I have been playing drums on a tiny compact kit, which is just six or so pads, and after a while I wanted something more real. The idea of an actual drum kit was easily dismissed for monetary reasons as well as sound reasons. So I went out to find the cheapest electronic drum kit, and after wading through Reddit page after Reddit page I came to one kit: Alesis Nitro Mesh Kit.

The kit comes with a snare pad, three toms, three cymbals, a kick, hi-hat pedal, kick tower, and a drum module. The kit goes for around $350, which is far more affordable than most other popular drum kits. The kit has forty preset kits that can be edited and change with 385 unique sounds. However, it’s more like 350 unique sounds since there are a couple of sounds that are almost identical.

I generally play heavy metal and rock music, so I bought a double kick (which has to be bought individually), and for a while I was unable to get it working, and it would often not register hits. However, I found that changing the sensitivity of the kick by using the “utility” button and that fixed the registration, but it is still at an undesirable volume. The drum module has a bunch of cool features including an adjustable metronome, a record/replay feature which can be very helpful to improve your drumming. It also has built-in songs which can have the drum tracks removed for extra practice though they are not particularly good.

Obviously, this does not feel like a real drum kit, but the mesh gives sticks a certain bounce and feeling that, despite not feeling like a normal snare, still feels great to hit and allows for traditional rolls and other techniques. The cymbals are also great to hit but you are unable to perform cymbal chokes on them which can be a bit annoying.

The kit is also a bit low-sitting, and the angling can make it awkward to not hit the rim, but it’s very compact and took me less than twenty minutes to set up the first time, ten to take it apart, and ten to get it back up. I have, however, found myself having to re-tighten the kicks a couple times because they start turning to the side.

Not many drums have internal speakers and this one is no different, so if you want to use the kit, you need to use either an aux cord for headphones, or a speaker. There are also USB and XLR ports. I would recommend this kit to beginners specifically as veteran drummers may hate this kit due to the difference in real and electronic kits. Despite these minor nit-picks, it is still a great kit and I use it daily.