Alesis DM5

I just purchased the DM5 prokit Monday. I devoured the manual, which I found extremely easy & began reprogramming each drum sound to my own liking. My snare arm kept coming out of the arm & today, the whole kit frame decided to fall apart. Not to worry, I'd already decided (for the price) to make a few minor adjustments. I picked up PVC tubing, black plastic glossy paint, & headed home. I cut the tubing into a 3 ft frame and connected it in front. I purchased enough pvc doo dads to brace that sonofagun better than a gymnastic pole. I ordered a second kick trigger bcuz my dbl bass pedal wasn't cuttin it, Illl use a Y connection wire for the 2 kicks. I ordered the dual sound snare for more oomph. I'm a pro-touring musician & I am very handy so I intend to rock this puppy as best I can with no faux pas cuz I said so! :D

I'm a classically trained pianist/percussionist & I'm ligtning quick. I tweeked every sound this module had to create what I liked & have gotten wonderful results, thus far. Its a new instrument, so time will tell.

I love practicing to this. The cymbals crashes, etc are very expressive. Face it, it was cheap & it's so much fun to play.

I don't know if I'd trust it to a gig YET.

I called c.s. the same day I got it & they were outstanding. T'day, I spoke to Chris in Fla & he was helpful, personable & had many good tips.

This dm5 needs a metronome & it needs a better built prokit hardware. I KNOW those lug nuts are going to strip, so I'm buying more. My trusty drill & I took care of everything that thougt it was going to have a mind of its own.

Falls apart for no apparent reason. THis is the most maddening pile of garbage I have ever been stupid enough to waste 4 bills on.

Glitchy and unreliable. Beyond bad. When the brain isn't screwing up, the hardware is failing and falling apart. Wow. What an Idiot I was for buying this royal pile of crap.

Triggers fall apart and fail. I cannot keep up with the parts I have to replace. It is going in the trash. Really. I wouldn't wish this incredible piece of junk on my WORST enemy.

You cannot depend on this worthless pile of crap. This is the worst designed drum set in the world, and I was stupid enough to buy it. My bad.

The worst in the world. Seriously. The worst. Random emails returned from people who won't help. I have sold all my Alesis products now, in protest. Rack gear, drum machines, the works. They have my unending scorn.

Bought this 5 months ago. Drum sounds are superior for this price range, however that is damped by poorly designed hardware. Example: Look at the component that holds the trigger. There is only one boss to ensure the pad stays in place when tightened. These strip off quickly, and soon the pads hang limp. Have had to modify entire kit with large washers and larger threaded fasteners to ensure pads do not flop during use. The kit was put together by the pros at the store. If I had done it, perhaps I would have realized the issues that would emerge.
DM 5 module can be glitchy and unreliable. During a gig one output insert broke off during upload: They are plastic and very fragile. The rack is also poorly made. The arms will work their way out of the sockets with the most gentle of use. Support has been in the forms of email and and begging the store where purchased. Indications from the company that they will replace parts that break. The process has been so painful, between bugging the store and emailing many different people at Alesis that I have now given up, and will buy another kit, armed with my knowledge of what to look for in a substandard kit. Unfortunately those words do nothing to help in the middle of a gig or session. The problem is there is nothing they can do for this unit, save a complete pad and rack redesign and/or replacement which of course they are unwilling to do.

Basic rack with polymer connections and hardware. Easy to build but difficult to change if desired. Low flexibility with the rack. Unstable connections throughout

Sounds are excellent for this price range. Good selection of drum sounds and all are very close to realistic. Most people are not aware of the electronic nature of this kit until they look at it. Cymbals are hard to bring up out of the mix without some heavy equalization, but able to get adequate sound.

Bought this 5 months ago. Drum sounds are superior for this price range, however that is damped by poorly designed hardware. Example: Inspect the component that holds the trigger pad. There is only one boss to ensure the pad stays in place when tightened. These strip off quickly, and soon the pads hang limp. Have had to modify entire kit with large washers and larger threaded fasteners to ensure pads do not flop during use. The pads have been shedding parts and pieces almost daily, and requires tremendous effort to ensure reliable operation. DM 5 model can be glitchy and unreliable. Ex: Kick will suddenly become a tom, and you loose your low end for no particular reason. Display show correctly. Power down and up a couple times clears issue. The rack is also poorly made. The arms will work their way out of the sockets and fall to the ground with the most gentle of use.

Warranty is only as good as people make it. This seems on par with delay and ensure that you finally just give up.
Support has been in the forms of email and and begging the store where purchased. Indications from the company that they will replace parts that break. Unfortunately those words do nothing to help in the middle of a gig or session. The problem is there is nothing they can do for this unit, save a complete pad and rack redesign and/or replacement which of course they are unwilling to do.

We use this gig in a practice space, and gig in areas where sound pressures are required to be low. It has been problematic and difficult. The plastic inserts on the back of the DM5 module have broken off during gigs (someone pulled on one of the output cables, and the insert failed at the plastic nut). Delayed the gig last night by hanging up and refusing to put out kick sounds (reboot until glitch clears)
I should have checked out the details on this kit out more closely. Not ever owning an electronic kit, It was difficult to know what to look for, other than price. I have learned a 459 dollar lesson in electronic drum evaluation. So I have that.

Bought it in Sep. '08 so the software version is the one that it came with. It is very easy to use, mostly because there are only about 4 parameters you can edit to begin with. It's easy to see what your editing and what you've got going on because the display shows you all pertinenet information if your playing or editing. Editing is easy (not much you can edit anyway), and the manual is farily simplistic.

This is where it starts to go bad. 16 note polyphony just won't cut it for a drum set. I come from a background in both DCI and set drumming and not being able to play a roll that sounds like a roll is disappointing. When playing on the ride and open hi-hat at the same time the sounds will get cut off as soon as you play anything faster than a 16th note. This set has 0 built in effects. The velocity curves 1-7 are really more like 3.7-4.3. There's simply no range. The effect of the curves just aren't pronouced much at all. You'll barely notice a difference. The gain also doesn't do much from about 50-99, because the triggers just aren't that sensitive. Alesis is known for matching all program notes to midi notes which is why every pad you connect has the standard notation of a keyboard and is then assigned a particular sound. Just imagine what it sounds like when you switch from a factory program sound on a keyboard/workstation to a midi sound on a keyboard/workstation. With this kit, the features are set up so that really all you're getting is glorified midi sounds. Of course you may be able to upgrade an sample but out of the box it's way too midi-ish, but every Alesis instrument I've ever played is. There is no sequencer or loop program with this kit. One good feature is the ability to tune the sound in pitch up or down but not by very much just a little. You can't ajust ambience, reverb, attack, decay, susdecay, release, or any of that stuff. About the only thing you can do is make it louder or softer. Also, the hi-hat pedal that it comes with uses an on-off trigger which means that if you push softly or loudly the hi-hat foot sound is the same loudness. It doesn't care how hard you push it, only that you did push it. It also means that as you play the hi-hat and gradually open the foot pedal, there will be no change in sound until all of a sudden its an open hi-hat sound. So after you've finished a song and everyone is quiet and you go to push the foot pedal back down quietly to get ready for the next song, you're going to hear a loud hi-hat foot pedal sound because it doesn't matter how hard you push it. Also, the hi-hat cymbal trigger will not receive two inputs too close together. For example, if you play a flam on the hi-hat that's a really tight flam, no sounds will come out. The major problem with the cymbals in the kit is that the sound doesn't change depending on if you hit it harder or softer. The volume will be louder or softer but the sound doesn't actually change. For example, if I barely tap that crash cymbol, instead of sounding like a ride, it sounds like a big crash but really far away (it's quiet). So whatever the software is, its not designed to compensate for sound type when you play harder or softer. It's volume controlled only.

Again since Alesis is known for midi-sounding sounds the quality of sounds are so-so. There are maybe 20 sounds for each category )i.e. snare, bass, toms, cymbals). But this is very dissapointing because many of the sounds are industrial, or techno, or rap etc. There are maybe 4 sounds of each category that actually attempt to mimic a realy drumset and since you can't edit the sounds except for volume and pitch and the set doesn't change the sound when you play harder or softer you fell more like its a toy. A realistic module would probably have around 5 sounds all grouped together for just one particular voice so that as you transition from player softer to harder, it maintains the realistic sound instead of just getting louder. There is 1 hi-hat sound that's realistic, 2 ride sounds, and 3 crash sounds that are realistic.

One of the big problems with this set is the "real" drum heads and "real" looking cymbals you play on. True they are real drumheads, but they're smaller about 8" and sound like plastic when you play them unless the volume on your speakers is loud enough so you don't notice, which is pretty high. The fact that the ride and the crash cymbals are metal (sort of) does make them sound more realistic becuase you get the high frequency pitches of the stick hitting the metal that a pad wouldn't do. HOWEVER, on the hi-hat, there's just simply no way of getting around the fact that when you hit the hi-hat you will get the high hat sound through the speakers but you will also get an overbearing stick click sound from hitting the metal. The produces an effect that makes it seem lie you are playing to a click track when playing rock grooves. If all you wanted to do was play as hard and lound as you could for every note, this set would sound ok but since there's no transition between loud playing sounds to soft playing sounds, I wouldn't not recommend this set for anyone not a headbanger.

No problems so far here, and all of my other Alesis stuff is holding up well too.

No problems

This is set is like a toy piano you would give to a 3 year old and sounds like one. It's definately not worth the money becuase even though it looks cool with the metal cymbals and real drumheads you could get a much better quality product for just a little more from Roland. For quality sounds and transition go with roland V-drums. I've been playing for 10 years on both real and electronic sets. I've tried Alesis, roland, and yamaha. I also play guitar and keyboard and have played yamaha, alesis, roland, and kurzweil keyboard for 15 years.

I love the looks of this set but hate the sound quality. You should have seen the way everyone looked at me when I first started playing this set in rehearsal. They're were like what is that loud clicking noise coming from the hi-hat.

For this set to be good it needs the following.
1. 10 times the amount of sounds (don't be fooled by the voices. It may have 1000 voices but if they're all based off the same 40 sounds they're going to sound the same ( and Alesis is king of this, my alesis keyboard boasts 700 voices but it only has about 64 sounds)
2. A hi-hat pedal that is pressure sensitive so if i close it gently you barely hear a little sizzle and if I close it hard you hear a loud pop
3. A piece of foam rubber on the hi-hat so it doesn't sound like a stick click every time i hit it.
4. Parameters to adjust like attack, decay, release, susdecay, delay, ambience, etc.
5. More sensitive triggers so that if i play softly on the snare it actually outputs a sound.
6. Atleast 3 times the polyphony so when I play a quick buzz shot on the snare it actually sounds like a buzz instead of a few random strokes

Hi, I just finished a tour of Nevada casinos using my DM5 as my only drum source and I loved every second of it. The DM5 is built to tweek and it took me a few months of fooling with the parameters to get what I wanted, but like any instrument, you need to learn to play it. 60 songs a night, 6 nights a week and NO PROBLEMS. Every time I open the manual on this thing the better my sounds get. I use all 12 inputs for my mesh head and Alesis cymbal kit. I also use 3 Roland foot pedals (bass drum is daisy chained for double bass) and a Yamaha BP-80 double tube trigger. ONCE YOU LEARN how to tweek and maintain the unit it is totally reliable. For the beginer, you can be up and running in an hour and for the pro, you can creat a great kit. I use 10 different kit settings on stage and change them inbetween songs on the fly. Our band has zero dead time on stage, so I have 3 to 10 seconds to lock in my next kit setting. I could not do that if it were hard. Another thing that is important to me is being rack mounted. I have a 4 space rack with my DM5, stereo EQ, Data disk, and effects next to my hi-hat. Before you say those items should be included in the module, remeber what most guitar players show up with.

I purchased my DM5 used and it is a 1.0 software version. The 16 note polyphony could be better as it needs serious tweeking to obtain 32nd note rolls (but it can be done). For live sound, the stereo out is killer. I run stereo through the mixing board, add a little chorus and reverb at the board and adjust my outboard EQ mix to adapt to the room and BAM, killer stage ambience. I'll let someone else describe all the features. I like the easy to read disply. I do not have to interpet a bunch of blinking lights on stage. My kits are named by me and tell me what I need to know when I'm working.

The touch and feel of any drum module is half drum trigger and half the module. I built great mesh head triggers and the response from the DM5 is great. WITH TWEEKING the cross talk is minimal and the dynamic range is the best I've tried. My band does rock, disco, country and light jazz and my DM5 is good for all of it. The effects on the DM5 are all built into the sounds, I would like to have reverb built in, but adding it post is no problem if you understand the connection between EQ and reverb for live performance. I'm sure you studio guys have a different opinion of this, but I am a live stage proffessional with 40 years of drumming.

A lot of people complain about the DM5's reliability. I almost sold mine until I re-read the manual and started soving problems instead of complaining. Every instrument has issues and here are some tips for the DM5. 1) when you turn it on, rotate the selection wheel back and forth before you touch any pads or triggers. I don't know why, it is a program bug, but that solves most reliability issues. 2) do not plug straight into the wall. It is a computer and you should be using a floor model power supply strip. Get a good one that filters the electric signal. 3) the manual says it is designed to be backed up by a midi storage device. I was lucky enough to find an old Alesis DATA DISK unit on ebay. It backs up all my hours of tweeking to a floppy disk. Once, on stage, my bass drum beater came out and I unplugged the pedal to put it back in. I forgot to turn off the DM5 and reconnected it-wipng out my programming in the process. I turned on the DATA DISK and had all my kits back in 15 seconds.

I fix my own stuff so I have no opinion, however all Alesis manuals are available for free on the net.

I have owned 11 different brands of electronic drums going back to the Simmons and Tama kits from the 80's. I try out everything new set I see in the stores. The Rolands are nice but way over priced and carry a lot stuff I do not need. I am the happiest with my DM5. I am a working musician not a rich guy with a home studio. For the price of a DM5, you cannot even come close to the goodies you get with any other brand. It makes me my living and I am going to buy a new DM5 soon. This is a fine instument that needs to be learned just any fine instument. If you want instant gratification, you will never be a good musician.

it very easy to use once its set up, but it did take 2 hours to put the kit together. I got this insted of the ion- and having played both, id pay the extra hundred fot this. Id definatley recomend it.

the pre made kit are ok although i think some are a waste of space as they are guitars, etc. There is midi i hant used this yet. There are a lot of sound there, most of which i havnt used.

the sounds are all pretty realistic, althoughif you hit a pad really hard, the vibration somties sets of other pads, althogh this wont be an issue if you tighten everything up.

it hasnt fallen apart yet

never had to call

Overall this is a good buy. The only other problem iv had is that when you play without headphones, the stick on the pads make a lot of noise, but i get round this by putting rubber bands on the sticks

Very Easy to Use. Note Chase Feature Makes editing drums a snap.
The Guy after me does not know what he is talking about.
Note Chase on: Automatically selects the "Note" when you are selecting Voices (Drum sounds).
Note Chase off: It is off, it blinks... Big whipdy doo...

Works with just about any brand of triggers.
12 Trigger Inputs.
I really love the Note Chase feature when editing Drum sets.

The Sounds are Pretty good. I had to edit the Drum sets because as you know, every opinion is subjective.
I love the Piccolo Snare, so I put it in just about every Preset Drum Kit. Tweaked each set to the way I like it.
My only complaint is that I am not crazy about too many of the Tom Sounds.

So far I have had zero problems my first few months with the DM5-Kit.

Never had to call

The Drum kits take some editing to get to your taste, but that is to be expected.
Overall for a DM5-Kit that I paid under $500 for, well you can't get much better for a complete drum set.
Plus with Spare Inputs you can add extra cymbals and pads as desired.

Love it.Running V1 SOFTWARE,Clean Samples,so simple to edit and if you need to use the manual,then thats simple also!

As stated earlier,no FX but once i've converted the parts into Cubase,the Possibilities are endless.I run this in conjuntion with Other drum software so I have endless options.With 4 outputs its flexible in the studio and live.

With a bit of tweaking you'll get every style of rythem you want.

The only Part that lets it down is the power supply.It's a bit weedy and the protective sheath breaks up over time.I can't see that being a problem in a studio Rack.

I've had Quadrasynths and S4's etc and never had to repair anything and I still have them running alongside the latest gear!

I would look carefully as some retailers charge far too much for Alesis Gear.

V 1.0 Set factory presets sound sorry. Have to make your own personal selections but when unit fails, and it will, then you got to reset all your personal setting.

"Value" selection dial will not follow normal progression of items for selection. It jumps forward, backward, misses items. It is really sorry for the money you pay.

Note Chase button will blink whether you select it or not!

Most sounds are good but most is trash relating to good sound.

BEWARE! Almost every time I turn mine on it will not work right. Most of the time I have to "Reinitalize" it back to factory setting then change each set back to my selections. Not dependable for paid contract gigs or studio work. It will cost you money, time, and a lot of embarassment!

BEWARE! My unit messed up just before warranty was out, was directed to service center, paid $100 plus to be told they could find no problem. Which now that service center is not recomended. But still have the problem 2 out 5 times I turn it on and other issues starting to happen making unit worst. Have contacted the manufacture get the "Sorry for the problem" excuse with same advice to sent it to another service center.
My advice is to NOT BUY this piece of undependable junk. It will cost you more than the purchase price in the end!

If stolden the thief would bring it back to you! Because it is worthless relating to dependability and will cause additional repair cost, and headaches.
Contact me if you want the whole story.

Softwareversion 1.02

The presets are nice startingpoints, but need serious tweeking for being usefull. Editting patches is simple as could be, and the manual is crisp and clear. Reading the manual and spending 15 minutes on the machine, and it's all clear!!!

16 notes polyphony, no FX's, not expandable, no sequencer, midi in - out/thru.

This is a drummodule only, not multitimbral.

It has 12 trigger inputs, but I don't use them only the midi side of things. I use it my composerstudio in my spare bedroom LOL.

It is a drummachine, not a real drummer, but some of sounds are really good. It covers the range of popular muisic styles well, and is usefull in a midisetup in a studio like mine.

It has NO fx's at all, but is responsive to playing - and no it hasn't got aftertouch.

It would never gig with me, it stays in the studio. I heard a lot of glitches and resetting - but mine worked for hours without any problems so far.

Never dealt with them, so I would not know....

I love the sounds that it offers, and would buy it again. I'm no drummer, but program drums in Cubase SX 2.2.

I own a fully equipted studio based around a Roland VS 2480CD - a 24 track recorder. Beside that I'm a bassplayer owning several amps and basses, and then some guitars and synths. Oh what fun we had with all these toys LOL. Yhe DM-5 helps me with it good sounds to produce my drums in my recordings, and does it simple and effective.

I find it easy to use and the manual is good.

The LCD is decent. It's not large, but it's clear and gets the job done. No effects. No expansion. There's a pad on the faceplate to trigger a sound so you can preview it. No sequencer.

Never had a problem with it.

Haven't called them in years which says something. Last time I called them (circa 1998) they were polite, knowlegeable and helpful.

It's been in one of the studio racks for the past 5-8 years. It gets turned on and off with all the other equipment, it is hooked to a mixer channel and MIDI but I've never used it on a song. I have a lot of other drum sound sources and I've never had a reason to use it in a recording...although I have fiddled with it from time-to-time. It appears to be a solid selection of decent drum sounds. Perhaps I should sell it. Maybe I'll use it some day.

The software version of my DM5 is 1.0
Are there newer versions available??? I hope so!
Editing is OK and quite easy to understand, however you do need the manual to make optimal use of its capabilities. Especially the hi-hat set-up really needs manual reading first.
The manual is quite complete but more technical information as well as an cirucit diagram could be added.

I really miss possibilities for expansion and/or adding new and BETTER sounds. MIDI capabilities are OK and well documented

Well, I am a bit disappointed about the quality of the available sounds. This is no drum sound set for 2005. To much reverb!!! The tom-tom samples sound quite 'electronic' to much "boooinngggg". The different snares are OK as well as the percussion sounds. My conclusion is that it's a fine unit for delivering percussion sounds, but the drum sets are out of date.
There are no effects available, but I don't miss then. The only missing button is: "add no reverb"

Reliability seems OK apart from the programming wheel, that seems to have it's own life. It's not very accurate and sometimes changes chosen values on it's own.
I am not planning to use the module on a gig because of the bad quality of the drumsounds.

no experiences with this.

If the unit was lost, I think I would go for a DDRUM unit.

Software Version 1.0 (is there even any other versions?)
Pretty foolproof to set up. I plugged in the mesh Pintech heads I bought and went to town pretty quick. The manual has it all layed out, even all that MIDI info I've never used.

So it's got MIDI in, MIDI out. I don't do MIDI. Oh well. Stereo outs are good, have yet to use the aux outs, but that could definitely be useful if you're looking for at least some partial separation. No FX, which would be okay, except you can't edit the pre-existing ones. Changing patches is simple, and pretty much mandatory as most other reviews mention.

It's a shame there's no way to change the internal patches to your own samples, but here's thinking that expansion is a feature which would probably drive the price up significantly.

I'm going to rate this category extremely low, and the biggest reason is REVERB. It's 2004. I don't want my recordings to sound like Whitesnake. There's some great sounds lurking in there, but too many are buried beneath these insane reverbs. Sure, it makes it big and impressive sounding when you try it in a store, but other than that what can you do? The same with some of the samples. Finding good cymbals in this thing is a bit of a task.

I've been using this kit as a quiet practice alternative, and I've also been doing some home recording with it. It works great for doing a demo at 3am in an apartment complex, but I think I'd be a bit embarrased with some of the drum sounds if I had to use it professionally. The main kit I built to record with has the driest samples I can find.

To be fair, you can tweak the samples to suit your needs, at least partially. The recordings I've done with it do sound pretty good. Clean, clear recording, no fussing with mics (or landlords!) But if I'm going into a pro studio, I'm going to use the pro studios rooms and gear for fx, not a drum unit.

I have to say I would never take this thing to a gig. Having played acoustic kits for 10+ years, the feel change is just too drastic for me at this point.

Haven't had problems with it, except my scroll wheel seems to not work properly in two specific areas (at 2oclock it scrolls back one, and around 10oclock it doesn't move for 2 or 3 clicks.) But hey, it was $100, I ain't complaining!

Feh.

Overall, I would probably advise looking for something that has an option for sample upgrades, since that's the biggest problem I've had so far. Great for practicing and demos, but just doesn't have the features to really get into nit picking of a studio or live situation. If you can get it cheap, go for it. If you're dropping some serious money for it, get something better.

Reasonably easy to use- but you will need to edit EVERYTHING. Sounds, trigger sensitivities, everything.

The DM5 gets a low rating from me in this category simply because of the idiot sample banks. What were they thinking? Vast numbers of snare and bass sounds are totally stupid- like 'okay, now hit the bassdrum again while I knock over the ashtray into the microphone' useless. I'm not exaggerating. Millions of absolutely useless sounds (not even that good for techno- it's like snares etc. produced by a BAD techno musician) and very few cymbals and very few really good sounds. There's also debacles like apparently a Ludwig Black Beauty snare- set up horribly, with the snares all rattling. It's like these guys didn't understand the subtleties of drum sounds at all, so they did stuff like 'we already recorded a normal snare, so let's loosen the strainer on the Black Beauty and hit it with the end of a pool cue just to be different'.

OK, it recovers a bit on the grounds of generally having that ONE sound that'll work. I wish it had lots of 'em but if you put the work in- I'm playing a mesh-head Pintech kit and going through a soul drummer phase, and damned if I haven't got a good-feeling kit put together. I'm using the 70's snare, speed metal bass drum, 'Inside' mid and floor toms and a 'Low Jazz' tom tuned up +3 for the high tom- and it's GREAT to play those sounds in that style. I think that snare is some kind of Acrolite- it's a really quick bark that fits the genre perfectly, and is my pet 'sounds real' snare. Mind you I've spent a hell of a lot of time futzing with the triggers etc. to get that.

This is the killer- I almost would recommend not getting this unit unless you're prepared to deal with the reliability issue.
The power jack's connection to the wallwart is problematic. This is what causes the 'garbage characters in names' issue. It's a 9V AC adapter, and my feeling is that it's just way underrated and not capable of feeding the device. I haven't tried the over-voltage idea (over-wattage might be a better idea). What I did do was take apart the module and hardwire the wallwart cable to the circuit board. I had a real bad case of garbage characters- now it has yet to do even one weird thing. Except for the oversensitivity on the dial- and even then, given solid power it's not jumped wildly about. I swear the thing was designed on the verge of flaking out from low power conditions. Don't underestimate this as a potential headache. Tarnish on the power connectors will put you in a world of hurt, I've never seen an electronic device so vulnerable to flaky power connections.

wouldn't even ask them for help. They're the ones who designed it that way ;)

With the power modification, I can work with this module. I used to have a D4 that was much less flaky but its sounds weren't quite what I wanted. I'm not at all sure I'd want a DMPro if the trend towards useless sounds continued- or the trend towards overloading the power supply. I daresay with all its faults it's still the best module for my budget mesh-head e-kit: I'm not sure what you can get out of the Roland brains but I do know they want fancier pads than I have, to access all the features. The DM5 is a good module for an electronics hacker who can do things like hardwire the power cord to the board- in other words, what would be a fatal flaw for some people can be kluged around for others. Like me with the 70s snare, you might find one particular terrific sound for each part of the kit. Don't expect to find lots. And I don't think this thing is anywhere near as good at 'electronic', effected sounds as it thinks it is. 99% of its weird sounds are also crap... I made a nifty 'really weird electronic' kit and a 'industrial explosions' kit and sorta ran out of sounds after that.

The default preset kits out of the box suck badly. I can't figure out why Alesis would choose those default kits. There are plenty of good drum sounds in the unit, and it's pretty much a must to customise the preset kits. Compare to the utterly crappy sounds you get with Roland modules, I think the DM5 is streets ahead. Editing kits is easy, and the manual is easy too.

16 note polyphony has not been a problem for me. I sometimes wish there were assignable FX on board. There are no expansion capabilities either, but that's OK for the price of the unit.

The snares & hats in the Random list of patches sound *very* realistic compared to other modules. Playing 16th notes on the hats can sound very mechanical on a lot of modules, but the hats in the random set on the DM5 have a much more natural sound. The techno sounds are a little dated by today's standards, but I like the acoustic sounds. Dynamics are good.

The legendary lock-up problem. Well, from my experience, I have found that the unit will lock up if I send a GM sequence to the unit which tries to play notes that the DM5 doesn't support. My other gripe is that the data wheel on the unit is very hard to use. It tends to skip all over the place when I'm trying to make a selection.

Like many others, I've never delt with tech support. I guess that's a plus for the unit.

This unit doesn't have the versatility to be your only drum module, but it is a valuable addition to any home studio. If I were to replace this unit, I'd probably move up to the DMpro. I've been playing around 12 years, and this unit is no replacement for the real thing, but it's useful for sequencing music.

All the pre set sounds are great, and it is very easy to change sounds a to use.

All the features a fine. I really couldn't ask for any more than what I've got.
The only features I seem to be having trouble with are changing banks via a Midi footcontroller (I have a Digitech control seven) and using a hi-hat controller (Roland) both these 2 things I have had lots of trouble doing and nothing in the manual seems to explain it very well

The sounds are incredible using my acoustic drum kit with triggers through a big P.A has blown away everybody that has listerned to it

Apart from the 2 problems I listed above it has never let me down

I live in Australia so there is a lot less support here than in some other countries. In my experience anybody I've apoken to that a dealers of Alesis DM5 are either to stupid to know how they work or just don't give a fuck about helping people that need help and aren't buying at that very moment.

This unit is great value, however just because of my changing needs I would get something a little bit better with sequence functions and maybe some sort of sample functions also.

Very easy to use, a lot of good thought went into getting as much intuitiveness out of an LCD/button interface. I gave up on Roland and other stuff long ago because their UI blows. Alesis did a fine job.

I'm a drummer and have no need for an electronic beatbox. A friend of mine has the D4 and I really liked the authenticity of the acoustic sounds. I don't always judge an instrument on its sounds, I like to dig in and tweak to my liking, and if the road is bumpy then it loses points. It was easy to tweak the sounds on the DM5.

The manual is great and explains the box really well. It's nice to see a manual written for real drummers and beatbox fanatics alike.

Really good variability with the sounds; you can adjust pitch, volume, panning, and output assignment.

The REALLY cool feature is "note follow"; if you're in any menu, just play the pad (or key) and the note changes, it's like context-sensitive menus. Then momentarily switch note follow OFF while you're adjusting the parameter so that mistriggered pads don't change the menu on you. Very cool.

The other nice bit is that the buttons and wheels can be manipulated with your sticks, not just your fingers. I keep my DM5 in a rack at arm's length and this is handy.

It has twelve trigger inputs for pad or mic sources and the flexibility is the best I've seen, you can really dial in the parameters so that you can minimize mistriggers. Anybody who still uses Simmons or rubber based/piezo pad triggers will appreciate this feature. My friend triggered his D4 using mics on his live kit. Worked great!

No effects; don't miss 'em, I use my own. That's why they give you two stereo output pairs, DUH! I use the main pair as stereo and the aux outputs as independent sends to my effects. Cymbals get lost in reverb, so I prefer 'em dry. If I want to process the latin percussion or toms, then I can route 'em out separate outputs.

I never have problems with the polyphony. 16 voices is enough. I don't hear cymbals cutting out when I play. Also there are *GROUPS* that you can assign sounds to, IE I group all the hihat sounds so that they always use one voice, because 1) a real drummer only uses one hihat and 2) the hihat sounds much more realistic this way. Most everything else is multi group, yet I still don't hear sounds cutting off.

I don't miss the effects or an on-board sequencer - I want to pay good money for the sounds, not for the kitchen sink. Actually I'm *glad* that the sequencer *isn't* included in keyboards and modules more, because that's a waste of my money when a desktop computer does a better job.

I do wish it had memory for more kits (only 20) but that's easily solved with MIDI dumps.

I bought this box for acoustic kits, not for beatboxes. I've found that the hardest thing to get sounding right are the hihats and cymbals. Lots of modules cutoff the previous voice when you repeatedly hit the same note and this sounds so fake on crash cymbals. Not true with this box. You can set up a note so that it triggers a new voice for every new trigger or reuses the same voice. Since I was going for authenticity, this feature meant a lot for me.

Another bonus is that some of the snares, kick, toms, and cymbals have dynamic timbre, IE the timbre changes depending on how hard or soft you hit it. Very cool for snares.

These sounds are very useable for any music that uses a real kit. It's a little short in the orchestral sounds (wish it had stuff like hand cymbals, suspended cymbals with mallets, or gongs). I'm no judge on the electronic beatbox sounds at all. All I can say is that having seen the tweakability of stuff like the 808 or 909 beatboxes, you're better off with the real thing because the DM5 isn't as tweakable as those.

Mine has never crashed. I've read a lot of comments about units locking up and I have to stress that noisy AC or a bad wallwart will cause these problems. I never liked wallwarts, they break too easily (I power my DM5 with a Juice Goose 12-paq). Also noisy AC out of that plug in the wall will send any computer to neverneverland, folks. Same is true for any power strips. I've opened up power strips and have found subpar quality, and I know my house wiring because I studied it in college (I'm an EE). Also if you have large appliances sharing the circuit (refridgerators, ACs, washer, dryer, etc) these things will cause the AC level to drop when they kick in, and ooops there goes the computer.

Don't always blame Alesis, Roland, or any company for the crashing problems.

Haven't needed them since I bought it five years ago.

I have a electronic drum kit with a hodgepodge of various pads and triggers. I use an Acupad for the snare, it uses a real drumhead plus there's a rim trigger for rimshots or sidesticks. The toms and kick are Simmons and will be replaced with Acupads, and I have a Roland pad in the shape of a triangle with four triggers; the rubber pad and three edge triggers. The Roland pad is my ride cymbal (pad), bell ride (left edge), crash cymbal (top edge), and cowbell/percussion (right edge). I rigged a DW kick trigger pedal for my hihat, I put in a couple of microswitches under the pedal that close when I push the pedal all the way down. The 2nd switch is for the mid-closed hat when I let up just a little bit. These switches simply route the Simmons pad to any of three outputs; closed, mid, and open hihat. The kick pad triggers a foot closed hat. It's all set up like a traditional kit and it works great.

I was using a Kurzweil 1000PX for a while and got tired of the sounds, it wasn't very flexible and the sounds weren't that good. The DM5 gave me an incredible realism to the sound that I haven't found anywhere else. The sounds are nice, warm, crisp, and it fits into any style of music I play. I write a lot of songs and the Alesis sounds so natural and it fits in the mix very well.

Very easy to see what going on with all midi events. Editing nice and
straight forward.

Works well for progressive rock\folk\composition. As said, no reverb. For this I use the Fostex DE-1 which has a nice plate reverb and an LA Audio compressor. Needs working on but the results can be excellent.

Very dependable. I've also not seen this locking up problem but personally know someone that has so may have been a bad batch.

Would buy another if lost as my material has been written using it. Alesis gear always has a quality feel to it.

the present sounds are more aimed at preeqed and electronic sounding then real drums. I own the Alesis D4 & Roland TD10 for drum modules besides my D5. I use the D5 for my main sets because i seek the rather electronic sampled sound.

If you are seeking real sounding drums from an electronic unit then get the roland TD10 sound mod.

I would say it is real drums preeqed and effected. If you ever owned a alesis D4, it is setup just like that unit. the only thing i noticed as the value nob was really too sensitive in changing sounds or values. but that is me being nit picky.

The polyphony is 16 voice. you can pan your sounds 7 degrees either direction left or right. midi controllable. has 127 degrees of midi volume control. 21 memory locations. The nice part there is a ROM chip with all the original sounds stored so you can restore them should you want to resell it with origianl sounds and still have the factory built sounds. midi in out and thru. 18 bit sounds.540 sounds into a single rack space, many recorded in true stereo and with ambient effects.

the sounds are not 'real' drum sounds as much as already eq'd and effected drum samples. some so effected they are not worth it. such as a bassdrum that is sampled with a guitar so when you play the bassdrum you are stuck with a limited note bassdrum. dynamically if you are looking for drumset to play on stage, i would suggest the roland TD10 sets because the dynamics are real. this is electronic still.

there are no onboard effects to the unit except for already sampled drums in effects.

it does react in dynamics to your playing for some sounds can be triggered with new sounds at velocities.

with drums . . .no need for aftertouch.

i have never taken this unit on a gig set but i use it in the studio as my main drum mod. it has never locked up on me unlike its bigger brother dm5pro. it can handle the midi inputs well. just like any other instrument once it hits the top polyphony it cuts off the sounds triggered later. 16 note poly (wish for 32 but little minor)

N/A

if i were to loose this instrument i would have to replace it!! and yes i would.

i have been recording sequenced industrial music for 9 years.

(scale 1 to 10 next to instrument) i own the roland d70(8), jd8000(4), td10 w/prokit(10), jv2080 w expan techno(9), alesis d4(7), d5(7), nanoverbs(9), midiverb(7), adats(1), korg o1rw(10), oberhiem m1000(8), mackie hdr24/96(10), 8bus(10), 1604lvzpro(10), 1604(10), line6 pod(10), epiphone nighthawk guitar(3), digitech tsr24 fx processor(-1).

The Dm5 is extremely easy to use, i had never used a drum modual before and it was very easy to understand , anything that was questionable the manual explained.

The Dm5 has in my opinion , lots of cool sounds to use . Alot of them sound very real , and some very fake ,(Depending on what your going for I think you'll find it ) The only problem I have with the features is the lack of any effects at all . The Dm5 has drums and effects with reverb and flanger but there is no way to edit the effects on them , this is why I asume they have the Dm Pro .

Like I said before the sounds on the dm5 are really good , for dance type music they have the 808 and 909's and there is alot of really good sounds , but are far as the preset kits , theyre all pretty bad in my opinion . The dm5 holds 21 kits , and 12 trigger inputs so that is alot of sounds , but the kit presets have alot to be desired. The last thing is that the cymbals dont sound very good at all , i didnt really care for any of them , The Yamaha DTX (I think that's it) have very real , nice sounding cymbals in that modual though.

So far I have only used this live a few times , i had no problems at all , backing it up would probably be a good idea , but for now it works fine .

I think for someone who is beginning to trigger there set or adding electronic pads , or even doing studio work , it is a good investment . I just would of like to atleast been able to change the reverb setting but over all I'd buy it again definatetly.

Software version 1.00

I just want to comment on this one factor, as it seems there is a wide range of opinions. My unit is totally solid, and has not locked up at all in normal use. This is a recently made unit so it may have had some bug fixes, even though the software revision says 1.00 However, those that do have random troubles might suspect the power supply. Inside the DM5 the power supply filter caps are, in my opinion too small and leave it susceptable to line glitches. I have found that a AC line glitch will cause the DM5 to reset easily than my other gear. A possible way around this is to change the wall wart to a slightly higher voltage, like 10% or so. This might provide more headroom for line fluctuations.

very easy to use you have to be dumb not to understand the manual

it has no built in effects and no expantion capabilities
but its easy to use

it has some bad ass sounds you can use all the kits for any type of music some of the sounds sound the same but most drum modules have that

i dont do gigs but i use it for my studio
so far i can depend on it

never dealt with them

i would buy it again i use it for hip hop music and its got the 808 and the 909 im using it on most of my album i like this unit better than the d4

The DM5 is extrememly easy to use. After working with a Roland TDK7 for over a year, it was great to get the DM5. I only use it for percussion effects and ethnic instruments as I have incorporated the unit with my acoustic kit.

This is the second DM5 that I have purchased. Initially, I bought the unit in an attempt to build an electronic drum kit to replace my acoustic kit. Very dumb thing to do...I ultimately returned the unit as it constantly locked up when playing fast fills or crescendos on multiple pads. I was very disappointed and ultimately bought a Roland TDK7 kit. It was great, but still not adequate to replace my acoustic kit. The second time around, I bought to unit just as an add-on to my acoustic kit and in this arena, it has responded wonderfully. Since there are no effects, I have added a Yamaha reverb unit to make the sounds a little more realistic. Mixed with my acoustic drums, no one else in the band can tell that my timbales, cross sticks, cowbells, and tambourine are electronic. Audience and other musicians constantly ask about the DM5 and comment on how "real" the percussion sounds from are.

Electronic drums and cymbals do not have the dynamic range, nuance capability, or expressiveness necessary to play all styles of music. The DM5 as well as any other electronic drum kit seems to lend itself almost exclusively to contemporary rock or dance music. I have tried everything electronic drum module produced since the early 80's and one just has to get used to the fact that an electronic drum set is a different instrument from an acoustic kit. Just as with guitars, one must use the right tool for the job. I would probably never use any of the so-called real drum sounds in this unit or any other. Give me my Fibes, my Sennheisers, and my Sabians any day; however, the percussion and ethnic instrument choices are very good to great. I have saved a small fortune in outboard percussion as well as not having to carry two-hundred additional instruments besides my kit. With just three ACUPADs, one dual zone and two single zones, I can use the DM5 with my acoustic kit to get the sounds necessary for almost any style, quickly and efficiently.

As I said earlier, the DM5 does not do everything perfectly; however, it performs great for the particular applications that I am currently using the unit for. I am using it on the gig without a backup, but it is not the center of my universer and I can get through most gigs without it.

I have never had to deal with the company. I always buy electronics from retailers that have a liberal return (refund) policy in order to make sure that I don't have to box up an item and ship to "God knows where".

I would definitely buy one to replace this one if lost or stolen.
Additionally, I use the DM5 patched to a Yamaha REV100 reverb, off to a Mackie, then to my QSC USA 900 amp, and finally to my JBL MR905 monitor. This particular combination sounds great. As far as general likes and dislikes, I particularly like the ease of editing and set up, and the cost is very reasonable. The sounds that I use are extremely musical and blend very nicely with my acoustic kit.

sounds are great for it's time. a breaze to use and workes equaly good with mesh pads, acoustic triggers and homeade practice pad ones too!! no auto-train for beginners either.

polyphony SUCKS! i get cutoffs all the time even with high decay rates and the PRESETS! that seems really cheep to me. (good thing i've got a nice e-mu sampler to controll with it:) i also wish you could send different notes/triggers do different MIDI channels instead of the way it's got a global MIDI channel. NO HI-HAT NUANCE, how un-pro!

feel of all types of pads is great. sounds are decent but not too real. good hip-hop/dance type stuff. again, POLYPHONY SUCKS, OK trigger to MIDI converter though.

actually it has crashed on me a few times, did Microsuck help Alesis with the software? only when editing parameters though. if i don't touch it after it's set it's cool.

still havn't found out how to see the OS version.

wish i had an overpriced TD-10 instead, but still pretty happy.

It's very easy to use, you just play the drum you'd like to change
and the unit focuses on that particular note. I borrowed this thing
for a weekend to record some midi drums, imitating a real kit.
I would've liked it to be possible to build a kit just containing the drums actually used. It's hard to remember the notes when you are
trying out different sounds while playing the song. The presets are
really worthless. None of them are usable. Who's decided a jazz kit is
supposed to sound lifeless? The presets seem to be designed for demo
purposes. I don't like that the sounds and presets
are similiar to General Midi. The reason I want a drum module is to
get something more professional than my sound canvas. The drums are
set to really strange volumes, I mean, the drum maps in cubase has
already taken care of volume balances so you have to reset the volumes for all the voices you use.

I like the note chase feature as I mentioned. It makes it easy to
edit the patches. There are two aux outputs, thats nice for effects,
compression or emulating a real drum mix on the console. I guess
the dmpro is even better at that. I would've liked more panning steps,
at -2 the cymbal is almost fully panned left.
The preview button is nice, it's made of rubber like a drum pad,
but the velocity is too low, you have to hit it real hard to hear
something.

I got this thing to try to emulate Carter Beauford's kit, a Yamaha
Recording Custom. That means I had absolutely no use for those analog
sounds. At first I thought sounded bad but it's because the sounds
has some personality, they don't sound clinical, like many cheaper
modules. It often sounds very alive.
There's all the kick drums you need, plenty of snares and
lots of toms. Most of the voices sound realistic but I'm still dissapointed in Alesis. Their modules are supposed to be high-end.
Is the people who sample the drum kit musicians or technicians?
I can't really complain about the snares or the kick drums, but why
are all tom combinations completely different? The first cathegory, called hero, has four pitches, the next has only three, of which the two lowest sound almost the same. I needed six toms, so I had to
put them togeather from various tom cathegories.
The hi-hats sound okay for a start, there are many variations, closed,
half-closed, open. That's good. The open hats don't sound natural if
you play like a 8th beat. A closed hat in a cathegory might sound good
while the open is not usable. Then we get to the cymbals. There are 96
kick drums, more than a hundred snares but only sixteen cymbals!?
I would've excepted a lot of differently pitched crashes, splashes, chinas, even stacked china configurations. Theres two really nice
sounding ride cymbals with accompanying bells. Then there's a dark
crash and a thin crash. Then theres exactly the same cymbals sampled in stereo. Why?!?!?! A kit is most often recorded with two overhead
mics, why bother using two mics for a single cymbal? Then there's
the same cymbals with flanger added. If I needed flanger, I'd add
that with external fx. Fx cymbals are just a waste of sample space.
The only splash sounds really good. The chinas sound similiar to
each other, they don't sound really natural, not metallic at all.
There isn't any internal effects, but many of the samples include
reverb or even flanger! I really would've liked all the samples to
be dry, or at least to reverb could've been optional.
Finally, why do they give their presets and voices such wierd names?
Why can't they just give the sample the same name as the drum they're
sampling, for example 14" Crash.
Apart from that, it sounds really alive compared to multitimbral modules. I just thought it would be more professional.

I only used it for a weekend so I can't really tell. It seemed to
be well built, I don't think I'd need a backup since I would have
it installed in a rack and run it from a lap-top.

They sell t-shirts, such stuff should be given away!!!!! :)

No I wouldn't buy it again, in fact I wouldn't buy it at all, since I
have not yet bought it :) I use a sound canvas 55 and the dm5 is
superior to it. I'm happy with the recordings I made with it, it's just too limited for further use. I'll be getting drum mics instead since I can play all the drum stuff myself and I want live drum sound. I chose the alesis module because I thought it would be professional, something different from those general midi sounds i'd been using. I was wrong. I had expected dry samples too. I can't really decide who would buy this module. Home studio users don't really need 96 kick drums and a professional studio most definetly needs more than 16 cymbals.

Plug it in, turn it on. Huzzah! The manual is preeeety. Setting up the triggers was equally easy... The default settings actually wound up being the best in most cases, though tweaking the response curves is by no means a chore.

I think the other reviews summed up the features -- I havn't run out of polyphony, it can't accept new sounds, no effects, etc. Someone complained about the lack of ability to pan, etc -- but it DOES have a set of aux outs... So you can always pan by hand. Someone also whined about multitimbrality... You can make (nee, you really MUST make) your own drum kits. Which means you can assign any sample to any note. Generally most people arn't gonna be using more than sixty odd drum timbres in any given song, right? So just assign your alternate thumpy-thumpies to a different octave instead of a different channel. No biggie. And quite frankly I'm glad it doesn't have one of those crummy built in reverbs in it -- I'd just wind up turning it off anywho.

The triggers, of course, send out MIDI note / velocity info as well. This alone makes the box worth it.

I built trigger pads for it, and was really *quite* pleasantly suprised with how well they worked. Radio Shack piezos, a couple Remo practice pads for snare, two toms and hat, and 99c mouse pads for the rest. The practice pads work the best, of course. Absolutely NO false triggering or crosstalk -- even on fast snare rolls with viscious dynamics. V-Drums it ain't, but it was like $200 for the whole setup. Pretty keen!

I'm a real-drums purist. So I'm gonna be pretty touchy. And I think it sounds DAMN good, all things considered. Other reviewers bitched about the hats and cymbals, but I certainly can't. They sound far better than your average unit / sample CD, and considering the price, that's really all you can ask for. Sure, they don't sound real but the only way you could even begin to approach realism (and still fail, I might add) would be taking a couple dozen multisamples with full decay. And that's an unacceptable squandering of memory. So just rock out and smile, people.

Admittely, the main reason I got it was for the trigger ins. But I opted for this instead of a D4 'cos folks said it had the spiffy collection of electronic/industrial/techno drums. They lie! They lie! I mean sure, there's some thuds, bzzts, tchssts, and zwips, but people doing technoid music are gonna want a little more aural variation than the single 808 kick they provide, you know?

Seriously gang, if you're looking to do electromayheym and don't need the triggers, a shoddy ancient sampler would getcha better milage for the same price. I bought it for an industrial project, and it works pretty well for that. But you if you ran a woodchuck through enough distortion and effects it'd work well for industrial, so hey.

If you're looking for that real drum sound, I'd suggest making friends with people who play drums. They're really not that bad once you get to know them!

But like I said: overall, the sounds are quite good.

In the six months or so that I've had it the preview button has become somewhat tempremental, and the LCD flickers. It has yet to give me any REAL trouble, but I cast it furtive glances out of the corner of my eye... while whispering it sweet nothings in vain attempts to satiate its cranky disposition.

I fear it. Fearing your gear ain't good. It's like a car that makes strange noises, but runs fine and the mechanics all say it's fine.

I needed a power supply (wall wart! evil!). The manual doesn't give the power specs, so I sent them a few emails trying to find out how many mA it ran at. No response to any of them. I finally called them and they answered all my questions right off the bat. After not getting around to building a transformer myself (they used nonstandard parts), I wound up ordering one from Alesis... which cost $30! $30 for a wall wart! Aiee! (My email asking to buy a wall wart, however, was answered immediately... go figure, eh?)

For the price I paid, it was certainly worth it simply for entertainment value. I'm mostly a keys and gtr kinda guy -- I don't have a full acoustic drumset, so just being able to go hog wild, whack stuff and have sounds come out is it worth it. I've never wound up using it for a production track, but that has less to do with the unit itself and more to do with my method.

For the price, it's unbeatable.

The alesis DM5 is easy to use. I found it very user friendly straight out of the box.I was up and running in a few short moments

The Alesis DM5 is very limited when you talk about features. although if you are looking for a steady workhorse this is a great module

The Alesis DM5 has very good drum sounds and certain effects. but, when it comes to cymbals that is a completly different story. The cymbals sound like very inexpensive entry level cymbals. Look! Lets face it, if a drummer is going to spend that kind of money on a module they are going to expect to have good all around sounds.

The Alesis DM5 is dependable although, I did have to reinitialize it 4 or 5 times in the few short weeks that I owned it. It would play fine for a good hour but then it would start double triggering really bad. to get it to stop you would have to reinitialize it. Which is really tragic when you lose all of the custom settings that you spent your very valuable time entering.

I did not deal with the co. I felt that if I was going to get the best out of my electronic set I was going to have to get a More professinal module

The Alesis DM5 is a good all around module for the drummer that needs a module to do simple things(and I stress simple) If a drummer is ever going to do any advanced projects with his module My opinion is to go ahead bite the bullet and put in the extra cash to get a professional module. And if you cant afford it now, save until you can. It is better to spend more now than to lose your initial investment later when you get frustrated and trade the DM5 in and lose money. AND YOU WILL!!!

Very easy to use. A trained monkey could use it.

16 voice polyphony I think. I use this in combination with 3 other drum machines, and I never run out of notes, ever. This box has basically no features: No effects, no editing of the synth parameters other than pan, pitch and volume.

The unit sounds plasticky and fake to me. That's not always a bad thing though, because I do industrial/electronica MIDI stuff. I process the F out of the output with an SE-70, and bury it in the mix. I definitely do NOT recommended the DM5 for acoustic rock use.

My first 3 were defective (patch corruptions, frequent lockups). Alesis support eventually figure out the problem, and sent me one that works. The new unit is rock solid.

Very professional tech support, not dorks asking if it's plugged in and turned on.

I'm happy having this as drum box number 3. I don't base tracks around it too often, but I do use it in some way on almost every song. I like it enough that I got the DMpro too, which is 3 times as good, at twice the cost. You decide which is right for you.

NOTE: I do electronica/industrial/dance. My rating is for this genre only. I would not recommend this for use in acoustic rock or any kind of acoustic setup.

Couldn't be easier, This is one of the easiest to use drum modules on the plannet. Far easier to use than the DM Pro, maybe too easy :-)

When hooked up to pads this module has excellent response. It picks up the lightest taps on my pad and responds to heavy hits as well, this module is very velocity sensitive. I have a Roland PD-5 hooked up to mine and I use it for the snare drum in a midi set up, I only have one pad though. It would be nice to have a full set to try out.

I've been using this module for a couple years in my midi rack and it is well suited for midi percussion tracks. It's got plenty of nice sounds that fit many types of music. (techno, rap, rock) The timing is very crisp and accurate compared to some of my other slower gear (Oberheim Matrix 1000, Roland Alpha Juno) Another nice bonus is that all the kits are laid out for general midi percussion, it takes a lot of guess work out of finding the right sound for the right job.

The only real complaints I have are that this module is not multi-timbral. I would like to have a few channels of drum channels please (Alesis are you listening?) Also it would be nice to be able to PAN the drums in realtime via midi, ANY sampler can do this why can't this module do it ugh! I get around this problem by using another module for high hats that can pan. (Emu Vintage Keys) Another way to get around this is to set the pan of the cymbles to be in different places in the mix.

Another complaint is the limited polyphony, when I start getting wild with the drums I start hearing sounds cut out. I think the DM Pro probabbly fixes this problem.

The sounds are where this module shines, when I first played one at my local music store I knew immediately that I had to have it. It's got a ton of kicks and snares that are all nice and crispy. Sometimes a little too crispy, but there are some nice PHAT analog sounding kick drums in there. The standards are all met, TR-808, TR-909, rock drums, pop drums, everythings there, world drums.

Some of the world instruments are very expressive and respond to velocity well. The high hats and cymbles are fairly expressive, but still don't come close to playing a real cymble.

It responds to midi velocity well and doesn't respond to aftertouch at all, (Why would it need to? Drums are too short to jam on with aftertouch.)

The sounds can be set to respond to the pitch wheel.

I would like to be able to assign a sound to a controller so I can pan it individually in the mix. It would also be nice to be able to have some sounds respond to pitch while others don't. I think I had it doing that before but I can't seem to figure out how to reproduce that.

This module lacks an effects unit but has 4 outputs that are easily plugged into an fx unit. The DM Pro has an FX unit.

The 18 bit converters on this unit make it very crisp and nice sounding, for sound I give it a 10, for expresiveness I give it a 7. Overall I would give it an 8 for this category.

One thing I just recently learned is that the DM5 allows one parameter to be controlled with a midi controller in realtime. Midi Controller 6 can control the data entry knob just like from the front panel. Hence, I CAN PAN THE SOUND NOW!! The midi CTRL must be set to on from the midi page.

The controller #6 is also very useful with note chase enabled. I can switch sounds and change parameters without being next to the module, niiiicee...

For these added bonuses I will pump up my rating to a 9. It still would be nice to have a permanent parameter to control things with though.

I've been using this for a couple years now with no problems what-so-ever. This unit is solid as a rock.

I haven't dealt with Alesis but when I email them they respond so I would give them a plus in that department, I don't feel I can rate them for customer support though, because I've never had to deal with them. I would give them a 10 because I haven't had to deal with them, but I will refrain because I haven't.

This little beasty is highly rated in my opinion. Many of the sounds are very effects-unit-friendly. This unit fits techno related music well, it's also nice for other non techno types, like pop for instance. The tom sounds on this unit sound almost exactly like a Phil Collins set. So this would fit 80's retro well. The Heavy metal types will love the drums on this machine as well. Rappers will love the 808 and 909 samples although there could have been a lot more of them, I would recommend the DM Pro.

Overall this unit is very nice and can be had for cheap. It is the cream of the crop for midi enthusiasts. The sounds are better than an Emu Procussion but it lacks many of the features the Procussion has, (sound layering, panning, multi-timbral)

For this quality at this price there is not much comparason I give the DM 5 a 9.

Super easy to use, as easy as any other drum brain I've used (Roland TD-5, Yamaha DTX). But I haven't done anything complex or changed any settings on it. It has an LCD panel tho, which like the DTX makes things easier than on the TD-5.

The one bad thing that I think is important for potential buyers to know, is the HighHat cannot make all those inbetween sounds from open to closed. This is a BIG flaw to me in this day and age of electronic stuff, especially considering it's price of around $350 new. NOTE: the Roland TD-5, TD-7, and Yamaha DTX all are capable of highhat inbetween sounds. A good feature it has is a lot of inputs on the back.

Sound quality is good, but some sounds do seem to rely on effects (flanging, etc.) to sound good. Note that I like all 3 brains (DM5, TD-5, DTX), but the DTX does the best job of sounding like true acoustic drums recorded in a studio. On that the DTX is amazing. The DM5 and TD-5 shine on having powerful sounds that are cool for hard rock and techno/dance stuff. I do think the TD-5 outdoes the DM5 on useable sounds tho.

Here is one area where I think the DM5 outshines the TD-5; it's built like a tank and has rubberish buttons instead of brittle plastic. I've rented this thing several times and the units have always worked fine, --and you know how rental stuff gets (mis)treated.

Overal it's a good box but is too expensive new at $350ish, and also sell for too much used, usually in the $300 range. Also since it's been around so long and they have the new DMPro I think the price oughtta go lower. The TD-5's sell for surprisingly low used (I got one for $200). These two are good competitors but I would give the nod to the TD-5 for a few reasons.

Too Simple. Manual is easy to figure out. Up and running in five minutes.

Read the other reviews below.

Sounds terrific! I recently bought a Drum and Bass card for my Roland JV-2080 and the drum sounds on the DM5 are way better. Wish it had a decent selection of jazz brushes.

This is why I responded. I bought this used in absolutely mint condition. The very first time I used it, it locked up. But, it has not locked up on me since then. I was pushing buttons like crazy the first time, so it must have been a certain combination of buttons that did it.

N/A

I think even at the going street price of $300 this is a great value, like all Alesis products. I'd like to thank Reagan for the great deal! If nothing else came along at a good price, I'd buy it again. Be even nicer if it had and you could assign effects to individual drum sounds.

The DM5 is remarkably easy to use right out of the hat. I didn't even look at the manual until I had fiddled with it for a while. Editing patches and tuning drums was a breeze. The sounds are really terrific!

It has 16-note polyphony which has, so far, been quite enough. There are no onboard effects, which is kind of a bummer, but I routed them through a Nanoverb and the drum samples COME ALIVE! It is too bad this unit is not expandable--there are no slots or ports at all, but I guess there's always the DMPro.

There is a drum sound for just about everyone. I especially liked the "Heavy Metal" patches. I use those quite frequently, even for non-HM music. It is also quite expressive--even with a "hot" controller with unweighted keys.

I have heard many complain about it locking up but I have yet to experience this phenomenon (which is a good thing). I have used it live on several occasions with no problems. As far as I can see, it is very reliable. Now, of course, it will go ballistic and leave me hanging tomorrow, but that's a Murphyism, not an Alesisism.

I haven't dealt with them, hope never to as well!

The DM5 is a great drum module. The horror stories I hear from other people regarding its reliability leaves me cold, but I haven't had any problems yet. The lack of onboard effects is a big minus to me. You NEED an external reverb unit to make the drum samples passable. There are definitely plenty of drumsounds to keep you occupied for the next 100 years or so. I would highly recommend it.

I'm using whatever software version comes in this box. There's no real editing of the drum sounds other than a 7-cent deviance in pitch. I drive this module from an SR-16 drum machine. I've glanced thru the manual and it's not bad.

This unit has 16-note polyphony, which doesn't seem adequate for me. If it had 20 note polyphony, it would probably be just fine. It has no built-in effects. Any sort of reverb effects are sampled in with the drum sounds, which I would rather not have them do. But then again, for someone without a reverb box to dedicate to the drum module, I guess this would be an okay thing. The trigger inputs work great. I built a set of drum pads out of piezo transducers filled with epoxy, and it took NO effort to get them working. Pretty cool.

There's a good variety of sounds in this box. It doesn't do Neil Peart's snare sound off of the Moving Pictures album, though, so I can't give it a 10. The toms are great, most of the kicks are great, about half of the snares are great. The SR-16 I drive it with only remembers 8 levels of velocity, but that seems to be enough to get good, expressive drum parts. The best part of the sounds of this unit is the way they respond so well to dynamics. I use it for everything from metal to jazz, and it works well.

Here's the rub. This thing is a TOTAL PIECE OF JUNK when it comes to reliability and build quality. I have had the unit for 8 months. I bought it new at the store, took it directly to my house, plugged it in, and started using it. No gigging, no hard use, no nothin'. The unit locks up frequently, forcing me to have to shut it off, wait a few minutes, start it back up, and go back to work. The more MIDI message traffic I feed into it, the worse the problem becomes. There's ovbiously a software bug in this thing. You can create a drum kit, name it, and save it, and the next time you turn the unit on (or even scroll to the newly-created drum set), the name changes to include a bunch of garbage characters. The data wheel on the front of the unit feels as though it's going to drop off in your hand any second. I contacted Alesis about the locking-up problem, and was told, "Uh, try reinitializing it." Well, no kidding, Sherlock. I did that a bunch of times. Too bad this thing is such a piece of crap, because it really sounds great.

I mentioned how they dealt with me above. They weren't extremely helpful, but not actively rude, either.

I wouldn't buy this unit again. I will only be buying Roland sound modules from now on.

OK I just have to get this off my chest. I bought this thing new in March, and when I brought it home, the menus didn't work. I sent it back to alesis within 5 days of purchase, I got it back today (5/11)
IF ALESIS THINKS THAT ALMOST 9 WEEKS IS ACCEPTABLE TO WAIT FOR A WARRANTY REPAIR, THEY'RE NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-10... see above /\

sounds great, horrible service

The presets of this module are very good...The DM5 is VERY easy to use...probably the most user friendly bit of gear i've ever encountered! Editing patches is a snap...a matter of pressing like 2 buttons! It's SOOOO easy to use, and the manual is well written in a very easy to understand manner!!

no seq...this is strictly a drum module...

Some of the drum sounds are excellent (i love the techno and hip-hop kits)...this module has got something for just about any type of music. There aren's as many

I'm not too sure about this...it's frozen on me quite a few times...not too sure how safe i'd feel using it live!!

I called Alesis about the freezing glitch mentioned above, and the technician told me the DM5's adaptor must have it's own outlet...it can't be plugged in a power bar, and that's why it kept freezing...i thought it sounded pretty crazy, but , it has only froze once since... he didn't seem very friendly, though...

I'm not sure if i would buy the DM5 again...it's gone down in price now, so maybe i still would...not for what i originally paid for it tho. Like i said, it's VERY easy to use, and the sounds are EXCELLENT... just wish there were more hi-hats and cymbals, and i wish i could feel confident enough to know it wouldn't freeze live...