Alesis Nitro Mesh Kit - Electronic Drum Set with Quiet Mesh Pads, USB MIDI, Kick Pedal and Rubber Kick Drum, 40 Kits, 385 Sounds, Drum Lessons

Such a cool product and worked exactly as hoped! I can't compare it to any other sets (this is the only one I've used), but it was super adjustable, easy to set up, and worked perfectly for me. The pads feel really nice, the kick pedal feels great to me, the module has great features... I'm very satisfied with it.

I got this set with the expansion pack which was well worth it to me (the 4th Tom has a rim effect that sounds a bit like a tambourine and the second Crash has a different sound than the standard one.)It was relatively easy to put together but in the end it took me 8 hours to play around with things to get them to where I wanted.Then theres the wires which they don’t show in the product images…The drum heads are solid but small, especially the snare.The Kick drum basically needs 20+ pounds backstopping it or to drill the base into something.The frame is pretty sturdy but the two shorter end posts will tend to lean in for me (I did put more than intended on them and only have two Toms on the front bar. (I’m going to put something to lock the rubber bottoms of the rail stand in place.)The choke feature on the Crash & Ride Cymbals is a little sketchy. Theres about a 2” section dead center on the edge that controls it but if you miss the exact spot, no Choke which may not be the end of the world but is annoying when you expect it to work like grabbing a regular Cymbal only to find you were slightly off.Another plus is that it’s easy to fold the sides in and pickup and move. It’s surprisingly light while still sturdy overall.The components to setup each head or Cymbal all have three points of adjustment for tons of control. I would try to get it setup how you want it in terms of height, spacing, angles etc. before running the cables and the leave enough slack to make adjustments without having to reconfigure any cables.Because I knew I would have to screw the Kick pad into something I set up the set on a piece of 2’ x 4’ plywood which is great with something underneath to protect the floor which then allows you to slide the set around easily.I’m very happy with the set and the only additional thing I’ll get ag some point is a double-base pedal.This is a perfect set for a beginner and with the expansion pack it really looks impressive with four Cymbals and four Toms.Overall, great set for a beginner or anyone who doesn’t want to spend $3k plus on a professional digital set.

After living with this kit for 2 weeks, I'll go through a list of the pro's and cons, in my opinion.First, just a quick note about the company Alesis. I've been using Alesis gear since 1992. Primarily drum machines and drum modules. There is no other company that offers a better performance to cost ratio, hands down. The "elitists" who think only Roland and Yamaha are quality electronic drumkits are dead wrong. They equate high price with high quality. Alesis has been putting out comparable products at half the price for three decades. Their flagship drumkit, the Strike Pro SE, compares to Roland and Yamaha kits costing twice (or more) as much. Many, many thumbs up to Alesis.The pros...1) Great sounds. Excellent decay on all the snares, toms, and cymbals. No cutoff whatsoever. Many useful drumkits covering rock, funk, and jazz. Not a bunch of useless novelty kits and sounds. The snare on kit 01 is a beauty!2) Excellent extra features. Click track, and a ton of play along songs in all genres. You can turn the existing drum track in the play along songs on or off. Midi features so you can hook the brain up to a computer and trigger high end drum sounds (e.g, - Superior Drummer 3, Steven Slate drums), or you can midi into another drum module if desired.3) The mesh heads feel great. 2 years ago, a drumkit with mesh heads was $1,000+. Definitely superior to rubber pad electronic drums and (dare I say), even the electronic drumkits using real drumheads.4) Accurate triggering. I use a lot of soft ghost notes on the snare drum when I play, and the triggers pick them up pretty accurately. The open/close feature on the high hat pedal is a little suspect, but this is likely something that you might need to tweak, or it might just be a matter of getting used to it. They're all different.5) Decent quality bass drum pedal included.6) Ability to integrate into a higher end electronic drumkit. I plan on upgrading to a higher end kit in the future (likely the Alesis Strike Pro SE). Will I get rid of the Nitro Mesh kit? No way! The pads and cymbals will integrate into another kit perfectly. Hook em up to the Nitro Mesh module, run a MIDI cable to the Strike Pro module, and you can have piccolo snares, timbales, octobans, roto toms, china cymbals, trash cymbals, secondary hi-hats...you name it!Now for the con's...1) Unpredictable choke feature on the crash cymbal. Out of 10 attempted crash chokes, it seems to work less than half the time. It's almost like there's literally a 1 inch section that you have to grab to get the choke effect. I assumed grabbing the entire rubber area on the bottom would trigger the choke feature. Not so.2) Difficult to position drums where you want them. I literally can not get the snare and 1st rack tom into a comfortable position similar to an actual drum set. I'm going to have to spend another $50 and get a snare drum stand just to get the snare where I want it.3) More of a wish list feature, but I wish they could've used 10" drums and 12" cymbals. I'm aware that this would've added another $100+ to the cost (I would have willingly paid it). After playing acoustic drums for 40 years, I'm used to the bigger sizes...14" snare, and 12"-16" toms. It can be challenging doing fast rolls down the toms on 8" pads. Playing some wild bebop on the ride cymbal can result in (unintentional) air drumming (oops!)On the plus side, the 8" drums and small cymbals definitely improve your accuracy when moving back to an acoustic kit.Overall, another home run for Alesis. I'd recommend this to anybody, serious drummer or hobbyist. One wish list note for Alesis. I'd like to see them make actual brass electronic cymbals (similar to what Jobeky in the U.K does). That's the biggest adjustment for drummers moving from acoustic to electronic kits. It just feels "unnatural" hitting plastic/rubber instead of metal.This is a 5 star product, but due to the choke feature and the positioning restrictions, I'm giving the Nitro Mesh a 4.5.

My kid wanted his first drum set. After a lot of research we found this one. My kid loves it!

I'm a beginner. I know nothing about drums but I thought they are cool so I did some research. Reviews & videos mention this set as being good for beginners for the price. I'll probably never be very good. But I'm 2 weeks in and I think this kit is really cool.I had no plan on how to learn to play. When you register the kit on the website (DO IT), it offers you a free month of Melodics (computer or laptop needed, I recommend a laptop set up directly in front of the drum set). I went ahead and signed up. Melodics is absolutely amazing, it has guided training and lessons.This kit does not come with the drum throne or headphones, you'll need to purchase those separately, but they come in a separate bundle. You'll also need a usb-a to usb-b cable to connect the kit to the computer to use melodics most efficiently.My only other suggestion is, I think there's the same kit, but with the 10-inch snare. You might want to get that one instead, but I'm doing just fine with the 8-inch snare in this kit.