Alesis Electronic Drum Sets Review and Overview

Alesis electronic drum sets are popular, good quality kits. Alesis makes many models. I’ll take a quick look at most of them for you in this overview article.

Hopefully there will be enough information in these brief descriptions that you can tell if you want a particular set or not.

If you already happen to know that you want one of them or just want to check on their pricing and availability at Amazon, you can click the links in the list below.Note: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

• Alesis Strike and Strike Pro (Full review)
• Alesis Crimson Mesh (Full review)
• Alesis Command (Full review)
• Alesis DM10 (X Mylar or Mesh, Studio or Studio Mesh) (Full review)
• Alesis Nitro (Full review)
• Alesis DM6 Nitro and USB (Full review)
• Alesis DM Lite (Full review)
• Alesis Burst (not available in the US?)
• Alesis Forge (Full review)

You can also click a link in the box below to go right to that section of the article. Otherwise, just keep scrolling and reading as usual.

As you can see from the list above, Alesis makes at least a dozen models of electronic drum sets. There are very few significant differences between some of them, so I won’t describe them all here.

For example, the main difference between a “mesh” and a “non-mesh” kit is that the pads in the former are made of mesh (making them higher quality), and the pads in the latter are made of mylar or other rubbery substance.

Alesis Strike and Strike Pro Electronic Drum Sets

Let’s start at the top of the list and look at the Strike and the Strike Pro kits.

Both the Strike and Strike Pro (full review) sets are constructed with the intent of giving you the feel of an acoustic set. The mesh heads have sensitivity adjustment knobs, so you can make them respond just like your favorite acoustic drums. It sort of goes without saying that kits like these are not intended to be the first you have ever owned or played.

These drums even have wood shells in the standard acoustic sizes. You won’t find anything like that on a beginner set.

The cymbals are quite special too. The 16 inch ride has 3 strike zones. The 14 inch crash cymbal (You get 3 of these in the Pro set.) is chokeable.

The 12 inch hi-hat does not come with its own stand. You get to supply one that you personally like. The same goes with the bass / kick drum pedal – you must provide your own. I think the idea here is that, at this point in your drumming career, you have enough experience that you want to get what you like rather than having a company force their preferences on you.

The Strike sound module has a few bells and whistles too. You can sample your own sounds. There’s plenty of storage space, and with the Pro version you get a Software Editor. I haven’t looked into everything it can do, but it’s probably more than you’ll ever need.

A nice touch and a feature of every Alesis kit is the inclusion of a cable snake and cable wraps to keep all those cords from flopping all over the place.

Check out this short demo featuring Derek Roddy.

Alesis Crimson Mesh Electronic Drum Kit

The Alesis Crimson Mesh Kit (full review) is their top of the line model, at least, price-wise it is.

Take a look at this list of its components.

• 12 inch dual zone snare
• Two 8 inch dual zone rack toms
• 10 inch dual zone floor tom
• 8 inch kick drum
• 12 inch hi-hat with pedal
• 12 inch chokeable crash cymbal
• 14 inch three zone ride cymbal

As the model name states, the drum heads are mesh for a more realistic feel.

There are fewer kits programmed into the sound module compared to the Strike, but how many of the 70 in the Crimson will you ever use anyway?

The module has a USB port that you can use to load your own samples in wav or MP3 format.

Alesis Command Electronic Drum Kit

The Alesis Command kit (full review) has some pieces that are larger and some that are smaller than the Crimson.

• 8 inch mesh kick with pedal
• 10 inch dual-zone mesh snare
• Two 9 inch dual-zone rack toms
• 11 inch dual-zone floor tom
• 10 inch ride cymbal
• 10 inch hi-hat with pedal
• 10 inch chokeable crash

The sound module is apparently the same one used in the Forge (below) set. It has the same number of kits (70) as the Crimson. It also has the same USB capability.

This demo starts with xylophone sounds, then moves on to more traditional kits.

Alesis DM10 Line

There are several models that include DM10 in their name, as you can see in the list above. I’ll concentrate briefly here on the DM10 Studio Mesh kit.

Alesis makes this claim about the mesh drum heads incorporated in the Studio.

“These ultra-quiet mesh drum heads come closer to duplicating the feel of an acoustic drum head and their natural rebound better than any previous Alesis electronic drum kit.”

I don’t have any test data to back that up, but I wouldn’t doubt that it’s true. Assuming it is, this would make a great set, not only for a studio environment, but also for your home.

This set also has adjustment knobs similar to those on the Strike mentioned above.

Alesis says that some of these kits have “FMH mesh” drum pads. I haven’t been able to determine what the “FMH” stands for. If I find out, I’ll update this article.

Alesis Nitro Drum Kit

The Nitro kit (full review) is very similar to the Forge (below). One of the main differences is the size of the dual-zone snare. The snare on the Nitro is just 8 inches in diameter compared to 11 inches on the Forge.

Here are the main pieces included in a Nitro set.

• 8 inch dual-zone snare
• Three 8 inch tom pads
• Kick drum pad tower with pedal
• 10 inch chokeable crash cymbal
• 10 inch ride cymbal
• 10 inch hi-hat with pedal

For some reason, Alesis decided to use the name “Nitro” in another kit too. They also offer the DM6 Nitro set.

I see two main differences in the list of contents when comparing the Nitro to the DM6 Nitro. The first is that the DM6 Nitro cymbals are each 2 inches larger in diameter.

The second difference, which may only be in the label, is that the pads for the DM6 Nitro are all called “DMPad”.

To further add to the confusion, you can also get the DM6 USB kit, which used to be called just the DM6 kit. The main pieces are very similar to the DM6 Nitro.

Alesis Forge Electronic Drum Set

Moving to the end of the list, we come to the Alesis Forge. There is no mesh in this set.

Here are the main components.

• 11 inch dual-zone snare
• Three 8 inch tom pads
• Kick drum pad tower with pedal
• 10 inch chokeable crash cymbal
• 10 inch ride cymbal
• 10 inch hi-hat

If you look again at the original list I included at the top of this article, you can see there are other Alesis kits available. By the time you read this, the company may even have produced more than these.

Note that the Burst kit may not be readily available in the US.

Check out the Alesis electronic drum sets on Amazon.