Today, I’ve spent some time playing with the DD502 (first mentioned in this post yesterday), and have had more of a chance to get a feel for what the whole thing is like.
As I’ve said in the past, I’ve been looking for something that would allow me the freedom of hitting something with sticks, to approximate as much as possible what I can do on a real kit. Up until yesterday, the closest I could have hoped to get was the Alesis ControlPad. However, now I know that the ControlPad, whilst a nice piece of kit, pales in comparison to what even a low-end set of electronic drums can do for me in this sense.
Before I start, here are a few pics of the DD502 in my home setup…
The kit has turned out to be a wise investment. Today, I finally got around to plugging it into my Mac (via the MIDI interface on my Behringer BCF2000), and having a go at playing some Virtual instruments with it. I tried Native Instruments Battery 3 (which is my mainstay at the moment when it comes to drums!). Battery’s ‘Learn’ function meant that I could take an existing kit (in this case Heavy Rock), and learn the note that each pad was inputting, thereby assigning it to the individual pads.
After doing so, I had my first bash around, quickly finding that there was something strange going on with the velocity of some of the pads. Whilst the Kick drum pad seemed to output the entire range of velocities, the main drum pads only seemed to want to go up to 64. Not sure why this is, but a quick tweak of the velocity transform in Logic quickly solved the problem – I added about 35 to every tap. Only trouble is it now means that the lowest I get is 35 – meaning that the lower end of the velocity scale is slightly less expressive. This is something that I hope I can sort within Battery, so I’ll report back when I know more.
The second issue was latency. Battery tends to be quite latency-heavy anyway, and I had to switch on the low-latency mode to make sure that the pads felt like they were responding when I hit them. The latency was still only small when this mode was off, but it was enough to be noticable on faster phrases. All-in-all, latency wouldnt be an issue in the end anyway, as I could always use one of the built-in module drumkits that came with the DD502 to monitor whilst recording, so not much of an issue.
Which takes me to the internal sounds on the unit. Overall, they’re not too bad, though the quality of the samples isn’t great, it’s by far good enough to practice, and probably for most simple live situations. The Hi-Hats have a tendancy to be a bit loud, but that’s easily remedied by, you guessed it, reducing the volume of that voice. Easy as a few key taps on the module.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now – will update when I’ve had a chance to fiddle firther…
just ordered the DD502 for my son by the sound of your reveiw he may have to wait in the que for a go !! cant wait to try it out myself all the best RG edinburgh
Cool – I’m happy with mine for the price. Like I said – can’t compete with the Roland stuff, but is a great place to start!
Hi, This is a long shot. My son Pat picked up a dd502 drum kit second hand, no instructions or paperwork. He’s really enjoying them but getting frustrated that he doesn’t have (and can’t afford!) a teacher. Does the brand new kit come with a tutorial or similar? If so, any bright ideas how I could get a copy? I’ve googled everything I can think of (that’s where I found you) and looked on ebay, to no avail. Cheers, Helen
I must admit, that as I’ve been drumming for a while, I’ve not really looked for beginners tutorials. A quick search for “Drum Lessons” on Google came up with a few interesting sites, of which this one seems a good example :-
http://216.103.111.115/perl/drums/index.cgi
There are plenty of beginner’s bits and pieces on there, along with free jam tracks and all sorts of other stuff.
Unfortunately, the brand new DD502 doesn’t come with any sort of tutorial (in fact the manual is about as bare as you can get without being non-existent!).
Hope he enjoys his kit – it’s a great way to start out drumming. How old is he? The sooner you start in this, the better!
Cheers.
Does this kit have a Aux In facility, so I can connnect my MP3 with it. Some sites quote yes and others say no
Yes – it does. I often sit there with my iPod in the Aux, drumming away to a few tracks.
Cheers.
Hi there,
I have decided to sell my yamaha 5 piece kit for an electronic one.. as i would like to start recording.
What would be the necessary equipment i should have, i have logic Pro .. but no Audio hardware.. Any suggestions? (Audio hub input for computer? USB? FireWire?)
Also on that note, i want a keyboard to plug into my MacPro for recording also, any ideas as to some good relatively cheap keyboards that would let me assign certain sounds to certain keys? programmable keys.. midi interface maybe idk?
Any responses would be greatly appreciated and welcomed.
Well… there are plenty of decent Audio interfaces around. I paid £180 for my Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire. It’s an 8-channel mixer / soundcard, and works great on any newish Mac with a Firewire Interface. You can get lower spec interfaces for less, but I haven’t really looked into it for a while. You may not need 8 channels of input, so shop around…! Somewhere like soundcontrol.co.uk may be a good place to start (always had good experiences with them). Also, scouring the various forums (including the Apple logic pro forum), really helps.
You’ll also need some sort of MIDI interface to input the data from the electronic drumkit. Make sure you have one that outputs MIDI data, and not just audio, as you’ll need that if you want to record using any sounds other than the ones that come on the sound module you get with the kit. You can get USB MIDI interfaces, and some Audio interfaces have MIDI ports built in. As with everything, just make sure it’s all Mac compatible.
Go for the best kit you can afford – the DD502 is great as a start, and its hard to go wrong for the price.
Hi
have just bought a secondhand legacy dd502 drum kit
but no instructions and it has a broken bracket
does anyone know where i can buy these items
thanks
Rich
I’m not sure where you can get hold of them. I’ve got a manual here somewhere, but there actually isn’t very much in it! The bracket thing is a bit more difficult. Which one is broken?
it’s one of the ones that join the arms to the upright on the frame theres seven of them on the kit in total i’ve sent an enquiry to legacy so hopefully they can help
Hi
Can you tell me how loud this kit is when played? It has mesh heads doesn’t it, so I’m hoping it’s pretty quiet? I’m looking for something cheap and as silent as possible just for practice as I live in flats and don’t want to be lynched by the neighbours!
Cheers
Well… Depends on how thin the walls are, and how hard you hit em!
They’re not mesh heads, so not as quiet as those. They’re a kind of rubber foam (think mouse mat foam) underneath a ‘real’ drum skin. I would have thought you can get away with it ok. I don;t have the issue, as my house is ooooold, with three-foot-thick walls. I Had a real drumkit, and it didn’t bother the neighbours!
If at all possible, you should try and give them a go in a shop. If you have a Soundcontrol near you, that’s probably your best bet!
Cheers!
If you’re in a flat, watch out for the pedals; even with quiet heads, the action of the bass (and to a lesser extent hi-hat) pedal could give you problems with your downstairs neighbours. Put some soundproofing like that used for laminate flooring under them and you should be fine.
Interesting! Never really thought about it, but that’s a good point!
Cheers!
hi m8. i was thinkin about gettin one of these kits. do u think u could do a video so i can see what there actually like instead of lookin at pics. nice 1 !
I’ll try, but in the meantime, have a look here :-
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dd502&search_type=&aq=f
Cheers!
Hi Axeman, I am also looking at buying the DD502. Now that you have had it for a while what would you list as its pro’s and cons? I have heard that the pads dent quite easily. What is your experience?
Thanks
Hi Philip,
The DD502 is surprisingly robust for a cheap kit. Yes, it is possible to dent the pads if you REALLY go at it. I tend to be fairly heavy handed, and use heavy sticks when playing, and I’ve got two dents (on on the snare and one on a tom) after almost a year of use. Now to me, that isn’t much to worry about, and the dents I have managed to make don’t affect the playing of the kit at all.
Pros?
- Cheap (obviously!)
- MIDI output (which not all cheap kits have)
- Passable set of sounds (not fantastic, but fine for practice).
Cons?
- Cheaper build than more expensive kits (though still not bad!)
- Pads dent if you go nuts with them, though unless you dented them hundreds of times, you probably wouldn’t notice.
- Probably wouldnt stand up to gigging (i.e. taking up and down over and over – more of a room kit).
Overall? I’d still heartily recommend it if you can’t stretch to anything more expensive. It’s a great place to start, and if you then decide its not for you, then you haven’t lost that much!
Oh – just out of curiosity – where have you found them, and how much? I have a friend who’s looking (after playing on mine!).
Cheers.
hi just bought my 15yr old son the dd502 today no instructions as was the display in shop any tips on how to help him work out the control panel or is it just vtrial and error .
thanks
It’s not too bad to work out, though isn’t the most intuitive system.
Luckily, the manual is available as a PDF file :-
http://www.medeli.com.hk/downloads/DD502W_Manual_G02_071228.pdf
With the setup guide (how to put it together), here:-
http://www.medeli.com.hk/downloads/DD502J_Setup_G02_071207.pdf
If you haven’t got it already, you’ll need Adobe Reader to read those files. That’s availabe at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
Hope that helps!
cheers it does alot thankyou for that
regards maggie
hi there just wondering on this kit i got it today , is it possible to change the cymbals and tom pads with anyother tom pad ?
thanks
Hi – Just checked out prices and I cant seem to find this kit under £300 nowadays!
Anyone got any ideas where I migh tpick one iup for significantly less?
Yeah – you’re right…!
Ebay seems to be the best place – they’re going for 160ish upwards on there (for the MkII version too!).
Just search for DD502…
Hi Axeman
Sorry for my delayed reaction, I appreciate your input, I am writing from the Netherlands so I cannot help for prices in the US for the DD502. In Europe they are sold under many different names:
MILLENIUM MPS-300 300 Euro
http://www.thomann.de/nl/millenium_mps300_edrumset.htm
Fame DD 502 mk 11 price 334 Euro
http://www.musicstore.com/en_EN/GBP/_Bundle_-Fame-DD-502-II-inkl.-Hocker-Kopfhoerer-Sticks/art-DRU104
Hayman DD-03 330 Euro
http://www.vanderzwaagmuziek.nl/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1099&category_id=6&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=11&vmcchk=1&Itemid=11
Regards
Phillip
do you know where i can find a list for all the voices ????
A few posts up in the comments for this thread, there is a link to the manual. I believe they’re all in there…
I appreciate that it is over a year since a comment was made on the Legacy DD502. But here goes … does anyone know where I can get parts? The shop I bought it from Sounds Control are no longer trading. Our local store was taken over by Reverb but although they have acknowledged my request they have done nothing about it.
Apologies for the time taken to reply – been away! Reverb don’t seem to have the same level of customer service as SC used to unfortunately. I know the Legacy is a reasonably generic Chinese (I believe) made set. I think they’re sold under other brands too. What part do you need specifically?