoustic drums due to noise constraints.
If you’re using electronic drums for practicing, they’re highly worth it. If you want to use an electronic kit to perform, you’ll need to buy an intermediate or pro one which will cost a fair bit of money.
Some electronic drum kits are expensive while others are quite affordable. To get the best possible deal, you need to establish your budget and then look for a kit that falls within that. If the kit fits your budget, it won’t seem so expensive.
Beginner acoustic drums cost between $200 and $600. Intermediate acoustic kits cost between $600 and $1500. Pro kits cost over $1500, but they rarely cost as much as $8000 as some electronic drum kits do.
As we said earlier, it’s always more preferable to use an acoustic set. However, electronic sets are decent options for beginners as they always come with everything you need to start learning and playing without any additional purchases.
You just need to find an electronic drum set that uses a proper bass drum pedal instead of having a bass drum trigger pedal.
One of the best electronic drum sets for beginners is the Alesis Nitro Mesh. It’s the most affordable kit that comes with a large bass drum pad and drum pedal. It also has mesh drum pads, which are much better than rubber pads.
The one downside to electronic drums is that they don’t produce any natural drum noise as acoustic drums do. So, you either need to use a pair of headphones or plug the module into an amp.
This means you need to purchase an amp and place it next to your set of electronic drums. To amplify the drums, you simply need to connect an audio cable from the amp to the drum module. There is typically a port at the back for this.
If you don’t want to use an amp, you could use a set of headphones. Any set of headphones or earphones will work. However, cheaper earphones don’t offer the tonal complexity that drums tend to deliver.
So, getting a decent pair of drumming headphones is a good idea. If you want to look more into that, you can read our guide on choosing the best pair.
Another thing to note about electronic drums is that they don’t have as high resale values as acoustic drums do. There’s more room to go wrong with digital instruments, so buying an electronic drum kit secondhand isn’t as smooth of a process.
It’s important to know the difference between the types of electronic drum kits so that you can make an informed buying decision. If you’re you’re a beginner drummer, there’s no need to buy the most expensive intermediate kit just yet. You may end up not utilizing most of the features offered, wasting the extra money you spent on the set.
Although the pro electronic kits are very expensive, their drum modules and integrated technological features are so advanced that they’re highly worth the money you pay for them.
Whichever camp you fall under, know that getting an electronic drum kit is a great thing to do!
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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