Hi, OldSchool,

I started drumming late last year. Since I am an older beginner, I chose to start with electronic kit so I can keep on practicing late at night. I went to local music stores to audition Alesis D4, DMPro, and Roland TD-8 (TD-10 is too expensive, out of my range). I found that although DMPro has some respectable cymbal sounds, its sounds on the whole is too bright, a little thin and uneven and DMPro lacks the features like the positional sensing of pads, cross sticks and other features of Roland's V-Drum brains. Roland TD-8 has much more even, well-balanced sounds with superb features. I like its desktop shape with sliders and big buttons that can be directly hit by drum sticks. I ordered it new from MidWest Percussion for $685 a year ago and never regreted. I think Chris is right about the drum sounds of SRX-02 "Dynamic Drums" card, but it costs much to get an XV synth and the card. I personally like real cymbals - my favorite is Paiste Signature Fast crash - transparent, good transient and fast peaking - suitable for light music studio work. I have not found anything on synths that has decemt cymbal rolls anyway - cymbal is probably one of the most difficult musical instruments to imitate due to its dynamics and variety in sounds.

Paul Ip
from Texas