Liz Costa
February 20, 2009

Rating: 8/10

The Ion IED01 is clearly an entry level electronic drum kit but if you\'re on a budget and want a kit of this kind here\'s the way in. Normally, electronic kits, like the Roland TD-3KW+P are extremely expensive so, with this price disparity, something\'s got to give. I learned all my drumming on a Yamaha DD55 and wanted to upgrade. The IED01\'s drum samples are better than those in the DD55, however, the ride cymbal is a lot quieter than the other drums. I initially turned down the other 8 sample volume levels so that the ride would stand out more but there\'s a hum level that becomes more apparent because of the low quality power adaptor supplied. There may be a way around this, such as an improved, regulated PWR adaptor. I haven\'t tried this yet because the IED01\'s Ëœbrain\" stipulates low voltage AC as the PWR source. Also, substituting another adaptor may cause damage and will void warranty. It\'s possible to assign different voices to the pads and the brain saves/remembers the setting upon each power-up so you don\'t have to re-set them. To address the low volume ride, I substituted it with an open high hat, which has a similar sound but louder. The pads are really robust and I\'ve dis-assembled one and re-assembled it without difficulty. It occurred that I could install another pizo element next to the original one to enable dual-drum triggering: There\'s a spare grommited mounting hole for another 3.5mm mono jack on each pad. If there\'s anything that would let this kit down, it would be the frame. Using the arrangement as suggested in the manual, I bought an extra two trigger-pads, sold as an expansion pack and I found the extra weight made the pad array slip round, even when not being played. I didn\'t want to tighten the couplings with pliers because they may split. It would be nice to know if you can get replacement parts, such as spare poles and couplings in event of loss/damage or even to expand. Consequently, I devised my own way to arrange the kit components, as can be viewed through www.hoofbags.me.uk In order to do this I had to beef up the frame using 22mm copper plumbing pipe/components. You can hear a track recorded with my iED01. Click on Electric Cheese Trolley - Sids Old Boots Trilogy. Sorry about the rubbish song but it at least gives an idea of how it sounds. Below sng title is hyperlink to my iED01 picture.

Joel
January 3, 2009

Rating: 6/10

These drums look decent for their price and I may be thinking of buying them. I do have a regular drum kit but forced to get rid of it because im too noisey. So Im thinking about getting some electonic drums and the ION IED01 drums look like the perfect drums for me in this situation.

Paul Harrison
December 19, 2006

Rating: 10/10

Ok, i thought this would be "One of those cheap rip offs of the V-Drums series lookey-likey's",but i was surprised when i finally took it out of the box and gave the ION drum kit a go. Firstly, a little background about me: I'm a Serious musician, and if it's not right for me, it goes back. 'Nuff said. Firstly to the setup: Setup was really easy, once you get it out of the box, assemble the rack and get your pads in order/wired up. it's as simple as turning on a kettle. i found the pads are slightly prone to mis-triggering. but all these kits are like that. so it was off to the module for some "Sound-diving". after a couple of minutes setting velocities, the kit was playing like a dream. THE MODULE: all i can say about this module is I have used Alesis SR16's for the best part of 10 years and this module has just replaced it. Beautifully crafted sounds, velocity levels are dreamy and changing individual drum sounds is second to none.

After a while i decided to use this kit via MIDI and Reason, just to see what i could do with it. So with laptop in one hand, Reason Drums in the other, and a USB-MIDI converter, i was drumming away til the early hours of the morning without even waking up my 2 year old daughter.

Down Sides: there is none really, only that if you do buy this kit, you will probably have to get a set of 5A sticks, as the sticks that come with the kit are bulky, and over time, could do damage to the pads.

Synopsis: Excellent kit. You will not see anything like this again in the sub 500 mark that won't seem "toyish". THIS KIT IS FOR BIG BOYS, AND A TOY IT AIN'T

Highly recommended

Ed.
March 31, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Unbeatable at the price.

Rebadged ALESIS SR-16 drum machine for the brain. Sounds good and with what are now CLASSIC sounds. Seriously a cut above other toy(ish) drum pads at the price. Drum pads nice and bouncy and easy for rolls. Hi-hat pedal will close/trap an open hi-hat hit but won't open a hit. Ah well. I guess that's why it's not 1500 pounds. I'm not a drummer first but it feels more like a kit than any thing you're going to get at the price and as a VST drumkit trigger is unbeatable.

It was a bit of a nightmare assmembly job. Took me a solid two hours. Really fiddly. Instructions first class though. Build quality can only be described as budget and I don't think it would survive long in a gigging situation but as a drum trigger or even drum sound source in a project studio it's fantastic value for money. It looks too good to be true at the price but take a chance. I did and I have no regrets at all. Lastly I was impressed at how perfectly complete the package is. It comes with every cable and even a screwdriver!
Just realised I'm kinda gushing here. Oh well.
Great product and fantastic value for money.