TD-1DMK V-Drum Set : Decent for the price but has a few quality issues

3 years ago

I've been using it a couple of times a week for more than a year now.

- Mesh pads: In my opinion the best part of this drumkit. They feel very good, they're not super loud, and so far I've never had any technical problems with them.

- Rubber cymbals: They feel ok. The choke option is more of a gimmick than anything else. What's fairly annoying is that the pad I use as crash sometimes randomly stops working. I do hit it harder than the other ones, so maybe it's just getting worn out fast, but this started happening after a couple of months only so it's a bit disappointing.

- Rubber kick pad: It feels both too hard and too bouncy, but that's ok. It's not a super expensive drumkit so I understand that including a mesh kick pad would drive the price up.

- Rack: Quality and stability are pretty good. Assembly was easy. It has a smaller footprint than other electronic drums I tried, without feeling cramped (I'm 1.82 m). The range of settings for the cymbals and pads is acceptable. The holding system for the snare pad, on the other hand, is way too restrictive for me, so I had to buy a practice pad stand (Tama HS40TPN) to get the pad at a proper height and distance.

- Control unit: I like that it's so bare and easy to use. The thing that's very disappointing is that the input jack (where I plug in my phone to play over tracks) is already starting to fail. If I plug the cable all the way in, I can only hear the backing track in the right earpiece. I have to wiggle it a bit out of the plug to get the sound back in both earpieces. I expect this to get worse with time.

- Features: I used to practice with some of the preset exercises and I think that there's some value to them. Nowadays the only feature I'm using is the metronome.

- Sound quality: I never use anything else than presets 2 and 9 because all the others sound fairly bad to me. But I'm just playing the drumkit for practice so I don't have high expectations.

Overall it's a decently priced drumkit for practicing. The rack feels sturdy enough and the mesh pads feel good. On the other hand it needs upgrades for a comfortable playing experience (snare pad stand, mesh kick pad), and the few quality issues (cymbal randomly not working, input jack already failing) can be quite annoying.

Image Roland TD-1DMK V-Drum Set

Technical Data

  • Manufactured by Roland
  • Released in 2018
  • Average price : $655
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