Author Topic: One more day, and I'm out.  (Read 1300 times)

Offline VandalX

One more day, and I'm out.
« on: April 10, 2018, 01:22:32 AM »
Despite my prior pronouncements of finding some interest in fixing all the parts of my NEW Alesis DM10 MKII Pro that have broken, I am close to giving up. I had resigned myself to fixing the main issue which for me was the 12" pad that I use for a snare. As they failed, I rotated one of the floor toms into snare position. Back and forth with Alesis and they have sent me four new pads to replace them, but I endeavored to come up with a fix that was suitable and more robust. Great. A new hobby. At least I'd know that failures were my own as well as the successes.

Today, as I dialed in my latest 12" pad fix (this time an epoxy-coated piezo with heat shrink-covered leads), a new little hamster showed up and ruined my sense of progress. Now the bass drum trigger is failing. It only fires under extreme impact. No nuance, no sensitivity. Just a 127 hit will set it off. And then, attendant machine gunning follows. This is a wonderful development! I was hoping to have my kick drum fail, and here it is!

This kick drum unit seems to be different than the OG DM10 version, and I haven't had the heart to take it apart yet. My plan is to remove the head, look for faults/breakage, replace piezo, and give it a shot. If I fix it, then this sad piece of crap will live with me for another day. If not, it all goes back to Amazon, who've been amazing with returns- no questions asked. At this point, I certainly would never purchase another Alesis product, and I'm on the fence about keeping the one I have. The point of diminishing returns was reached over the weekend, but I kept telling myself that I'm learning a lot about my "new" equipment. However, I am now spending more time fixing rather than playing, and that's unacceptable.

I realize there are many folks who have not had issues with their kits, and that gives me hope that Alesis products aren't all assembled and designed by blind, drunk monkeys. But mine was. It's unacceptable that a new product should suffer so many repeated failures that seem to migrate around the kit as it's played (those rare times when I can play them unfettered by malfunction). I am a voracious reader of online forums, this one in particular, as well as the Alesis site and others. These problems are not unknown to Alesis, which indicates to me that they don't much care about fixing their quality control issues. Not just quality, but there are fundamental design flaws across their product line that are unconscionably repeated through new product offerings. Is there no one at Alesis who goes to R&D and says, "hey guys, a heads up: apparently our triggers and wiring suck and are prone to failure. Can we fix this?" As far as I can tell, their only "fix" is to slap on some new letter/number combos after the "DM10" name or some shiny red sparkle shit and call it improved. Blind. Drunk. Monkeys. Actually, monkeys would probably do a better job, considering the tail accessory.

So, at the end of this journey, if I return the whole kit, I have several half-full glasses of lemonade. I purchased my external USB audio interface, which works beautifully. I also have Addictive Drums 2, and I love how it sounds. And I have a shit-ton of piezos and several extra pads that won't get returned to Amazon. And now, a humble prone acknowledgment of my fellow Alesis heroes who've stuck with it for years. I don't know how you did it without going crazy. Bravo.

I am going to stay positive that I can fix the kick drum, and everything will be peachy. By tomorrow afternoon I will be playing Fool In The Rain and wearing the skins of my vanquished foes. If it doesn't go well, I have a 10mm solution that will guarantee the kit will sound no more...forevermore. Actually, It will just get shipped back and I'll build my own damn kit.

Speaking of kits, if Alesis wants to be an honorable company, they should market their products as true drum "kits." Not finished products by any means, but something that gets you a third of the way to having an actual e-drum set. This would take some of the sting out of receiving a product that begins to fail as soon as it's put to use.

It may seem like all I do on this forum is complain about my failing drum set, and for the most part, that's true. However, I'm not complaining about things that were under my control or influence. These are strictly issues resulting from poor build quality and cheap components. If Alesis could address these problems, they would truly come to threaten Roland, but I think it's probably driving more people TO the Roland ecosystem. I wish I had kept track of the hours I've spent trying to understand what's going on and then fixing the problem. I have a feeling I'd be approaching the $2500-3000 mark by this point. In my case, the true cost of a $1200 kit.

Rant over. Tomorrow is another day...This too shall pass...that which doesn't kill me has made a huge mistake.

Alesis DM 10 MKII Pro (with Tama Iron Cobra double). Pearl Export acoustic. Fostex VF160EX Digital multitrack (16). Fostex monitors. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Roland Juno 106 Poly synth. Aria Knight Warrior. Peavy Fury. Digitech GNX3000. Digitech RP360. Tascam Porta 05 four track. MacBook Air.