The Best Tabletop Electronic Drums (Are They Worth Buying?)

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Tabletop electronic drums are odd. They are electronic multi-pads like SPD20sx but not quite, they are their own thing. Tabletop edrums like the Yamaha DD75 have buit in speakers, they come with pedals, even optional battery power. But are they worth buying? In my opinion, they are only worth getting if 1: you are on an extreme budget 2: if space is a BIG issue. For some drummers, empty space at the apartment is so tight even a small edrumset is too big. But if you can, try getting an Alesis Nitro instead. Its only $150 more than these tabletop drumsets, but it's much more fun to play.

Amazon Links To Buy The Drums I Talked About
✅ Yamaha DD75:

✅Pyle Pro:

✅Alesis Nitro Mesh:

***These are Amazon affiliate links that help support the channel by earning me a small commission at no cost to you.
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The most important advantage in my opinion with the Yamaha devices is that they have 8 pads instead of 7. And the pad arrangement makes more sense. You can have both hi-hat and ride while still having two crash cymbals. Can't really do that with the cheaper devices. They only have two cymbals and this awkwardly positioned pad in the front middle. That's why I went for the DD-75. That was more important to me than having more sounds and presets. That information I thought was missing in the (otherwise nice) video.

GodslayerXUL
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I'm not a drummer, but I wanted the DD 75 so I could record. I got it as a birthday gift. I've written a few songs. I'm not crazy about the pedals that came with it, but I did use it on an old analog 16 track recorder and the kit sounds absolutely huge when recorded to tape. I am going to go for the pedal upgrade. I'm fairly limited in space, but I think as a non drummer, I'm having a lot of fun with it. Great video.

pcallas
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The Yamaha DD 65 was my first “drum kit”, it was amazing while learning and afterwards for having some good fun and experimenting. You don’t need anything but passion to get jamming!

paohaus
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I have had the Yamaha DD65 since about 2007. It has seriously held up well! I recently got an Alesis Nitro mesh, which I do like a lot, but the DD65 served me well for many years and I still use it as an ultra portable set.

stephenrally
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Just a little PSA about the pedals on the Yamaha: if you’re on a budget, you can use any standard keyboard sustain pedal, or a Rock Band kick pedal and a 1/4” adapter, as the hi-hat pedal. And you can use a Guitar Hero kick pedal and a 1/4” adapter as the kick pedal.

(I don’t know if this still works on the 75 but it definitely works on my 55.)

yaketyyakumo
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This is why I like your videos.. You don't only shows your own kit, you want to spread the world about there's a lot of options for beginners as professionals to drum. Godd job :)

Petteblubb
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I've had one of the Medeli type sets for over 2 years, mainly because of space in my house. My real kit spends most of its time stored in the loft unfortunately. But the tabletop kit keeps me playing, enables me to record midi on my DAW, and is quick and easy to take to church and play through the PA system on Sunday morning. Obviously it takes some getting used to, but I bought a second hand 'Rock Band' game pedal from ebay and it really improved the bass drum aspect of playing.

One thing I will say though, these things are sometimes sold with the phrase 'beginner kit' or 'for those who are learning'. These table top kits are the worst thing to learn on: The pads are to small; the layout is wrong; the feel is completely different. Their real benefit is that they are cheap and convenient.

Thanks for all you videos Justin, I find them enjoyable and helpful.

drummerboypoyntz
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I have a Yamaha dd65 and I really recommend it, it's great for just sitting on my desk for making music, it's great fun and you actually can hit the pads surprisingly easily! Speakers are great quality and the option for midi is really useful. Would suggest you buy a dd65 or 75 if you wish, they're well worth the money

ryoaev
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I got the DD-65 used to play at my office. Perfect. Have them in a corner and when I feel like playing I go over and play. Awesome. I wish I had the DD-75 because I could use the extra custom kits and more voices always gives you more options. Nice review.

ThatTimDenham
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I learned drums on a dd-55 and then dd-65. Great learning options for many styles of music but the biggest weakness is the touch sensitivity is pretty hard to modulate.
Fine if you are just banging out a rock tune but tricky for anything requiring more finesse.
Actually sound really good on recording, especially if you spend just a little EQ time.


Midi out lets you keep using it as a trigger pad after you upgrade to a full size set.

Falasi
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I asked for an electric drum set for Christmas parents got me the petod1 thing and I was kinda disappointed. Not what I was expecting but I couldn’t exactly expect them to spend 400$ on an alesis. But I’ve saved up money and now I’m getting the alesis surge so I have both. So not the end of the world😁👍

gavin.cichello
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I have the Yamaha dd65. I love it personally and it lasted me for a long time and also great for my small bedroom to practice. I enjoy the Yamaha dd65

ryanglick
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I have a Yamaha dd55, it was my first "drum set". Fired up my love for drums, and I plan on using it as a sample pad now.

mathewm.
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I live in the Netherlands where the population density is high and shared-walls and row houses are the norm. I built a small sound proof room in my house so I can play drums there without bothering neighbors, but it's small, dark, and my drum kit is terrible. So a few months back I stumbled upon the KAT KTMP1multipad and I realized it was so small and portable I could play it anywhere in the house with head phones or through speakers with the volume at a reasonable level. I decided to get one and test it out to see if the KAT could be an adequate replacement for my terrible physical kit.

Long story short - It can, and I highly recommend it. It's like 99 bucks. It's one pad divided into four smaller pads. You get 50 build-in sounds, and it's very portable. Downsides are it has no internal speaker and the add-on kick pedal and hi-hat controller for it are pretty bad, especially the hi-hat pedal. I tried using a Yamaha silent-kick and a few other pedals, but the KAT multipad doesn't recognize them.

If you live in an apartment, and have noise issues and space issues it is an ideal multi-pad. Though four pads for drum sounds may not be enough for you. It wasn't for me, so I got two.

I have two, (99 bucks a piece). One angled slightly above the other.
I run them through a small passive mixer (75 bucks) and out to speakers.
The kick pedal and hi-hat trigger cost like 160 bucks.
I mount the two pads on the bases of two cheap cymbal stands (50 bucks for both).
Total price tag for this very portable and versatile kit its less than 500 bucks. Keep in mind it's 500 for my suped up kit, but you can use one multi-pad on a kitchen table and its cost with the pedals is around $250

Though it's a great space saver, and I love being able to use headphones, and it's so portable, the thing I actually like best about and recognize gives it great value is that the on-board sounds are pretty good, and the tune / reverb / volume / sensitivity / balance controls allow you to get much better tones then you would get out of a standard cheap drum kit. Let's face it, even with new drum heads perfectly tuned, you can only make a cheap Tama or Pearl kit sound so good. And cheap cymbals sound terrible. Even the first few grades of Zildjian cymbals can be pretty underwhelming. So often, if you don't have more than a grand or, when you get a kit, you can end up with some pretty lousy sounding gear. For a while, when I was first starting out I had a snare drum that sounded like a bag of Doritos. So, having tried the KAT and having had a lot of time on very average low to mid range kits, I think the KAT sounds better and feels better (except for ride cymbal and hi-hat). Which is why, when I sold my Pearl kit and snare and cymbals, I kept the hi-hat and the Ride cymbal. The multi-pad just isn't sophisticated and nuanced enough to allow you to do the full range of things you can do with physical cymbals. For super intricate hi-hat work and / or nuanced ride cymbal work, it's good to have the real things on hand.

To go backwards and ramble about portability, I wish I could go back in time and hand myself this thing 20 years ago. When I think of all the hours spent lugging huge drum sets around to gigs and band practices, and think that I could have carried my whole current KAT setup in a messenger bag instead, I feel bad for my younger self.

Back to main point - try the KAT KTMP-1 Multipad. It's really, really good value for price.

SUMMARY

The mutli-pad is great. Very good velocity and sensitivity. Not a lot of cross-talk issues. Occasional failure of pads to trigger, but not more than once or twice in a song max. No way to put additional sounds on, but the onboard ones are pretty good. It's solidly build. Can withstand a significant beating. Super portable.

As for the accessories: The KAT bass drum trigger isn't half-bad once you get your pedal all set up just right with that weird inverted beater.

The KAT hi-hat trigger, not so great. In fact it's noisy, cheaply built, and not dynamic at all. The depth of the pedal on the hi-hat clutch is way to much. You have to push down and pull up too much to trigger the open / close sound. Here's what you do to make it better. Open the pedal and figure out how to adjust the depth. Either add additional foam, or put a bolt in the mechanism to shorten it's maximum possible open position. Once you do that, it becomes bearable.

golcese
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I bought a Yamaha dd65 for church use. I used it for a year and I upgraded to Roland spd 30 with kd8 kick and fd8 hihat. The best tip i can give is save it up for Roland series.

charlessamuel
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I think they're great for beginners to learn the basics of drumming. I'd say after a good few months people starting off can move onto a proper drum set

thatoneguy
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I have the DD-65 that's for my studio recording project and I also have the DD-75 for practicing and for a little small gig like a small church and café or outside by the train station making some money.

rhythm-t
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You see i have a different view on these than most people. I bought one of those lap tables for in cars and put mine on that and had my road kit

aldorthegreat
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I actually have a hatchback and my whole drum set fits in it

AfflictdGaming
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Thank you very much for the detailed and useful information, you saved me a lot of research! I was just looking for a simple tool to record drums to my songwriting, where no drumkit would fit.

greg