Roland is the leading electronic drum kit brand in the world. The V-Drums sets remain mostly unmatched when it comes to quality and offered value. A few years ago, Roland decided to take on the hybrid market with their VAD sets.
All these sets have acoustic shells and utilize standard hardware to give the appearance of an acoustic kit. They’re incredible kits, but most of them are fairly pricey. This is where the VAD103 comes in. It’s the most affordable VAD set, making it the budget option. We’re going to take a deep look through it to see if it’s worth considering.
While the Roland VAD306 and VAD507 kits came out a while ago, the VAD103 came out a bit later as the affordable option in the series. It adds greater accessibility to the VAD series, and it has a more economical choice of drum pads to play on.
The acoustic shells aren’t as large on this set, but they still mount to the same stands that you would use for acoustic drum kits. As the pads aren’t as large as the other VAD sets, the footprint is slightly smaller.
The kit is run by the Roland TD-07 drum module. It’s a fairly simplistic module that has a few presets, which are fun to practice with. You shouldn’t expect any major features from it.
Overall, the kit is designed to be a top-quality practice set. With a limited number of sound editing tools and a lack of right and left output channels, it wouldn’t be ideal for playing gigs with it.
The pads offered by this kit are extraordinary compared to the pads on the V-Drums sets with comparable prices. They’re sized in a way that makes them feel better to play on. So, even though this kit is smaller than the other VAD options, the pads are large enough to feel quite comfortable when drumming.
The snare and floor tom pads are 12”, the rack tom is 10”, and the bass drum is 18”. All of them are responsive mesh pads that react incredibly well to varied styles of play.
The hi-hat pad is 12”, the crash pad is 12”, and the ride pad is 13”. The ride pad has three trigger zones, and the crash only has two.
All the pads used for this kit feel solid, giving you the durability that you can expect from Roland drum sets. The bass drum is particularly impressive, and this is the most affordable Roland set you can get that comes with an 18” kick.
One of the standout features of this kit is that you use standard acoustic drum kit hardware to mount all the drums and cymbals. For us at Drum Ninja, this is the main reason we’d suggest anyone get the kit.
Other electronic kits often have their pads positioned close together due to the nature of the drum racks that they have. While this keeps the kits compact, it doesn’t accurately reflect how acoustic shells are spaced out.
You get to space the VAD103 pads out in any way that you want to with the standard hardware, and that makes it feel a lot better to play for many drummers. Another benefit to mention with this is that the hi-hat pad used a stand as well.
Having an electronic hi-hat pad on a proper stand always feels much better than one that is connected to a trigger pedal.
Music stores most often don’t sell these VAD kits with snare or hi-hat stands, so you’d need to check that out before buying the kit
The VAD103 comes with the Roland TD-07 drum module. It’s one of Roland’s more simplistic options as it doesn’t have extensive sound editing capabilities. It comes with 25 preset drum kits, which all have mid-range sounds. It also has 143 sounds to create your own kits with.
The module is quite easy to use. It only has a few buttons, and getting the hang of what all of them do typically only takes a few minutes for new users. This is perfect for drummers who only want to play on the preset kits.
If you want to be in control of all the sounds, you may need to get the VAD306 set that comes with the higher-powered TD-17 drum module.
The module has a USB port to connect it to a computer. To play with studio-quality sounds, you could always run a VST such as Superior Drummer through it. You’d get the benefit of those with the visuals of the VAD shells. You could also upgrade the module as the shells are compatible with all of Roland’s higher-quality ones.
The VAD103 is the most affordable set out of the Roland VAD kits. It’s an enticing option if you love the look of the acoustic shells. However, the fact that it uses the TD-07 module may concern some drummers.
While the Roland TD-07 drum sets all cost around $1000, the VAD103 costs just over $2000. Since you get the same sounds and features, you’re only paying extra for the visuals of the kit.
We wouldn’t recommend this set to anyone who simply wants an electronic kit to play. If you don’t mind how Roland V-Drums look, getting the TD-07 kit will save you a fair bit of money.
For a few hundred dollars extra, you could buy the VAD306 kit, which we think is a better deal. Overall, the price-to-value ratio of the VAD103 is okay. It’s not lucratively expensive considering what it offers, but we don’t see it as a major bargain either.
The major differences between the two kits are that the VAD306 comes with more pads and the TD-17 drum module. When buying the VAD306, you get a second 10” tom pad and a second 12” cymbal pad. This larger setup gives you more options when playing.
The TD-17 module is also far superior to the TD-07 module that comes with the VAD103. It has features inspired by Roland’s higher-end modules, such as extensive editing tools that give you more control over the drum sounds.
The VAD306 costs $500 to $600 more than the VAD106, depending on where you buy it from. That extra cost is highly worth it if you’re looking for a drum module that gives you more options to work with. The extra pads are a great addition as well.
If you simply want a kit to practice on that will look fantastic in your studio space, the VAD103 is a perfectly viable option.
It isn’t recommended to use electronic drums for professional studio recordings. While electronic drums have come a far way in terms of sound quality, they still haven’t quite hit the same level. So, the VAD103 wouldn’t be a good option for professional recording, especially considering that it uses the lower-tier TD-drum module.
However, it’s fantastic for recording personal videos for social media. The USB capabilities make it incredibly easy to record, and you don’t need to have any heavy knowledge of microphones and drum mixing.
You’d just need to plug the module into a computer and use a DAW to recognize the USB notes coming through.
We wouldn’t suggest using the VAD103 for a live gig. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the lack of extensive sound editing tools will stop you from getting pro-grade sounds that are ideal for live stages. Other electronic kits are often passable as users can tweak the sounds enough to make them effective.
The second reason is that the module only has a headphone output. This isn’t conducive to the way that live sound is set up. It’s ideal to have more than one channel going out, giving the sound engineer more control over where to send that sound.
We love how the VAD103 looks. We also love how it allows more people to get into VAD drums, thanks to its more affordable price tag. However, the TD-07 isn’t the most attractive drum module out there. Considering the fact that you can spend only a few hundred dollars extra to get the larger and higher-powered VAD306, we can’t see too many people opting to buy this set.
It’s a great kit, though! If you’re happy with the TD-07 drum module, you should consider getting it. It feels a lot better to play on these drum pads than it does to play on the shallow V-Drums pads that come with any kits from the TD-07 Series.
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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