I’ve always had dangerously little rhythm. Dribbling a basketball? I’d kick the ball. Bustin’ a dance move? I’m stepping on both your feet. Keeping a beat? That part’s at least hopeful.
As an option for whatever the hell it is I think I’m creating, the Alesis Surge Mesh Kit has already proven to be a lot of fun.
It comes with a 10″ snare and three 8″ toms with a few cymbals included (hi-hat, ride, and crash). The ride and crash cymbals have sensors on them to enable choke. I maxed mine out by plugging in another 8″ tom and another cymbal with choke into their respective available ports on the kit’s control unit.
Also included is a pedal for the hi-hat control as well as an 8″ bass drum and the requisite pedal. I don’t remember whether or not any sticks were included.
When connecting to my audio interface by a pair of TRS cables, the drums can’t be individually tweaked after recording. A fairly long USB cable has enabled MIDI functions. What’s really cool is the MIDI commands are sent over the USB and the audio is sent over the TRS cables at the same time.
It’s fairly simple to change the preloaded sound of any of the drum surfaces or to change the current set to one of the 24 included kits. You can mix and match from those kits. I personally like making one of my toms a kick drum since I suck at complex coordination.
When I’m fortunate enough to have an actual drummer in the studio, these sound pretty good considering they’re ultimately a big MIDI controller with built in sounds.
Learn More: Alesis Surge Mesh Kit
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