Alesis DM5

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.