Millenium MPS-850 E-Drum Set

I purchased the MPS-850 for home practice - I normally play an acoustic drum kit. My only previous e-kit experience was with a converted acoustic kit (mesh heads, triggers, VST, laptop etc). The performance of the MPS-850 is proving far superior. I'll go through the various components one by one.

MODULE
The kit is ready to play the instant you switch it on. This is a huge advantage for me, compared to dealing with laptop, VST, external soundcard etc. Another plus: I can't detect any latency, which makes the playing experience feel very natural. Many of the in-built acoustic type kits sound OK. With the help of the supplied manual I created my own 'User Kit' which I'm very happy with. There are several settings you can tweak to deliver an excellent response from all the individual pieces. I've made good use of the module's USB input, playing along to MP3s. You can also record to USB to listen back to your new grooves. I sometimes run the module's output to a Porter & Davies BC2. That works fantastically well! There are additional features I haven't tried yet e.g. MIDI in/out, Aux In etc. It's a well featured unit, easy to navigate.

BASS DRUM & BASS DRUM PEDAL
The supplied pedal looks like a low budget item, but works surprisingly well. Not quite as fast as my Tama Speedking but I find it perfectly usable for practice. The kick pad is mounted to a sturdy frame, separate to the rest of the rack.

HI-HAT
The MPS-850 is supplied with a 'proper' hi-hat stand. On my acoustic kit I have the hi-hats set quite high and was pleased to find the stand has sufficient height to duplicate my normal hi-hat position. I've seen a few reviews saying the MPS-850 hi-hat can't handle a disco-style open and close pattern. I've found the hi-hat responds quite well but I've had to adapt my foot action slightly to get closer to a realistic sounding feel. So the hi-hat open/close feel's not perfect but it's much better than I was expecting based on other feedback I've read. The chick and splash sounds are very good. A nice sounding 'chick' is easy and very intuitive but a splash requires an extremely rapid down and up foot movement - much faster than required with a regular hi-hat, otherwise you only get 'chick'. It's not a big deal but I'll agree with some others that there's scope for improvement to the hi-hat's open/close response and chick action.

SNARE
As with all the pads, stick response and feel from the mesh head is excellent. Initially I wasn't entirely happy with the sound of ghost notes and faster double stroke snare rolls - they sounded a little too machine-gun. After changing the snare's velocity curve in the module's settings I've now got a more natural sounding drum that handles double-stroke and other rudiment style rolls in a more realistic way.

TOMS
They worked just fine straight out of the box. At first I found the 8 inch pads were too small - I was often hitting the rim - but after adjusting the position and getting used to playing pads that are much smaller than my acoustic kit's toms, my accuracy has improved greatly! I didn't have the same problem with the 2 x 10 inch pads.

CRASH CYMBALS
Both crashes have separate bow and edge sounds. No bell sound. But they're also chokable, which is a great bonus. Once you've worked out exactly how to grab the edge in the right way, choke works perfectly every time.

RIDE CYMBAL
It's a 3 zone ride - bow edge and bell. I've seen a few comments about the bell sound being unreliable, so I was prepared for this to be an issue. What I've found is the bell function will work consistently, but only if it's struck within a very small area i.e. you have to look very carefully at the spot you're striking, which can be difficult at faster tempos. If you were recording with the kit and needed 100% perfect bell response, that could be tricky. Ideally the bell area would be larger, but for practice purposes I don't find it a major problem.

RACK & MOUNTS etc
I've never been a fan of racks, or e-kits for that matter - that's why my first venture into e-drumming was an acoustic to electric conversion - because a conventional drum kit will always look better IMO. So setting aside the fact all racks look like scaffolding, the most important thing is whether the MPS-850 rack is sturdy and reliable. I've had my kit for approx 6 weeks and it's been played for an average of an hour almost every day. So far the rack has been 100% reliable. Nothing has come loose or fallen off. It was easy to assemble, following the diagrams in the supplied manual.

SUMMARY
No doubt about it, the MPS-850 is outstanding value for money. To package such a well featured module along with bass drum (and BD pedal), snare, 4 x toms, 2 x crashes, 3-zone ride, hi-hat and hi-hat stand at this price is hugely impressive. The two supplied manuals are nicely done. One is for rack assembly and the other is a very detailed instruction book for the pads, cymbals and all module settings. I received two copies of each - one in German and one in English. Clear, concise and well written - not a hint of Chinglish!

CUSTOMER SERVICE
After a couple of weeks, one of my 10" drum pads (floor tom) developed a fault. The drum would only respond if the mesh head was struck in a very specific area, close to one of the mesh cones that sits between the head and sensor. When I contacted Thomann and described the fault, they asked me to send a video so they could get a better idea of what the problem was. I sent them a short video the following morning. Later the same day they contacted me to let me know a replacement pad was being sent free of charge. Yes, a slight inconvenience having to wait for a replacement but very reassuring to know Thomann were keen to resolve it as quickly as possible. 10/10

After many weeks debating whether or not to buy this drum kit I finally made the plunge. I've been drumming for almost 20 years and have had many acoustic kits during that time. I wanted something that was compact, quiet and usable for home recording and for drum covers in the future. Plus,I live in an apartment.

Connected to my Mac fine, but had to remap the MIDI. Pads were assigned to different notes in my DAW (Logic Pro).

If you're new to drumming, or even have been playing for sometime, this kit would accomodate your needs perfectly. Having said that, people need to understand that an electronic kit plays and feels different from an acoustic kit. So heavy hitters will have to adjust accordingly. It can take a bashing alright tho. My background is Post/Hardcore Rock.

The kit is not perfect out the box (module settings) wise. However, you REALLY need to TWEAK the module so that it suits how you play for a more natural response. (Threshold, sensitivity, velocities, curves, and xtalk etc.) There are many YT Vids that explain all of this, so do your homework. Definitely worth the time. I love that this set has all mesh heads as you can loosen or tighten to mimic the real thing.

PROS
-All Mesh Heads (tunable)
-Full Hi Hat Stand
-Robust Module (can tweak settings unlike similar kits in the same price range)
-Module has volume faders for each pad for quick adjustment on the fly.
-3 zone Ride & chokable cymbals
-Bang for buck. You get a lot kit for the money
-Nice sized kit and compact.
-Works well with VSTs

CONS
-Sounds aren't too bad, but you have enough to get by. Grand for practising.
-Hi Hat doesn't respond quick enough, sometimes the foot splash/open hat continues after foot is pressed down. Really noticable when playing fast. I still need to tweak it a little more to match how i play.
-Rack clamps seem to not tighten but still become loose, so I find myself correcting this often. Like for example the snare support arm, can move with your hand even when the clamp is tightened.
-Rubber rims look flat and squared and seems like there's a lot of space between them and the mesh heads. Can also see metal gap in between them. Isn't a big deal but noticeable.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this drum set, I've owned a Roland TD9 in the past but honestly can't justify the money for big brands anymore, if you're on a budget and want to play/learn drums, this is the kit for you.

I've had the MPS-850 for a couple of weeks now and had a chance to give it a good thrashing, so here are my thoughts in case they're of interest to any potential buyers.

I want to say up front that I scoured the reviews to get as much idea of whether this kit was any good or not prior to purchase and I had it ordered and in the shopping cart and back out again about 4 times over about a 6 week period during which I was clearly being indecisive :-)

Thing is, for me, it is a big purchase that I can just about justify but only if it is worth that expenditure. But it's obvious that I was interested.

So, cut to the chase, is it worth the money ? Absolutely yes.
I have an excellent quality acoustic kit and I hit hard, so I was a little sceptical about the mesh heads and if the rack would stand the use but I needn't have worried. The heads can take more than you might expect and despite the fact that yes, you do play a little softer naturally on an electric kit compared to hammering it out on stage behind a 'proper' kit, it plays well and has a great feel. To be honest you're not really going to be going full on Keith Moon in your living room or spare bedroom anyway are you ?

I'll not bother going into a full review of everything about sounds etc because it's already been covered in most of the other reviews. I'll maybe just mention a few things that I didn't notice in the other ones.
If it's your thing .... I use a double kick pedal with this kit and it works perfectly. I have heard people say that they don't work very well on leccy kits because the beaters aren't hitting the optimum centre spot of the kick drum skin (mesh). Well the response is great and feels very natural to me straight out of the box, but if necessary you can adjust the sensitivity as you choose. I haven't because I don't think it needs it.

I haven't had any problem with finding the (apparently elusive g-spot) bell of the ride cymbal that others have mentioned and it doesn't need hitting harder or anything like that, it's very nicely playable actually. And while I'm mentioning cymbals - the choke function is great when you have found how to do it. It's very easy to use but makes it more 'real' sounding and less 'electric' kit.
Hi - hat .... what can I say - great to have a proper one and works well once you get used to it. Never had more than a floor pedal and flat plastic cymbal for a hi-hat on my previous electric kit.

Last thing I'll mention that I haven't seen anyone talk about is that the module and kit has very low latency which is great. I like to play online with other people around the world and latency of getting the signals around and through a computer before you even involve the randomness of the internet and it's volatile connections and speed, is the biggest issue. The MPS-850 has performed extremely well in this department so I'm happy with that too.

So in conclusion, I am over the moon with my purchase. The kit as a whole far exceeds the price tag and is easily a match for other 'named' brand equipment selling at a far higher price. It ticks all my boxes for what I require from an electric practice kit and to be honest I can't praise it highly enough. I'm sure that kits that cost many hundreds of pounds more, have more features and samples and voices and songs on them but if you really can't find anything you like on the MPS-850 module then I'm sorry but I think you're being rather over critical.

(My only criticism would be that you can't specify a time to have it delivered so I had to collect from the parcel carrier depot but that's nothing to do with the product).

A great kit. I'm a very happy customer.

Absolute Kaufempfehlung für Beginner oder andere, die von einem noch günstigeren E-Schlagzeug upgraden wollen.

Ich stimme den meisten positiven Rezensionen voll zu. Besonders dass man zu eigenen Songs spielen und Samples auf das Modul laden kann hat mich begeistert. Hier aber nur eine Liste der (kleineren) Mängel falls man schaut ob man nicht doch lieber tiefer in die Tasche greifen will:

- die Hi-Hat hat keine Splash und unterscheidet nur zwischen offen und geschlossen. Scheinbar benutzt es auch dafür immer den gleichen Sound nur moduliert. Schade, da man mit eigenen Sounds da vielleicht was Besseres hin bekommen hätte
- Standard voices (sounds) sind nicht so der Hammer. Aber man kann seine eigenen Samples nach Konvertierung in das richtige Format mit richtiger Abtastrate einspielen
- Die Triggerstelle für die Bell scheint nur ein kleiner Kreis in der Bell-Region zu sein und man muss schon ordentlich drauf hämmern, um zu triggern. Auch bei den anderen Becken ist es ein wenig schwierig, die anderen Zonen zu triggern.
- Es könnte noch leiser sein. Natürlich ist es mit einem akustischem Schlagzeug nicht zu vergleichen, aber man hört bei moderater Lautstärke durch die Over-ear Kopfhörer das Klappern der Fußmaschine und das Hämmern auf die Ride
- Selten sind aus unerklärlichen Gründen Töne weg (vor allem an der Kante bei der Hi-Hat)
- Latenz des Modules könnte geringer sein

Und nun zu dem Grund, warum ich es wieder zurückgegeben habe obwohl ich mich auf ein E-Schlagzeug seit meiner Kindheit gefreut hatte:
Es fühlt sich für mich nicht wie ein A-Schlagzeug an. Eher wie ein cooles Soundboard. Es sind halt immer die selben Sounds, mal lauter, mal leiser. Was genau fehlt kann ich nicht so genau beschreiben. Mein dringender Rat; hört euch nicht nur Beispiele auf Youtube an, sondern probiert es im Laden richtig aus.

I am bit of a bassist/guitarist/pianist that needed a decent first electronic drum kit to learn and enjoy. While my band had a good drummer, having a set in my basement would allow all band members to jam anywhere without carrying equipment. The sounds are magical, sounds are eerily realistic to a proper acoustic kit. I have read some reviews state that sounds are not that great but in my opinion, sound quality is totally dependent on cable and amp at the other end. Debated between this, Simmons SD1250 and Alesis DM10Pro and glad I took a shot at a brand that’s unknown in US. Great shipping speed, well packaged and good instructions make this a fine intermediate kit. Well worth the money and more!

I decided to get this drum set because according to reviews both here and elsewhere, it was great value for money. And because of the many possibilities to set it up as a set of up to 6 drums, three cymbals and - most importantly, perhaps - because it has a real Hi-hat pedal system.

The setup was quite easy. Compared to an IKEA assembly it was really easy.

I'm so happy I bought it.
For my use in the studio to control virtual drums it's amazing. Really nice response that register ghost hits quite well, and my recordings are alive just like I wanted them to be.

The on board drum sounds are of course somewhat limited compared to let's say Superior Drummer and such, but if you're real concerned about whether you can use them in a live setting, you can check them out on numerous youtube videos.
If not, then you can create your own, or run the set through a computer on its way to the amplifier. Where there's a will, there's a way.

It's hard to imagine getting anything as good as this for this price anywhere, and if you're going to use it as a DAW controller; go for it. For rehearsal and live; I'd say go for it again.

This is my 2nd e-drums. My previous was a Roland td-12 from about a decade ago
I'm used to play acoustic and electronic drums and so you can understand my pov.

This millennium drums it's very good quality for buck but do not expect excellent top quality.

It is easy to setup, easy to get it running, the rack seems durable enough but I wouldnt be dismounting this too often, it sounds well enough, the module has tons of customisations, the triggers seems to be catching most of the strokes ( if you increase sensitivity it can go almost real) if you are using double pedal, the kick sens must be increased quiet a lot because you are not hitting the middle. Cymbals are ok but sometimes crashes are triggering 2nd zone on rim.. also the ride bell is hard to trigger. The hihat stand seems legit but you must get accustomed.
Over all, 100% recommend, specially since the next go is more than double the money.

I've paired this with superior drummer and a clarett interface. I'm getting very nice numbers in terms of delay and sounds fantastic.

If you need a practice drums this won't disappoint you. For professional use, it may get a bit short but it will put a good fight against other big numbers.

Thomann has worked very well and they have a reliable but low budget product.

The shipment was fast, in 3 days at home.

If you reading this and you are not very sure, I'll tell you, buy even if it is not on stock, as soon they receive they will send. Thank you Thomann