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The sturdy rack comes ready-assembled.

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Alesis produce a wide and varied range of electronic gadgetry for stage and studio, including effects processors, mixers, amplifiers, etc.

Fortunately, we drummers have had a reasonable share of the Alesis R&D budget, with a selection of products ranging from the Performance Pad percussion controller, SR-16 and SR-18 drum machines, D5 and DM5 drum modules to the ever-expanding catalogue of electronic kits in the DM series.

Following in the footsteps of the DM5 and DM6, this competitively priced five-piece kit is sited mid-range in between the DM6 and flagship DM10 Pro.

"There are many features available on the DM7 that are more often found on electronic kits costing several times more than this."

This new DM7 kit is a complete electronic set-up (apart from kick pedal and stool), including the DM7 module itself, drum rack, three single-zone 8" tom pads, a 10" triple-zone snare pad, 8" hi-hat pad, 10" ride and 10" crash pads, hi-hat pedal, mini manual, a pair of sticks and a copy of Toontrack's EZ Drummer Lite.

This piece of software is a virtual drum 'plug-in' which, in conjunction with your favourite sequencing package or midi software and USB, will allow access to thousands of new drum sounds. The DM7 module also features a line-in and line-out ¼" jack socket for connection to a CD player or iPod and external amplification.

There are many features available on the DM7 that are more often found on electronic kits costing several times more than this. For example, the crash cymbal pad has a 'choke' facility to produce life-like cymbal actions and the snare is capable of producing rim shots and cross-sticking with its triple-zone pad.

The DM7 module features a sizeable selection of over 400 individual sounds, including over 60 snares, 70 toms, 20 crash cymbals, 50 percussion sounds, 48 effects and over 60 kicks. Each voice or kit has a wide range of editable features such as dynamics, equalisation and pitch.

Hands On

The sturdy rack comes virtually ready-assembled out of the box, taking literally minutes to unfold and place each pad and DM7 module in position.

Thanks to the D-type connector and clear labelling on the wiring 'snake', each individual jack goes where it should. Grabbing a quick taster of each kit highlights the good (and not so good), of the many available rhythm variations and individual sounds, but certainly warrants deeper delving.

Immediately noticeable is the stick and wrist-friendly feel on the bouncy rubber of each tom pad. The snare pad is a slightly harder and denser pad but this also gives a fairly accurate representation of the 'real' thing in stick response.

However, it is subject to some of the dreaded 'machine gun' effect when attempting a buzz or single stroke roll. Some of the most impressive sounds are from the ride cymbals which have a crisp, cutting tone with just the right amount of body and decay to give the illusion of real cymbals.