Top 3 Low Budget Electronic Drum Kits
So, you’re looking to buy your first drum kit and need some recommendations from an experienced drum teacher?
I get asked the question on a weekly basis “What is a good first drum kit to buy?”
Now, this article is about electronic drum kits, but obviously there’s a whole other conversation to be had for acoustic drum sets.
I’m going to offer my advice on buying a low budget electronic drum kit, so let’s get into this:
Coming in at the top end of most beginner drummers’ budgets, around the £600 mark, is the Roland TD-1DMK. Roland are a very well established musical instrument manufacturer and they have fantastic customer service with offices based in London.
I’ve had many dealings with them and can only say good things about the members of the team I’ve spoken with. So, if customer service is important to you and knowing that you’ll be well taken care during after care, then Roland are definitely up there!
Now, let’s talk about the drums themselves. Roland drum kits are the most responsive e-drums I’ve ever played. The kits they were making 10 years ago are still contending with alternative brands that are bringing out new drum kits in 2021, which really says something about the quality of engineering. I personally play a Roland TD30-K, which is a top end professional standard drum kit, but it was introduced on the market some 10 years ago.
The TD-1DMK drum kit comes fitted with mesh heads for a more realistic feel, in comparison to the hard rubber heads you get on other budget drums. This creates a feel more comparable to an actual drum head and allows your stick to bounce back more freely. This also reduces the amount of vibrations you’ll absorb in your wrist and therefore creates a more comfortable playing experience.
The kit is compact and easy to move around and has plenty of manoeuvrability for repositioning the drum angles. Another really important feature for drummers is the bass drum pad, which you’ll notice has a pedal with a beater. Some entry level kits do not have this feature and instead have a triggered pedal which doesn't physically swing a beater, and this just feels really unrealistic.
Whilst the TD-1DMK has a ton of built-in sounds, it also has the function to connect to your computer, so if you’re quite tech-savvy then you may wish to use some drum kit softwares to hear other sounds, which opens this kit up to endless sound capabilities. It also features a “mix-in” input for playing songs from an external device like a phone or tablet.
The Alesis Nitro Mesh kit is another great option for a beginner drummer, coming in at around the £300 mark, it’s mesh heads and realistic bass pedal make this kit stand above the competition in its price range.
This kit is compact, quiet to play on and offers 40 classic and modern preset kit sounds, as well as a further 385 samples built-in for further sound customisation.
Much like the Roland kit, it also has the capacity to be connected to a computer for recording or triggering software sounds.
This kit is available from many retailers in the UK, including Amazon.
The Tourtech TT-16S packs in a ton of sounds and features, including a moving bass drum beater pedal, as opposed to the detached triggered pedal (similar to the hi-hat one pictured to the left) which creates a more realistic playing feel and is an important feature to consider. It also has a cross-stick setting for the snare drum and a “choke” feature on the crash cymbals.
Coming in at around £270, this kit is a really great option for beginner to intermediate players looking for something that sounds great and feels good to play.
The kit has plenty of manoeuvrability and height adjustment options, making it suitable for all ages.
It has around 500 built in sounds and includes a MIDI option to connect to your computer for easy recording and sound expansion.
Although this kit doesn’t have mesh heads, the soft foam is fairly comfortable to play on and will certainly serve its purpose as a great budget option.