What are the very best electronic kick drums available today? This is a question on the minds of many drummers, since there are more options than ever before and the plethora of choices can be quite confusing!
Roland, Yamaha, EF Note, ATV, Gewa and Pearl and others all have strong contenders when it comes to quality kick edrums. However, there are some clear winners when it comes to the objective best (which is of course ridiculous, since “best” is always a highly subjective term!) lol…
Ok, so without further ado, let’s dig in and provide some opinions on what we think are the very best electronic kick drums available today. Don’t take any of this too seriously. It is just an opinion post and you know what they say about opinions! We just love talking about edrums.
Best Electronic Kick Drum Options
When it comes to the best kick edrums, you can narrow the competition down to the major players. Some deserve honorable mention, but simply do not make the finalists list. For the sake of this post, we are not including acoustic conversions in the mix, because the range of these drums is too extensive to cover as a single entity. We have used acoustic kick conversions that were some of the worst triggering and awful feeling drums ever (BOING!) and some that were pretty great.
This narrows the field down to pad style kicks (Roland KD-10 for example) and full size kicks that are manufactured to be electronic and not converted acoustics (Roland KD-220 for example). Pad style kicks tend to be smaller and lighter, (although not always), while full sized kits are almost always bigger, heavier and are mainly appealing to people who want their drums to look acoustic.
The Worst Electronic Kick Drums
The very worst edrum kicks that we have used all came from generic Chinese companies that manufacture small acoustic-style kicks (14” to 18” typically) that feature a simple trigger design and no internal padding. These kicks suck! Whoever designed them has no business being in the music instrument manufacturing business. They are bouncy, inaccurate and basically unplayable. These kicks are sold with many cheap edrum brands, as well as on Alibaba direct from their horrible manufacturers.
The next worst are the hard rubber style pads sold with most sub-par edrum sets. These are basically just pieces of wood, metal or plastic wrapped with some really cheap rubber and feel exactly like what you would expect. It is like attaching your kick drum to a piece of wood and playing. Crap experience and generally, very short life span due to poor design, poor manufacturing and poor quality components. Unfortunately, these are the best selling edrum kick pads in the world!
Moving up to the best of the worst, you have the Roland KD8 and Yamaha KP65 rubber kicks. These are true workhorses and will indeed last forever. However, they are nightmarish with a double kick pedal and generally feel quite poor. The days of these products are long gone, since many exponentially better options are now available. We do like the extra input jack on the Yamaha KP65 though…
Middle of the Road and Good Edrum Kicks
Ok, so let’s step up into looking at some of the kicks that get the job done, but are nothing great to write home about, as well as those that are solid choices, but not quite the best. We have several that come quickly to mind:
Roland KD-9 and KD-10 feel pretty good, are portable, not too heavy, but quite stable (especially the KD10). These kicks feel and function ok, but look quite poor from an aesthetic POV. They have lost many fans for their appearance alone. They are not overly expensive though and readily available. They are durable and trigger well.
Roland acoustic style kicks including KD-180, KD-200 and KD-220. These are featured on the VAD line of sets and are incredibly expensive. They are really just an acoustic drum shell that has been treated to perform best and feel best when used as an electronic kit drum, complete with a KD-10 style trigger pad installed in the batter head. These kicks look cool, but do not perform any better than the KD-10 and cost sooooo much more!
Yamaha KP90 is a very close relative to the Roland KD-10. It feels and performs similarly, although the feel is a bit better in our opinion. Cost is comparable also and the appearance is equally unappealing. Think Star Wars Cantina Band…
We also include all manner of more advanced Yamaha kicks in this category, including KP100, KP125 and KP128. These are nice kicks that feel quite good and are rock solid. However, they are a bit quirky looking and could have gone with nicer design aesthetics. Cost is also a major factor, as these pads are very expensive and offer few benefits over the less expensive options.
We have limited experience with Pearl’s e/Merge kicks (either option) and the Gewa kicks from their g5 and g9 series drum sets. These look and feel nice, but we simply can not rate them among the best due to issues with limited availability and popularity of their foundations. In essence, these pads could disappear and might be difficult to repair or service in the future.
The Very Best Electronic Kick Drums
So, here are our top choices! None of these are perfect, but to us, they offer the best all around performance:
ATV aDrums kick is fantastic. It is a nice size and appearance, but not too heavy. It is solid and triggers beautifully. The kick just oozes quality. Playing it is a dream. Some users consider it too bouncy, but a quality impact pad sorts that right out AND protects the head. Our primary complaint is that ATV has suffered some setbacks, but seemed to have righted the ship in order to press onwards.
EF Note Kicks are very similar to the ATV kick drum. They look and feel nice, but maybe just a bit less nice than the ATV. The covered finish is not as nice as the lacquer and the feel is a bit less optimal. We are still big fans of the look and performance.
Old school is hanging in there too! Roland KD-120 almost makes the list, but the KD-140 definitely can still hang with the best. Both of these kicks are time-tested, feel great and really handle the heaviest of playing. Thrash metal double bass? No issues! The KD-140 is SOOOO heavy. It will never move, but it might dig a hole in your floor or break your back if you have to move it often. Sure, the style is not contemporary, but I think few drummers will argue with the feel factor, given a proper head tension, an impact pad and a nice pedal. They just perform about as good as possible, even during stressful conditions for any kick, like 260 BPM. Time-tested means a lot to us, as a store that sells second hand and these flagship Roland kicks are basically serviceable forever.
Style Over Substance?
There is definitely a trend towards the look of acoustic kicks compared to pad styles. When this can be accomplished well and for a fair price, we can get onboard. Roland have made the best acoustic style kicks, but offers them at such a gigantic price that we just can’t really understand. There has been lots of talk about how the kick is so large and that the packaging and shipping really contributes to the cost, but cheap acoustic kicks take up the same space and can be bought new for as little as 10% of the price of the most expensive Roland edrum kicks. What do you think about acoustic conversions? Do you love them for their look or hate them for their price, impracticality or other reason?
Our All Time Favorite Electronic Kick Drums
Ok, so here is the surprise! We have not named our best kick drum yet…
We have a few more to mention. Lots of edrummers need to keep the noise level down, so here are some really quiet options:
Yamaha makes a “quiet kick” (KU100) that is cheap and works well in environments where noise is a concern. This is a great little product, but is NOT our favorite.
Roland also makes a quiet kick featured on their TD-1 drum sets of similar style and (low) quality. It is ok, but does not rate for us. We often find them with the metal footplate broken off or nearly broken off.
Roland makes a much more expensive and well built quiet kick called the KT-9. We have used it and just do not like it much. It simply does not feel like a kick drum to us and is also quite expensive.
The Roland KT-10 is the quiet option that we love. It is a self-contained pedal and trigger that provides an all-in-one solution for drum sets, multipads or any edrum kick need. It is built like a tank and is virtually indestructible. It feels surprisingly great, especially with a bit of tweaking of the balance weights. Triggering is flawless under any circumstances.
It is for these reasons that the KT-10 is our FAVORITE edrum kick. Surprise! We use them on all of our kits. They are not infinitely adjustable like a normal kick drum pedal, but they do offer portability, performance, minimalist look, minimal weight, rock solid triggering and amazing durability at a rather inexpensive price point, especially since you DO NOT need to buy a separate pedal. KT-10 is our kick drum hero. Trust us… People are suspicious of it. BUT… Once they try it and see its many benefits, especially for gigging drummers, almost everyone gets onboard the KT-10 bandwagon and enjoys some great times with this small and amazing kick trigger pedal.
