I researched the best electronic drum set for beginners with realistic sound over the past few days because I want to start learning drums at home. I checked reviews on The New York Times, Consumer Reports, and Popular Mechanics, and two models keep showing up as great beginner-friendly options:
Donner DED-80 Electronic Drum Set
https://www.amazon.com/Donner-Electronic-Headphone-Christmas-DED-80/dp/B09ZXR98LJ/?th=1
Donner Electric Drum Set
https://www.amazon.com/Donner-DED-70-NEW-Electronic-Headphones/dp/B0DQTBM6NK/?th=1
Both are recommended for new drummers, but I am still unsure which one would be better for me. I am looking for a kit that feels realistic, has responsive drum pads, offers good sound quality, and is quiet enough for practicing at home without disturbing others.Some people say the DED-80 has better sound and stronger build quality, while the DED-70 is more compact and budget-friendly. But I am still stuck between the two.So which one should I go for? If anyone has experience with either of these drum sets, your advice would really help.Thanks in advance!
I have no personal experience with either e-kit, but after 30 years of buying musical equipment, I stand by the advice that you should buy the nicest piece of equipment you can afford at the time. It is not worth trying to save money. The cheaper you go, the sooner youâll want to upgrade. The resale value of beginner stuff is pretty poor, so you end up spending more than just buying the nicer piece of equipment from the get-go, and nicer equipment is more inspiring to learn upon. Buy the instrument for the player you want to be, not the player you currently are.
Side note, I donât think you should approach buying an e-kit with the expectation that it feels realistic and sounds good, especially for entry-level models. If you want realistic feel, you need to buy a real kitâŚor spend thousands on a very high-end e-kit. Budget e-kits are fine to learn on if your living situation makes a real kit not possible, but another option is to buy a normal kit and put Remo Silentstroke heads on it and use low-volume cymbals (the kind that are perforated). I did this while living in an apartment for a while and never got a complaint from my neighbor. The sound isnât âgoodâ, but it isnât bad, and the feel is realistic. For my e-kit, I approached it as a paradigm shift from a realistic kit and cobbled together a unique setup with a Roland SPD-30 as the brain with pedal and cymbal attachments to fill it out. I dig it, and it is its own special thing rather than trying to be something it isnât, i.e. a substitute for a real kit.
Getting back to your original inquiry, if it was my decision, Iâd go with the DED-80.
A kit with a kick pedal will be more satisfying to play.
I played an Alesis Nitro Max kit at Guitar Center a few months ago and was impressed with how nice the current generation mesh pads are. Maybe a sale at Guitar Center or Sweetwater next week will get that into your price range.
My setup has a kick and hi-hat pedal. To be clear, I donât recommend my SPD-30 setup for anyone. I designed it to fit my wants. I was just illustrating my feeling that e-kits and acoustic kits are fundamentally different, and a beginner e-kit is not going to feel anything like an acoustic kit. It can be a great tool to learn on, but it isnât going to feel realistic, thatâs all. Having played on e-kits similar to the DED-80, I would say those kits are much closer in feel to my odd SPD-30 setup than an acoustic kit, despite the physical arrangement of the pads.
I said I would go with the DED-80 if it were me. My reasoning was due its heads have tuning lugs, whereas the DED-70 heads did not. Again, I have no experience with either and donât know anything about them beyond what I saw in the Amazon listings, but tunable heads should give you more options for adjusting their feel. It also comes with 30 more sounds, and the pedals look beefier. For the difference in price, those things would have me going with the 80.
Given the number of pieces of Roland equipment I own, none of which have failed over years of ownership, I hold the opinion that a lot of their stuff is âlifetime qualityâ grade, especially for hobbyists like me. I donât know anything about the quality of Donner equipment, good or bad, but I have played on the Roland kit linked below and enjoyed my time with it. It is twice the price of the DED-80, which may take it out of consideration. The sound quality of the module and its responsiveness to inputs made up for its rubber pads in my opinion. Combined with the likelihood that it will last for years, it may be worth a look:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TD2K--roland-v-drums-td-02k-electronic-drum-set