Alesis DMPro

Pretty easy to use. I like how you can easily and quickly you can change a drum with a kit. However I've never been too keen on scrolling through page ... by page ... by page ... by page .... to get to the parameter you want. In addition, it takes a few seconds to load a kit - and to do so you have to turn the wheel and then press the kit button. It should be easier and faster than this. In other words, don't plan on changing kits within a song.

Very impressive feature list - which is the thing that probably attracted most users. I'm not going to explain them all - you can go to Alesis' web page for more info. The only thing that I wish it had was a digital out, otherwise I would give it a 10.

Alrighty ... here's my gripe. Alesis? Have you ever heard a real drum before? There's more to a drum hit than simply mapping a sample and applying a low pass filter to velocity. Drums change timbre, pitch etc when you hit them. No hit sounds the same. I'm quite surprised that they could take so long to produce this unit and they could oversee this. I'm thinking that (after playing around with a friend's QS 6.1 as well) that Alesis is too lazy to put the effort into layering their patches and actually making them sound realistic (like the real thing). They're main concern is features and marketing hype it seems.
I brought this to their attention and they said "well, if you don't like the default patches, you could make your own". Okay, for the price, something so simple as layering the waveforms should be done by YOU! I dont' want to spend my valuable time doing your job Alesis - smarten up. Besides, particularly in the case of the snare for example, the waveforms on this machine are so timbrally (for lack of a better term) different that it would be extremely difficult to do so. Ideally, a drum should be composed of multiple samples from the same drum and hit in different spots with different levels of hardness. Duh! It's almost like Alesis said to themselves: "hey, lets just load as many drums samples as we can cram into 16MB and worry about it later". No thought whatsoever.
Despite this, I must admit that the unit is very crisp sounding thanks to the linear waveforms and high sample rate. For sound quality I would give it a 10 but because of the LACK of expressiveness I have to give it a 5. Most of the WAVEFORMS are great - cymbals, SFX (shakers etc), toms are are a joke though.

Customer support is pretty good and prompt. However, don't ask their opinion on anything because they're not very objective. They would never admit that their products have a shortcoming. They would say: "yeah, but our units can do this this and this" and "but our units have sold more units in Japan than any other module" and "we got a pretty good review in blah blah magazine". Give me a break. BTW, be careful of magazine reviews because they never have to pay for their units and probably only use them for a short period of time (and who knows what kind of dealings are going on behind the scenes).

All in all I was pretty disappointed. I waited forever for this unit to come out. For what it would take to correct Alesis' shortcoming I might as well buy an Akai MPC (drum sampler and sequencer) or something. If you don't care about adding your own samples then do yourself a favour and check out a Roland TD-7,8, or 10 and hear what a real drum module is supposed to sound like. Trust me.

DMPro v1.01 ... Trg v1.01 ... The manual is very complete and straight forward about editing the drum kits, drums and effects, assigning triggers, MIDI setup, and how to use the expansion slot. But I am a DM5 owner, so I'm biased because the menus are pretty much the same except with more options.
I am giving it an 8 because the FX sends for each drum in a kit (64 in all) must be edited separately. I really wish they would have provided a "change all FX sends levels to..." just in case you want to give the entire kit the same reverb or something.
Also, the data wheel skips as bad as the one on the DM5. The Behringer DSP1000 I bought recently has the same problem with its data wheel. They probably buy them from the same labor camp in China.

64 note polyphony, definitely a must for my patterns. It was either this or another DM5, and I'm glad I waited for the DM Pro to FINALLY ship. (They announced it was due out 9/98!)
The effects are great for the price, not a Lexicon style reverb--but then who would pay $3000 for a drum module? The effects consist of two busses: reverb and over drive -> delay -> pitch (chorus, flanger, resonator). Their parameters are fairly comprehensive with a several routing options for each. Also, there's an overall 2-band EQ for each kit. This works fine for me, since their samples are fantastic to begin with. No inserts, of course.
One PCMCIA expansion slot that can take up to an 8MB card for additional drum sounds, kits and sequences. Here's the really cool part: from what I'm told, you can transmit wave data from your PC to the DM Pro's expansion card via MIDI! I haven't tried this yet, so I can't say for sure. But it doesn't have a serial port connection like the QSR. So either the above is true or I'm sending Alesis hate mail, because I don't want spend $$$ just to get a PCMCIA writer.
The MIDI capabilities are no better than any other synth. In fact, you can't change kits in mid-song like the DM5 because it has to LOAD the whole kit into memory. This causes about a 2 second pause, and it stops listening to MIDI, at least with my sequencer (Cakewalk Pro Audio 8). Moreover, like other geeky synth manufacturers, they didn't utilize the numerous unused controllers for effect parameters and such. It's all ugly SysX. (I'm still waiting for the new Midi Quest driver. I programmed one kit and never again want to spend 3 hours with that stupid data wheel!)
No sequencer. Just a sound module. Buy EMU if you want a high-tech drum machine.

Okay, enough of the specs. This module sounded better than I had hoped. In fact, it dazzled me. Granted, I haven't spent the last decade tinkering with the best drum modules around, but I have owned the DM5 for over a year, and the DM Pro is clearly better. The snares are punchier, the cymbals and hats cleaner. The toms, however, seem thinner. Friendly warning: Alesis did not preserve the DM5 samples or any version fo them. If you own a DM5 and have grown fond of some of the sounds, keep it.
I found the factory sets to be very good, with some tailored after popular styles (e.g. Led Zeppelin, L.A. Law). But of course, I wasn't truly happy until I built my own set. And it sounds so good that I'm looking into buying a full Pintech trigger set and learning play the drums (without upsetting my neighbors).
Mostly, I write rock and a little of everything else, which is why I bought the DM5. The DM Pro is an expansion of the rock drums. But they added a wonderful variety of tropical/jungle percussion, Latin, jazz and SFX. Even with over 1,000 sounds, it doesn't have everything. I still have to resort to my old Yamaha PSR-510 for mutliple jazz brush variations.
Like the earlier review stated, the SFX category is way cool. BUT they did away with the random sounds! How dare they? I am most dissapointed about this.
Then again, the demos were simply astounding because of the use of effects. They defintely showcase its great possibilities. And the effects weren't achieved via MIDI messages but were comprised of sounds contained in custom demo kits (which are still resident in memory after each demo, so you can store them). If you're in a music store, check them out--the instructions are on the front panel.

Only owned the DM Pro for a month with no problems. My DM5 is over one year old and was a scratched-up floor model. It's never exhibited any problems.

Sent one email question to them about the DM Pro before it shipped. Never got a reply.

If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy it again, no question. For the new sounds and capabilities, it was worth every penny. As I explained above, it has some dissapointing aspects, but I haven't yet found a single guitar, synth, computer, etc. that is perfect in every facet. The DM Pro is a great asset to blend with other drum modules or drum sounds on my favorite synths.

I wanted to revise my original review. Since that time I had bought a Roland XP30 synth. The sound from that synth was so good that it made my M-BD1 (external Roland Bass and Drums module) sound flat. Thus I needed a drum module that would compare. Thus I went back to the local music store and rented it again. This time, I sat down and read the manual from cover to cover and really put some effort into it.
Regarding the ease of use, it is a LOT easier than my M-BD1. The manual does a fairly good job at explaining everything. It's very easy to change out the individual drums in a kit if necessary.

It has the most features I've seen on a drum machine. 64 note polyphony, fx, 6 outs, 12 triggers, and you can load your own samples and sequences via PCMCIA. You can also set it up so that a drum trigger starts a particular sequence. This is great for guitar players who don't want to walk over to their sequencer to press "play".

Overall the DMPro sounds great. The samples sound crisp and punchy. Here's the thing though: the default kits and demos are horrible. They do not accurately represent the unit's sounds or capabilities. Velocity changes only affect a low pass filter. They should really layer the voices and have each voice's volume depend on the velocity of the keypress. The unit is fully capable of this, but for some reason, they don't take advantage of it.
There are lots of sounds in each catagory (acoustic bass drums, acoustic snares, cymbals etc). The best of all is the SFX catagory. They include tambourines, shakers (to die for), finger snaps, pots and pans etc. All sound as real as you could get. However, none of these beautiful samples are present in the demo or default preset factory kits.
I made a recording of the DMPro with the rest of my gear and I must say it certainly augments the overall sound. I'd rate this category 10/10 if it wasn't for the crappy preset patches and demo.

Haven't had it long enough to find out.

Alesis has great support. They have one of their marketing guys participate on the newsgroups and mailing lists. All email I've sent to them have been replied within 2 days. Very polite and helpful.

For me, this unit is a must have. I've always been a firm believer in investing in strong percussion - and this unit does just that. I regret not giving this unit a fair evaluation in the beginning. You really have to sit down and play with the thing first before you can unlock its full potential. I probably would have been happy with simply upgrading my Roland XP30 with the Bass and Drums expansion but the DMPros expandability, and SFX samples made me change my mind. The Roland V-Drums were an expensive alternative, but the fact that the DMPro allows you to add your own samples and sequences simply confirms my decision.

The massive amount of features makes it a little more complicated but the manual is fairly well written.

The most features for a drum module to date. You can even add your own samples, sequences, many outs, more triggers than the DM5 (+dual zone). See the Alesis web page for more info. The effects seem like overkill to me, as you can easily hear in the demo sequences.

Very crisp and clean - but not a heck of a lot better than the DM5. Much improvement in the cymbals though. The effects are okay - kind of excessive for a drum module IMHO. All in all, the samples are very punchy, but sound too "sampled" rather than realistic. I prefer my Roland M-BD1 for acoustic drums by far - they ring more and respond to velocity better on the M-BD1. I can't vouch for the triggers because I didn't use them.

Didn't cut out on me but I only rented it for a month.

Alesis has great support. They have one of their marketing guys participate on the newsgroups and mailing lists. All email I've sent to them have been replied within 2 days. Very polite and helpful.

The DMPro is the best bang for the buck for "virtual" drummers but it's definately not as good as the hype (and Alesis) would like us to believe. It didn't blow me away like I thought it would. Just consider it a DM5 with a few extra neat features. Make sure you try it out before you buy.