the Roland E-60 and E-50 have incredible drumkits. I have compared them to Eastwest Goliath and Ministry of Rock drumkits, which I both own, not as small task.

I also have a PSR3000. The Roland has the best drumkits I have heard on a keyboard, very dynamic and highly detailed

I agree....

My man Rory...your comment on "arrangers" was hilarious!

Be well,


R.

P.S. It's Ketron drums for me!

Step 1 is to compare apples with apples and not apples with oranges (Apples = Midi, Oranges = Audio)

AUDIO DRUMS (Loops)
These are the most accurate and realistic, as they are actually a recording of a Real Drummer playing a Real Drum Kit.

Downside:
Unless you have specialist software there is not much you can do with them, (Individual drums sounds are not accessible) so if you wish to edit you have to hope you can find another audio loop to suit what you require, and as most arrangers will only play audio loops produced by the manufacture, you have a limited choice. (In the Pro Studio/Computer World this is no problem, as there are 1000s of loops out there)

MIDI DRUMS
These are the most common as they are individual drum sounds that are triggered by Midi loops, thus easily editable to suit your requirements.

Downside:
You are reliant totally on the quality of the drum samples used, and how good your drum section is at manipulating the Midi Loop to mimic a Real Drummer. (Most arrangers are pretty basic in this respect, as are the Drum samples)

To get the best quality drum samples I am afraid will require the use of external samples, (Akai and/or better still VSTi) either via a computer or module. (Note: some drum Kits can be up to 1GB or more in size)

If you have a computer based keyboard you can normally load them directly on-board, and play about with them as if they were internal drums. (Korg’s are also good in this respect, as you can load Akai samples directly into them, with the only downside being limited user memory and loading times)

My personal favourites in order are:
MIDI

VSTi
Akai
Korg
Ketron
Roland
Bohm
Wersi OAS7/Yamaha
NOTE: The New Wersi Pegasus Wing does Not use OAS7, so is an unknown quantity at this stage

AUDIO

VSTi
Ketron
Wersi

NOTE: If you are prepared to put the work in, don’t forget the Lionstracs boards, as they are currently the most flexible out there at the moment. (With the only downside being that they do not as yet support the iLock key, therefore some of the VSTi sample sets are unavailable to them)

Hope this helps

Bill