Our friends at USBGeek.com have lots of cool products in stock, they’ve recently sent me their USB Drum Kit for review. It’s actually really cool, lots of fun and my kids just love it.
USB Drum Kit from USBGeek
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: USBGeek
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
The USB Roll Up Drum Kit has 6 pads for you to play around with, and software that will teach you how to drum along to your favorite songs at whatever tempo you want.
Features:
Powered by USB, no batteries required.
Roll it up and bring it everywhere, easy storage.
Innovative interface allows all programming and sound to be activated on your monitor.
3 level learning feature.
Play along option, Record/Playback and program option.
Save your songs and E-mail to friends.
6 level tones and default of (-3 to +3)
Tempo Adjustment (40-208 Beats)
5 playing pads (for snare, kick, plus 2 toms)
50 percussion sounds.
20 preprogrammed percussion sets.
100 preprogrammed beats.
Compatible with Windows XP/2000
Package Contents:
USB drum board
2 x Drumsticks
CD with software
User guide
Price: US$ 40.00
Product Link: http://www.usbgeek.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=0639
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A Better Look at Things
:
There’s not much in the way of packaging, that happens sometimes when you get things for review. The sample I got for review is not what you’ll get for retail, the retail packaging is much nicer.
The USB Drum Kit cam to me actually in a plastic bag only, so no cool pics for you to see…
The USB Drum Kit appears to be made out of rubber, the whit parts you see in the picture are the touch sensors for the various types of drums.
It is very flexible, the entire USB Drum Kit can be rolled up and taken wherever you want.
The drum sticks that come with the USB Drum Kit are actually very nice, yes they are plastic but they feel heavy and all full sized.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
To install the USB Drum Kit from USBGeek, you need to installed the software first, then plug it into any available USB port and you’re ready to get rocking!
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The interface is very easy to navigate and features many options you can change. There are drop down menus to select from the numerous Snare Drum Samples, Rhythm Patterns, Pad Effects, Bass Drum Loops and the actual music library (which is background music that you can add drums to). There is also a learning mode and even a Metronome.
You can also play the drums by using the mouse as well if you wish. The drum pads light up when you hit the pad or click on them with your mouse, they also send colorful bars scrolling up the screen to ‘show’ your music.
My 6 year old son is now out of school for the summer so I thought I would recruit him to help me with this review, here are a couple movies of him playing the USB Drum Kit from USBgeek:
The first movie is just basically playing the drum, and I tried to get a close up of the interface in action as well.
The second movie is with the background music playing as well, my son thought it was a lot more fun with the music playing.
Well the USB Drum Kit is very visually entertaining as well as physically fun. All of my kids, even the baby loved to play with it, the entire family has lots of fun. I gave it to my kids for their computer and they play with it almost everyday now.
Summary:
The USB Drum Kit from USBGeek is actually very cool and a whole lot of fun for everyone in your family. It’s very easy to setup and use, and it’s extremely durable so you won’t have to worry about your kids damaging it at all. There are many options as well so you can customize your drum playing experience to any style of music that you like. The only actual drawback I can see is the price, it seems a bit high for such a product, maybe $30 instead of $40 would be about the right price for this product…
DragonSteelMods gives the USB Drum Kit a 4.5 out of 5
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Pros:
-Very durable
-Lots of fun
-Programmable
-Lots of options
-Very easy to use
Cons:
-A bit expensive
I would like to thank USBGeek for the chance to review the USB Drum Kit and for their continued support of DSM.