Roland V-Compact TD-3

So what do you guys think of this new V-Compact?

I don't know anything about v-drums, but this looks like a good beginner kit and since I now live in an apartment my acoustic drums are basically unplayable. I would mainly use this for practicing, but I'm thinking I would use it for recording demos as well, however, I'm thinking that for recording I would just use my real cymbals, cause I've heard that they don't sound good through the modules.

Shopping around it looks like you can get it for $899. Seems pricey to me, but the componants look pretty nice. Much better then a lot of the other beginner v-kits.

Anyway, just wondering what you guys think of it, whether its worth the money or not...thanks

If you can at all bear it, I highly recommend spending the extra money for mesh head triggers. Those roland hard rubber pads kill any sort of buzz I might possibly get while playing. Also, I've never been a fan of the roland sample set and their V-Edit stuff - I've tried out the TD-8 and TD-10 and both seemed to depend way too much on reverb and EQ to cover up the thin samples. I play on a DDRUM 4 SE (made by Clavia ). I absolutely love the module - it triggers extremely fast, the included samples are killer (you can check out their site and listen to them on your comp speakers), and you can load your own samples into it. However, the hardware on the kit has some faults so I really wouldn't recommend buying their padset.

Anyway, some cheaper alternatives you might want to consider include Pintech, Drumbalaya is a great place to check out e-drums, and the folks there are extremely helpful.

Cheers,

Karl

I don't think I can justify paying the price for all mesh heads. However, Drumbalaya has some cool options to switch out certain componants. So, it might be worth it to get the v-compact and swap out the snare pad for a mesh pad. Also, would it be worth it to swap the td-3 for a td-6?

frog-

I have the slightly older TD6-K set, with the non-turbo sound module. I never tried the TD-3, as I found a good deal on the kit used.

My take on the whole thing is that, if you aren't a drummer yet, or if you don't have a lot of time logged on an acoustic kit, the TD-6 is a great little module. If you are already a very proficient drummer who is used to all of the nuances you can coax out of real drums/cymbals, you'll probably be dissapointed in pretty much any electronic kit.

I am a guitarist turned bass player who got sick of not being able to find a drummer anywhere. I picked up the kit so I could learn to play in the privacy of my apartment without getting evicted. If that's all you're looking for, then even the TD-3 should do you just fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that, if you've got a decent sequencer or DAW, you can always take in the MIDI data, and use it to trigger a soft drum sampler like Battery or Linn Plug's RMIV. Then you can sample any kit you want and take it from there.

Oh yeah, and not being a drummer, the rubber pads haven't bothered me at all. If I were used to real drums, it might be a different story, though.

Johnboy