Roland HD1 V-Drums Lite Electronic Drum Kit

Roland HD-1 Electronic drum kit. I bought this as a Christmas present for my son. It came well packed and was easy to set up - which is a good job since there were no instructions in English. There was a hefty manual in just about every language except English and this took the shine off an otherwise great product. The stock sounds are OK - i would like to know if you can download new drum sets for it though. I guess i will have to spend some time surfing to find out about what I bought. I paid over £400 from a UK supplier (Andertons) so I would have expected some English manuals.... Annoyed really.

Overall this set of Roland HD1 drums are excellent.

If you are,as I was, looking for a good quality set of drums that take up little space, won't annoy the neighbours and that are also affordable, then this is the kit for you!

Yes of course these can never fully replace a full acoustic set, but for the very reasons that I have just stated, I believe these are a very good choice.

I had been looking at a variety of electric kits, but you should be very careful not to be too quick to jump in and purchase any sets based solely on price, as you will most certainly live to regret that.

Roland have such a great track history with all of their musical equipment, ai have been using their guitar multi effects units and guitar synths for a long time and in my opinion, you simply can't buy better!

These HD1 drums look really cool, and were very easy to set up straight out of the box, no technical knowledge required here and no special tools needed either.

You can adjust the angle of the arms that carry the drums to best suit your preferred seating position.

I would suggest making sure you use a really good quality set of headphones, basically it's no different than if you were to listen to your favourite music on a top quality hi fi system and then go and use cheap and nasty headphones, wouldn't make a lot of sense right? You can use these drums with headphones on at full volume, without making your ears bleed, and without disturbing anyone within your house at any hour.

If you do decide to make a bit more of a noise, then you will be needing a drum amp, but a word of caution here, PLEASE DO NOT USE A GUITAR AMP, these are not designed to be used with digital drums at all! At a push, you can use a keyboard amp, but my advice would have to be, go buy yourself a proper drum amp. I purchased the Roland PM03 and it looks really cool under the drum kit and caters for my needs. This amp however is only suited for home domestic use, like in your lounge or bedroom, it's powerful enough in these environments, but even at full volume, you will never risk blowing your windows out, it's loud enough for some fun but just not that loud, if you know what I mean.

Finally to your choice of drum sticks, no real life and death choices to be made here, but I would always say again, don't be tempted to buy really dirt cheap sticks, this is not because of using them at all, but more a point of possible damage to your drums long term as well as really cheap sticks can be a little uncomfortable to use after a time, you tend to get more in the way of vibration around your wrist after a time.

My personal choice are size 5A nylon tipped Zildjian sticks, they are made from hickory and cost me about £10 a pair from a drum retailer.

One last pointer on the sticks, worth a mention I think, is if you go for nylon tipped sticks, as I have, have a good feel around the tips and make sure that they are rounded and smooth, the last thing you want is any rough joins, this can damage your drum heads.

So a great kit, well designed, sounds awesome, looks cool, easy to set up and easy to use.

These HD1 drums have a total of 10 kit sounds built in, and the only real difference between these drums and the newer HD3 drums is the number of built in sounds and the price! HD3 have 20 kit sounds built in and are considerably dearer!

Thanks for reading this and I hope that you may have found the information of some use in helping you to decide if these could be the drums for you, it's a purchase that I certainly don't regret.

Happy drumming.

I have been playing the drums for over 20 years, but as I live in a flat I can't practice with an acoustic kit. To solve this problem the HD1 is a great kit to practice on and I have even used it for a full band rehearsal. In my opinion it's the best entry level electric kit there is, which even has a mesh snare head for a real feel. The only 2 downsides to this kit are not being able to use my own Kick Drum Pedal and it's a little limited on pad positioning options (but that doesn't seem to matter once you've been playing it for a bit), but aside from that I'm very happy with it. Another successful purchase from Andertons.

I bought this kit to learn to play and it's great.

As a beginners kit, I would recommend it to anyone.

I wanted to buy an electronic drum kit to play along with Rockband 3 on the xbox 360 and to re-learn drumming from first principles. I looked at the Roland a while back but thought it was just too expensive as a hobby kit. However, recently the kit was reduced in price so I had a moment of weakness and bought it.

I can honestly say that I made the right choice. From the moment you open the box and start to take the parts out, you can tell the kit is solid and will last - the build quality is very impressive and makes you start to appreciate where some of your money has gone. The set up is straightforward, just follow the supplied pictorial instructions and/or the DVD (it's worth noting that the UK instructions included with my kit were inside the DVD case rather than with rest of the documentation). The kit doesn't take up much room once constructed - which is definitely a big bonus.

I've used this kit on and off for about a month and it hasn't missed a single trigger. I've used it with rock band 3 (you'll need the xbox midi adapter for this to work), and it works immediately and (unlocks pro-drum mode, if you're interested). Practicing with headphones makes you appreciate how good the drum samples are. I've even tried the 'mixing' feature where you can play along with an external sound source through the drum module - it works ok but getting the mix volume right a bit tricky.

The pads have some positional adjustment, and are roughly 7.5 inches in diameter. The 'symbol' pads are bigger with a strike area that covers almost half of the surface. The star of the show is the snare - it has a Remo skin (rather than a rubber pad) that is adjustable for tension and it feels just like 'the real thing'.

Downsides, well I suppose it'd be nice if the kit was expandable (it isn't, the drum pad wires all feed into a parallel-printer-style connector which I suspect only matches the supplied drum module) and it had more built-in sounds, but I'm being picky as this is the base Roland kit designed to get you started.

If you're thinking about playing drums or need a compact quiet practice kit, you should definitely consider this kit over cheaper alternatives.

Roland got it pretty much spot on with the HD1 V-Drums Lite. They don't take up too much space. They are easy to set up and have enough flexibility for positioning the pads for playing comfort. Having midi out makes them extra useful too. The only slight negatives are that the spring for the bass drum pedal could do with being firmer and the metronome has no visual indication of the tempo it is set at.

Overall a great buy and I'm very happy with them. Thumbs up to Roland yet again.

An excellent drum kit. i am a beginner and the sound is perfect. it arrived quickly, an excellent product from a very good retailer.

I always wanted to get into drumming but never really get all the circumstances right. Recently I got into the mood again and researched the web for the best suitable e-drum kit. Finally I chose Roland HD-1 mainly because I am a complete beginner with not much free space around my home but still wanted quality and durability.

I got the kit for a week now and it delivered what I expected. It is solid, easy to assemble, works right out of the box and the known flaws (limited functionality like lack of choke on cymbals or no rim shot) does not bother me much. It is an ideal tool for me to start drumming and develop my skills for a few years before I will consider to move on.

I would also like to mention that due to the refit sale and special offer I also got the accessory pack AND the drum tutor software included with the kit which makes it a great bargain I could not find anywhere else. Andertons' customer service is indeed excellent so I am highly satisfied with both the product and the service.

Nice practice kit, small footprint with enough good sounds to do the job.

Free accessory pack is very poor. For a real bargain, drum kit should be sold £42.00 cheaper with no accessory pack.

Really excellent design. Really good for learning and practice. Good dynamics. Obviously the proximity of the pads restrict the fluid body movements that would be ideal, but the excellent compact design was a major factor in choosing the kit.

This kit is absolutely fantastic value for money and superb for beginners like myself. The mesh snare drum is great and has a much more realistic feel than a rubber pad. I do however have a few minor points about the kit that some may wish to consider if they have a bit more money to spend. Similar to many other reviews I read about the HD-1 when choosing my kit, I find that the high-hat is quite difficult to keep closed and will sound slightly open with the smallest release of pressure on the pedal. There is also not a real pedal with the bass drum though personally that is not something I mind. The simplicity of the brain, although probably a benefit for some, is also slightly frustrating as it would be good to be able to tweak some of the sounds and have a greater variety. Having said that the sounds that the HD-1 does provide are realistic and I have experienced no triggering issues which might occur with cheaper kits. Despite these minors issues I am delighted with the HD-1 and I am very glad I stretched my budget to purchase it.

What a bargain. I've been thinking about buying the HD-1 for months but put it off because of the price. This was by far the best deal I'd found online or on the high street, and the interest free credit was a clincher.

Great piece of kit. Really solid and feels well built. Sounds excellent even though I'm only a beginner. Doesn't take to much space and it's just what I was looking for.

Delivery was great too with only one day's delay which was pretty good considering how much snow there was around.

Good-looking kit, quite easy to assemble, compact.

Fine range of drum sounds via the 10 optional settings. Cymbal sounds: hi-hat OK, crash OK, ride far too quiet.

A good starter kit i think. It took 1.5 hrs to set up, mainly cos the instructions were hidden inside the dvd cover. The 3 yr warranty gave us peace of mind, and the quality of the drum kit noises seem more than good enough. Another plus is that it takes up very little space.

First of all I'd like to say this was my first purchase with andertons and they were a pleasure to deal with. My goods were delivered first thing the following morning on my doorstep around eight o'clock in the morning so delivery was fast excellent.

I bought this Roland HD – 1 on behalf of one of my pupils as I teach drums professionally and I have been using Roland electric drums for around 15 years so I am used to and know about Roland products by now. This was my first ever meeting with the HD –1 I was pleasantly surprised at how well it all had been put together and made. The standard kit sounds great for how much this kit costs and I I'm used to playing the TD 20 for the last six years so it had a lot to live up to and it did not disappoint in anyway..

I was very sceptical about not having a bass drum pedal as this is built-in at the bottom of the frame and this does put people off as I have experienced myself when talking to others about what starter electronic drum kit to buy. Not having a real bass drum pedal tends to make people unsure about the HD -1 but believe me when you are sat there playing you would never know the difference it works really well.

Anybody looking to get on the ladder with Roland it would be an ideal starting base as I've always thought Roland drum sounds for me are far superior than others out there.

If you are a beginner and don't have much room for a big drum set then the HD 1 drums are just the thing for you.

You get the basic feel for playing drums and also get used to what part of a drum kit is where.

The sound is great and its very easy to set-up. I was playing within 20 minutes of receiving the package.

The HD 1 is the nuts!!

it is working great with my Boss Micro BR and helping to construct a good quality demo The only kit i use is no1, to be honest the rest are a bit naff, but if you are looking to knock the hell out of drums and not annoy anyone this is the one to buy. Great for beginners and i would say semi pro too.....if you can play , you can play!! £ 500 notes there about gets a real deal. Get it home , easy to essemble....rockin' in minutes of getting through the door!!

I'm really pleased with this Kit. The dynamic response of the mesh snare is superb and heightens the realism to reflect an acoustic kit brilliantly. There is no rim shot, no cymbal kill, so this is where some money goes on the next spec up. There are only 2 minor points I would pick up on. 1 - the kick is a bit louder than the rest of the hits which is not independently adjustable. Also the kick is slightly awkward as it is raised on it's mounting and doesn't reflect perfectly an acoustic kit.

Overall though 4 out of 5 and I'd recommend it to anyone. Definitely worth the money.

An excellent package for a beginner (like me) and more experienced players (like my teacher!). They hardly take up any room, fit neatly into a corner and with the headphones they are an ideal option for living in a block of flats. The sound quality and range of effects are superb. The snare drum really feels like the real thing, which is handy if you have to switch between this and an acoustic kit.

These drums are fantastic as a beginner kit. It does not have over 100 sounds that you will never use.. it does not take up half a bedroom... and you can play it with the confidence that it will feel and sound like it's older brother.

Set up was easy via the dvd and the drums fit snuggly into a corner. I got a brilliant deal with Andertons, adding a stool, sticks and the offical Rolad amp to go with this product. It all looked great set up, and sounded fantastic.

You have an array of kits, and best of all, you plug in your MP3 player and play along - this is what i wanted! Also you can plug in your headphones to save the neighbours!

There is a midi output too - i have not yet tried hooking it up to my Wii console, but i am certain it is possible for Guitar Hero!

The fact you get a mesh like snare makes such a difference, and you can adjust all the pads to your needs. Unfortunately the pedals are fixed, but this does not impede your playing.

A great beginner kit, for a budget and space saving - definately to give you a taster for when you move onwards and upwards!