6 Best Double Bass Electronic Drum Sets – Dual Kick Pedals

One great thing about Alesis is how they offer mesh head kits at affordable prices. Although these heads aren’t as high-quality as the ones on higher-end kits, they’re still better than rubber pads any day of the week.

The Nitro Max is a great starter kit for beginners, providing smooth sounds and authentic feel.

The drum module has 40 preset kits and 385 onboard sounds. Don’t expect these to sound like professional studio samples. However, do expect to have a lot of fun playing around with all the different sounds.

This kit is great for beginners because the pads are large and you can place them spaced out from each other. You’ll often find that cheaper kits have small pads and a small footprint, meaning you won’t get the same spatial awareness that you’d have on an acoustic kit.

My initial impression of the Roland TD-07DMK was that it’s a basic electronic kit for anyone needing mesh heads and no fancy features that would increase the price. Although that’s partly true, this kit does offer a bit more.

Each pad has a tunable mesh head, meaning you can change the tension to get it to feel as natural as your acoustic kit.

Different drummers like different tensions, making this a versatile feature. The mesh heads are a definite bonus for the price this kit comes at.

The module is fairly simple. It has 25 preset kits, 25 user kits, and 143 drum and percussion sounds to assign to any surface. Also, the Bluetooth, MIDI, and USB connectivity make the built-in metronome, recording function, and rhythm trainer just a plus. Yes, connecting it right to your DAW adds a plethora of playing options.

The preset kits are the flagship TD-50 sounds that are realistic and give you plenty of options for different songs.

I’d suggest getting this kit if you’re on a budget and want the best feeling electronic drum set you can possibly get. I mean, for Roland’s elite-level sound and feel, this is a very affordable kit.

The bass drum pad is a small piece of rubber that is attached to one of the legs of the kit. Typically, an electronic kit would have its own bass drum tower. However, this pad saves space and has a size that is perfectly suited for two pedals.

You’d think it would lose some of the stability, but it handles hard double pedal playing perfectly fine. If you’re not a fan of this kick pad, you could always replace it with one of Roland’s standalone kick towers such as the KD-120.

The larger size of the KD-120 would make double pedal playing even better with this kit.

One downside is that the hi-hat pedal is a trigger that isn’t connected to the pad, stopping you from getting the feel of a real hi-hat stand.

Another small thing I found is that you need to lift your foot almost completely off the hi-hat pedal to get an open hi-hat sound. If your current technique doesn’t involve your foot doing that, you may struggle a bit at first with this drum kit.

If you’re going to upgrade the kick pad, you may as well go the full mile and upgrade the hi-hat pedal as well and attach a dedicated hi-hat stand. However, the kit is more than good enough as it is for most drummers.

Finally, bear in mind it doesn’t come with a drummer’s throne or kickdrum pedal, so you’ll have to use your own. On the good side, you’ll be very familiar with the feel and balance.

Roland’s VAD series of drums have the best of both worlds by combining electronic pads with acoustic shells, giving you a versatile e-kit that looks and feels like an acoustic kit. The VAD kit comes in 3 versions and the VAD307 is the most affordable.

The first thing you’ll notice on this kit is the shallow drum shells. The 10” rack toms and 12” snare drum and floor tom give it the resemblance of a fusion kit with shallow drums.

The shells have a smooth black wrap and chrome hardware for an eye-catching appearance. The 18” kick drum produces a thick feel when played, emulating the feel of an acoustic kit.

The cymbal setup is pretty standard with a hi-hat, 2 crashes, and a ride. All the cymbal pads mount onto regular drum hardware stands. The toms also come with mounts to attach to the cymbal stands.

The kit comes with the 2nd generation Roland TD-17 module. This module was Roland’s flagship drum module for a while, meaning it’s packed with high-quality features. The most notable one would be Roland’s Prismatic Sound Modeling Engine that allows you to drastically edit your sounds.

The Yamaha DTX6K-X takes many of the features from Yamaha’s higher-quality kits and packs it into an affordable workhorse. The DTX-PRO module along with the multi-zone drum pads make this a highly sought after kit.

The standout feature of the kit is the drum module. It looks a bit different from other modules, almost resembling a drum machine from the 20th century. It has 40 preset kits and 200 spaces for custom kits. As expected from Yamaha, the samples are top-quality.

The snare pad has 3 zones, allowing you to produce all the sounds you’d be able to from an acoustic snare. The ride also has 3 zones and can be choked.

The kick drum tower handles double pedals fairly well. However, you could replace it with Yamaha’s 10” electronic kick tower pad for more size and stability.

One downside to this kit is that the toms are rubber pads. However, most Yamaha e-kits are like this and they’re still loved products.

Continuing with the trend of affordable mesh pads, the Alesis Nitro Pro is an intermediate drum kit that provides those and a bit more. Add to that the size of the drum pads and you’ve got yourself a winner.

The 10” snare drum pad and 8” tom pads make this kit a competitive product.

The module has 36 preset drum kits and 500 onboard sample sounds, giving you plenty to work with. The samples aren’t the highest quality, but they’ll get the job done for casual practice or learning.

Speaking of which, the sequencer, onboard metronome, and lessons will keep you playing and improving for years. Moreover, the 60 practice songs and the Bluetooth capability mean practicing doesn’t have to be boring anymore.

The kit has an 8” kick pad tower that is very sturdy. However, it comes with an Alesis kick pedal that isn’t great. That said, your replacement double pedal will work wonders. The sturdiness of the tower will take on heavy kick patterns and still stand proud and strong.

I think this kit is a good addition to this list thanks to the slightly larger bass drum pad.

If you want a kit that is affordable, the Nitro, is a viable option.

I know some drummers love this kit because it’s cheap and the pads are great. Even though they might not be fans of the onboard sounds, they still heavily use the kit to practice. Instead of relying on the module, they plug the kit into a computer and use a VST to get some better sounds to play around with.

If you’re not keen on going through the extra effort that’s involved with that, I’d suggest this kit would work mainly for beginners.

Ending off this list is Alesis’ pride and joy, the Strata Prime Expanded. Being their top kit, the Strata is Alesis’ most advanced and playable kit yet. It offers serious value. It mixes acoustic shells with electronic pads and has bigger cymbal pads than any other electronic kit.

The main selling point, in my opinion, is the 20” kick drum. It perfectly replicates the feel of an acoustic kick, making it one of the best options for double-pedal playing.

The pads are highly responsive and can be tuned to be tight or loose. The snare, toms, and crash cymbals all have two zones, giving you plenty of playing options. This is a monster, 7-piece drum kit mounted on a curved rack system that’s as sturdy as it is comfortable to play.

The drum module has a huge, 10.1” touch screen that makes the user interface as easy as it can be. Plus, its multi-core processor and 128GB of storage leave much room for improvement. That said, the amount of content packed into it as factory default is outstanding. It’s 40GB worth of elite-level drumming sounds. This includes 75 custom kits and over 440 onboard sounds. Unlike the other Alesis modules on this list, these samples sound wonderful. Plus, every sound can be edited with a variety of options.

If you want one of the top electronic kits on the market that still comes in at a relatively affordable price, the Strata Prime Expanded is a great option. It’s still quite expensive, but it’s a lot cheaper than the top-of-the-range Rolands and Yamahas.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the Roland VAD307 kit, but I feel like the Alesis Strata Prime Expanded is the better deal as it comes with way more drums and features. If you’re someone who plays metal on a huge kit with multiple cymbals and drums, this is pretty much the only electronic kit that is made for you. Every other kit will involve huge aftermarket costs to add drum and cymbal pads.

One thing that I don’t like about the kit is that it only comes in one color. I feel like that limits your creative choice in how you want your drums to look. The standard black color of all the other e-kits fits better in most situations. With that being said, seeing different colors in these e-kits with wooden shells is something I’d love to see more of.