MPS-850 E-Drum Set : Excellent value

I’m a total beginner on the drums, and this is my first kit, so bear in mind that I don’t have anything else to compare it to. I spent a while researching the alternatives before settling on the 850 – for the same price I could have got a very basic Roland kit, or a slightly lower spec Alesis. In the end the proper hi-hat and the extra pads swung the decision for me (would I have missed them? no idea yet).

Assembly took me a couple of hours, but the manual was generally pretty clear. Everything seems to be solidly made. As I said, I don’t have anything to compare it to, but the module sounds seem fine to my inexpert ears. It works seamlessly with my Mac too, if I need more options. There aren’t any training functions built in, but something like Melodics is probably better anyway.

The two playability issues I’ve seen mentioned a lot are the difficulty of triggering the ride bell (it does seem pretty sensitive to where and how hard you hit it, but I haven’t tried adjusting anything yet), and of playing a hi-hat splash (initially it seemed almost impossible, but it works much better if you increase the gap between the hi-hat pad and the trigger module).

Overall I’m very pleased so far, and it seems like an awful lot of kit for the money.