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This is a great kit for starting out on the digital road

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

But we can' be too harsh here. After all, most players will see these as fun diversions rather than make-or-break features. And the Aux In socket on the rear means you can always plug in your own sound source and therefore your own choice of Rock-A-Long tunes.

The advances made with the addition of the new brain aren't such that it provides an accurate emulation of the complex response of an acoustic kit, rather that it gets you in the ballpark, as it were. And where the first one would probably have driven you mad after prolonged playing, we can happily state, you'd be much more inclined to use the 450 sound box for more than just dabbling.

Rolls are still machine gun-like, but there's a sufficient degree of difference between the quietest and loudest triggered sound for the unit to feel reasonably responsive. And it's surprising what a psychological difference playing mesh heads rather than rubber pads makes to the aural perception of the E400. Were this brain hooked up to unyielding ping pong-bat type pads, the general tonal impression of the kit would be rather different.

As it is, the forgiving feeling of the mesh heads adds more than the sum of its parts to proceedings. Which makes the E400 pleasingly playable. Another real help in this regard is the fact that the size of the pads mimic a traditional acoustic kit, rather than pads of the same size for each 'drum', Traps have, from the outset, offered playing surfaces that provide a very familiar playing experience.

The nuts-and-bolts of the Traps rack consist of a pretty decent collection of tubes and connectors. An unusual feature is the manner in which the two upright sections have spurs onto which the bass drum is secured, which makes for a compact rig. It restricts the flexibility of the set-up by its very nature, but for a kit of this type it's a perfectly workable solution.

The pads themselves boast proper hoops/rims and are designed so they can be used with regular drum heads as a cut-down acoustic kit if necessary. The fact that the kit's pad triggers are attached to posts on each pad rather than built-in means it's an easy process to pop these off and install your favourite regular heads. Flexible, or what?