Roland Drum users?

  • Thread starter Thread starter japetus
  • Start date Start date
The Rolands have been used on-the-road for decades now. That's gotta help some.

The fact that they're more-robust and yet at the same time more-sensitive speaks volumes IMHO. No mean feat.

If someone can't see the additional expense and R&D it'd take to achieve this, well, the Rolands will always seem overpriced.
 
Monkey Man said:
The Rolands have been used on-the-road for decades now. That's gotta help some.

The fact that they're more-robust and yet at the same time more-sensitive speaks volumes IMHO. No mean feat.

If someone can't see the additional expense and R&D it'd take to achieve this, well, the Rolands will always seem overpriced.
Click to expand...
In my experience I 100% agree with this. When you compare Roland with brands like Alesis or Simmons it really seems as Roland is way overpriced; especially when you usually get more pads with other brands for the same or less cost. But when you look at total cost over time you can see Roland is the much better value.

With Alesis (or similar brands) if you're keeping the set for any significant amount of time (read more than a year) you can expect to replace several pads/cymbals and depending on the model. The brains are pretty good, but can become outdated more quickly. Or at least the community doesn't put in near as much effort optimizing the sounds as with Roland. And expect to replace pads/cymbals even sooner if you're a heavy hitter. I've had friends go this route and spend near more money in the long run replacing and/or updating stuff.

With Roland you may pay more up front but it's a one an done expense. The pads/cymbals will last well over a decade and brain stay current/useable for at least that amount of time. By technology standards decade old models like the TD8 or TD9 are out of date, but hold up perfectly well for at home use. The V-expressions pack and other community efforts keep older brains more up to date as far as keeping them sounding good. Putting more money into a Roland set is more a case of personal preference for expansion or upgrades and nothing to do with quality or longevity. Another positive for Roland is that since their stuff lasts you can have more confidence buying used (which is what I did when I bought my set).

When I was looking to buy my set I thought about going with an Alesis. What you got for the price was very tempting and Roland was a bigger investment and you got less. I decided to go used and buy individual pieces instead of a full kit. I saved some money by buying an older brain but pads that usually come with the higher end Roland kits. Even buying used I spent a little more than what I would have for an Alesis. I think I spent about $1800-$1900 initially for the base kit; 4 drum pads, 1 kick drum pad, 3 cymbal pads, upgraded high hat trigger & the brain. I spent another few hundred to add splitter cables, 2 more drum pads, 3 more cymbal pads, and the V-expressions packs. In total about $2400-$2500.

My friend on the other hand went with a new Alesis Strike Pro kit on sale around $2000. He spent near the same and got a decent bit more for his initial investment than I did. He got the 5 full sized drum pads, a large kick drum pad, 5 cymbal pads, a similar high hat trigger and a brand new brain. So far, he's already had to spend more replacing a couple of drum and cymbal pads because the triggers crapped out and hasn't expanded the kit any. Now he's getting close to what I spent on my total kit, expansion and all. At this point he's getting aggravated that he's having to replace stuff and is looking to sell and buy a Roland.

I've had my Roland set for going on 6 years and all pieces were previously used for several years, my friend's Alesis is about 2 years old and bought brand new. I've had zero issues and he's had to replace pads already. And when you compare the sound of my older TD-11 to his newer Alesis Strike brain, there's not much of a difference. The stock sounds are adequate and with the V-expressions packs mine sounds just as good if not better than the stock Alesis. This is only one example so take it for what it's worth, but in this situation who do you think got the better value in the long run?
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. We decided to go with the TD-17. This way, we can also use a couple of the pads from the current Roland I have to expand it even further as well.
 
Monkey Man said:
The Rolands have been used on-the-road for decades now. That's gotta help some.

The fact that they're more-robust and yet at the same time more-sensitive speaks volumes IMHO. No mean feat.

If someone can't see the additional expense and R&D it'd take to achieve this, well, the Rolands will always seem overpriced.
Click to expand...
I can offer that since 2002, either myself or my friend has had this TD-6, and it's never messed up once, and the pads all still work perfectly.
 
Agree on the longevity ... I'm still paying a TD-8 kit (with a couple of upgrades) that I've had forever. The sounds are well out of date, but I have it triggering Superior Drummer via MIDI and it sounds and feels great.
 
Been using a TD-10 based Roland kit for a decade.

We just trigger Slate drums with it. Now we even run real cymbals. I prefer doing it all Slate but drummers are picky and dim.

Recently replaced a peizo element in one of the kick triggers. Replaced the battery in the brain. Some of the rim liners are giving up...but not too bad for a 11 year old electronic thing that morons beat on.
 
Monkey Man said:
The Rolands have been used on-the-road for decades now. That's gotta help some.

The fact that they're more-robust and yet at the same time more-sensitive speaks volumes IMHO. No mean feat.

If someone can't see the additional expense and R&D it'd take to achieve this, well, the Rolands will always seem overpriced.
Click to expand...
It's not that they seem overpriced. They just cost more than I'm willing to spend for the size kit I want. I believe they have a superior product but I've played the Roland kits at same price level and found them far smaller and nowhere near the acoustic kit feel I came from. The alesis kit is more comfortable to play than anything at that price point imo. If I were gigging and transporting it everywhere I could see paying for a similar size Roland kit, but I'm not... that said I recently watched a Geoff tate video and saw his drummer playing a Roland live. Seems practical but a visual let down for me, I guess the size of the acoustic look ekits is still too big for their travel arrangements?
 
As I suggested earlier, if it works for you, more power to ya bro'.

Sounds like the kit's been good to you thus far, so... great! :rock:
 
Wanted to follow up because I remember posting this and have been playing all day due to ice..had the TD-17 kit now for about 2 months. Absolutely love it. I have had some good success with editing the stock drums and making my own kits, but I plan on buying some professional samples soon to mess with. Monkey Man said it and I have to agree...after playing quite a few digital kits before buying, the Rolands stand above all of the commercially available reasonably priced kits in terms of quality. I can recommend this kit for sure for anyone looking for a mid priced kit that you can expand on in many ways.
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Imhe, the Alesia stuff sounds much better.,
Especially the kick drum, the high hats had more grease also.
But I was warned about reliability issues with Alexa
(HA!)
My son has the TD17, I bought it for him for
X-Mas.
I can get down on that 808 setting, ya hear?
I do not like the kick drum smacking, we found a quieter beater but that thing kinda bothers me.
The 50’s kit is where the everyday BONHAM lurks.
 
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