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Pacific
Digital’s "DrumXtreme", no drum roll
by Zack Bryce, Tech Lab Manager
July 23th, 2003
The software interface is
"game like", something for kids.
The bass kick pedal
is terrible; made totally from plastic, it has no feel and we expect
it to only last a couple months of regular use.
Under
normal use, the kick pedal won't last long
While other legitimate
electronic drum sets require a “digital module” like the
Alesis DM5 or old D4 ($500 to $125) to “make” the synthesized
drum sound, the Pacific Digital “DrumXtreme” digital drums
will require a computer. For convenience sake a recent model notebook
with a good sound chip set and power is the reasonable choice (add $1000
to your cost). You’ll also need a really good set computer of
speakers with a BIG base booster too.
Even $240+ Boston speakers can't help
the poor digital drum sound samples.
Even with using the awesome Boston BA7900 6 speaker system ($240) plugged into my 2.2GHz Compaq notebook, these drum sounded like crap. Not even remotely like real drum, nor like any other digital drum kit of equivalent cost and above.
We compared it to a HART Dynamics Prodigy Digital kit (8 digital pads - which are five drums, three cymbals and a metal high-hat pedal) with an old Alesis D4 module through a PA system.
The HART is a “beginners” kit that is a real digital drum set, which retails for $699 but sells
at most music outlets
for around $399. You’ll need to supply your own bass kick pedal,
about $79 for a real all metal Ludwig or Pearl. The HART belongs to a
high school aged drum student I teach.
HART's
Prodigy sounds like a real accoustic drum kit and the Pacific Digital
“DrumXtreme” sounds like a set of electronic bongos, no matter
what sampled drum kit you select with these software on the computer.
I’m a skin player by a wide margin, but I really enjoyed playing
the HART Prodigy; I hated playing and constantly adjusting the Pacific
Digital “DrumXtreme” slipping pads.
HART's
Prodigy is a real great starter digital drum kit
If you factor the
cost of a notebook computer into the total cost of the Pacific Digital
“DrumXtreme”, ( around $1,400?), compared to the HART Prodigy
(around $800 with a used Alesis D4), the Pacific Digital “DrumXtreme”
is no bargain.
"I'm not worthy, I'm not
worthy!" Wayne's World character.
Your free “drum teacher” is more interested in teaching you how to finger spin the cheap included drumsticks, than how to really play the drums. He reminds us of a character from the “Wayne’s World” movie. It gave us a brief laugh during the review.
Bottom line: Well, I don’t think we need to tell you what we think. This is a toy, not an instrument to learn on. It’s something we’d expect to find in a Costco around Christmas time, for $149. Not recommended, unless you want another "throw-away" toy.
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