Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

*EDIT I really hate to put this edit in here since I did love this kit but I have been struggling with Alesis for quite some time now. My kick drum broke about 16 months after purchase, they sent me a new one (which was awesome since it wasn't covered under any warranty)... then about a year after that, my kick drum broke again. I called and they said I would have to purchase a new one. I was understanding since the first drum was a freebie. But only 4 months after I received that new kick drum, it broke again. Few things I want to be clear on... I am not playing death metal, or abusing this drum in any way. I play maybe once a week nowadays and sometimes barely that, so best case scenario, I got 16 sessions out of this drum before it broke. If it can't tolerate simple kick drum usage, they should really take a look at their product. I have been trying to contact them for over a month but their support system is very weak. As of this moment, I would not buy this product again. I hope to change my review some day in the future. * It took me a very long time to decide on a kit... I did get some help from the question section here but I would like to write the review I wish I would have read before buying this kit. I was back and forth about drum sets - especially buying one on amazon. I was looking to buy a drum set that didn't take up a lot of space, had all the features I needed, and that I could plug into my audio interface and record to my computer. This kit has met all of my expectations and needs so far. I have been drumming for about 15 years. Always on an acoustic set. Let me start out by saying if you are looking for the feel exactly of an acoustic set. Buy an acoustic set. This feels like you're playing on pads... as it should... because you are. They have an upgraded kit with mesh - I don't know what it is like but I do plan on buying the upgrade at some point. When I do I will rewrite this. Putting it together took about an hour and a few glasses of Captain Morgan. It is not difficult. But the directions are not very great. Make sure you have everything set up comfortably before you start plugging everything in. Think logically too. The stand construction is very sturdy. I have no issues with it moving around or drums losing position. The pads are... well, they are just pads. They are loud. They are hard and they do dent. I have one or two in them now but that hasn't effected my playing at all. I sometimes forget I don't need to hit as hard to get a louder sound as I would when playing an acoustic kit. It is tough to get used to the rebound from them - especially the cymbals and hi hats. The layout can be altered. I like to play with my ride cymbal low as do many drummers. I got it very low with a little manipulation and I will post a photo below to show you. This is not as low as I usually like it but I really wanted all of my toms on the rack. I think in the future I may buy another stand for a tom. The biggest issue with buying an electric kit was getting the sounds I wanted out of the drums. I have never owned another electric kit, before but this is pretty easy to do. They have 100 built-in kits. Some are awesome. Some are fun. Some you wonder who was on drugs and why were they allowed to add that kit. But everything you need is there. It also has 100 user kits which I have been going crazy with. Personalizing a kit is pretty easy. From what I had read before I bought, you were only able to use effects from other kits and copy them to a new kit. Not actually true. What you can do is go into the module and edit each drum. For example - I want a loud deep bass drum. I can edit the bass drum, pick from - I don't know - maybe 15-20 different kicks, then adjust levels on it, make it louder, put reverb, adjust sensitivity, tone, and a few other options too. And you can do this with all the drums. It is very useful and a lot easier (than what i thought I was going to have to do) than going through each kit and picking out a drum I liked and copying it to a new set. This makes making your own sounds very easy, especially if you like your drums to sound a certain way for different songs. Also you can adjust levels of each instrument on the module. This is very handy to use if you are playing and find one thing to be louder than another. You can also adjust the levels when you edit the kit but you may find that during a song, for example you want less cowbell. Which would be next to impossible. :) You can plug in an iPod or mp3 player with an aux cord which is very useful for practicing. I have yet to use the "accompaniment" feature. Which really I thought was a waste of space anyways. There are some downfalls. I do wish I had more rack space. The plug ins for the second crash and 4th tom are labeled under percussion which tends to be difficult when trying to remember what levels to adjust. The pads do not rebound like drums but more like hitting a hardwood floor - but this is to be expected. I do really wish there was a button you could push and get to a track. Maybe a number pad like "I know I want my drum kit #122 so take me there now" button would be nice. But the pros for me outweigh the cons. Sturdy frame - great effects - easily customized - and it sounds great. I have played these through my headphones and through a small Simmons amp I bought on amazon as well. Both sound qualities are great. Be cautious not to max out your levels on the control panel but instead increase the level of the amp or headphone levels. This kit is not a $4k Roland. Nor does it claim to be. But this is an exceptional kit and for a thousand bucks you really can't go wrong. It does what I need it to and I am very pleased with my purchase.