Hands-On Review: Alesis Nitro Pro

The Drum Pads & Cymbal Pads

The Nitro Pro uses mesh drum pads all the way around the kit, even for the bass drum. The drum pads look sharp with a thin profile and a red shell design. Alesis has been sticking with the red shell design on most of it’s recent kits, which gives their latest lineup of kits a consistent visual look.

The Snare Drum Pad

The 10-inch snare drum pad on the Nitro Pro looks more like an acoustic drum than the rest of the pads around the kit, mostly due to it’s deeper shell design. It looks like a mini, 10-inch snare drum, basically. I’m usually not much of a stickler when it comes to drum pad design, especially on budget level kits, but the snare pad does look pretty sharp.

The dual zone snare pad can generate sounds from both the head and the rim, and it responds well to rim shots, which is something I can be picky about with electronic snare drum pads. You can also do cross-sticking by laying a stick across both sides of the rim, and this technique simply triggers the rim sound.

The snare pad feels good during play, and being able to adjust the head tension allows you to adjust the feel of the head to your liking. I tightened up the snare drum head quite a bit on my kit and it feels more like an acoustic drum head after doing so. It was fairly loose right out of the box, which is common with most new, out-of-the box drum pads. Tightening up the head also helped with the response of the sensors on the snare drum, at least in my case, so don’t forget to do that if you’re setting up a one of these for yourself.

The snare pad has three sensors right in the center below the mesh head, and it is slightly more sensitive right in the center as a result. The sensitivity does roll off a bit towards the edges of the pad, but it’s not a huge difference.

The Tom Pads

This kit features 8-inch dual zone tom pads, which is great. The dual zone pads add some extra sound capabilities to this kit when compared to the Nitro Max, which only has single zone toms. With the dual zone toms, you can add separate sounds to the head and rim of the tom. I like to use those extra zones to add cymbal sounds to the tom rims, such as splash or china sounds.

The tom pads have mesh drum heads, and the tension can be adjusted to fit your preferences in terms of feel and rebound. I prefer a looser feel for tom heads, especially for the floor tom, and that can easily be simulated with these pads. The sensors on the toms work well even with a looser tension dialed in, which I liked.

The tom pads on the Nitro Pro have sensors located in the center of the pad, which gives them a bit more of an even sensitivity around the head when compared to the Nitro Max, which only had a single sensor located toward the near part of the rim. With the centering of the sensors, the toms respond about the same as the snare pad.

The Cymbal Pads

All three of the cymbal pads on this kit are 10-inch, single zone pads, and they are pretty basic. The cymbals are the weak point on this kit, in my opinion, due to being only single zone pads all the way around. But they do respond well on both the edge and bow with no weak spots, so I’ll give them that. There is always at least one area like this where corners are cut on budget level kits, and it’s the cymbals on the Nitro Pro.

The hi-hat pad is a single zone pad and works along with the included hi-hat controller pedal. I was surprised by this foot pedal and how well it feels. It works better than I expected for a budget kit. The hi-hat sounds respond well to pedal movements and I haven’t noticed any annoying delays or latency with foot pedal work. You can also do foot tap and foot splash sounds with the pedal. There are three levels of open/closed with this module and hi-hat pedal – full open, half open and fully closed.

The crash cymbal pad is a single zone pad with a choke. It plays just fine but it’s basic for sure. The choke feature works well and is very responsive and easy to trigger.

The ride cymbal pad is also a single zone pad with a choke. It can generate a bell sound on the module though by playing it harder. So harder strikes will make a bell sound while softer strikes will make a typical ride cymbal bow sound.

Bass Drum Pad & Pedal

The 8-inch bass drum pad that comes with the Nitro Pro is another area where we see some nice improvement when compared to the Nitro Max. The pad utilizes a mesh head which allows for tension adjustment, which is a nice option to have.

The larger size of the pad means that Nitro Pro is more likely to work with a wider range of double bass drum pedals, which was an issue with the smaller pad on the Nitro Max. So the Nitro Pro is better suited for double bass players out of the box.

I like the bass drum pad, it feels really solid while playing and has good response with both single and double pedals. The only issue I’ve run into is that the spurs and the velcro don’t hold it in place very well, but that might be more of an issue with my particular drum rug than anything else. This is a common issue with most bass drum pad towers though, and is easy to remedy with some extra weight or stoppers to keep it in place.

This kit does come with a bass drum pedal. It’s a fairly cheap pedal, but it gets the job done. The spring tension and beater height is adjustable which is great, but I couldn’t find a way to adjust the beater angle. It’s a decent starter pedal that will work for beginners until they decide to upgrade to a better kick pedal. And having one packaged with the kit helps cut down on the accessories you’ll need to buy if you don’t have a bass drum pedal already.

Can You Use Double Bass Pedals With The Nitro Pro?

Yes, most double bass pedals with work with this particular bass drum pad. The 8-inch surface area responds well across the majority of the head, and most double bass pedals will mount and play just fine on the tower.

There may certainly be some outliers. But every budget level double pedal I’ve tried has worked well, such as my Iron Cobras, Speed Cobras, DW 2000 and others. Even my Axis Longboard double pedal fit ok, even though I couldn’t completely center up the beaters on the pad. See the photos below for a better idea of how these various double bass pedals fit with the Nitro Pro bass drum pad.

Tama Iron Cobra 200 Double Pedal

Axis Longboard Double Pedal

SPL Double Pedal

The Drum Rack

The drum rack for the Nitro Pro is a nice improvement over the Nitro Max. I really hated the weak drum rack on the Nitro Max.

The Nitro Pro rack is much more sturdy, and it’s a little wider and taller as well. I really have no complaints about the Nitro Pro rack so far, it’s about what I’d expect from a rack at this price point.

The rack stands up straight and doesn’t sag, which is great. I was worried that the snare drum pad might be too heavy for the bar that holds the snare in place, but it hasn’t sagged at all and stays in place while playing. I’m able to position the top rim of the snare drum pad at about 27 inches of height off the ground, which is my normal playing height, and I could go higher yet if I needed to. So appreciate the ability to get things mounted a little more higher with the rack and hardware setup on the Nitro Pro.

All of the rack hardware holds in place well after getting things properly tightened up. I’m not running into any issues with pads falling or slipping while playing, which is great.

Feel and Play-ability

This is a fun kit to play, even with the smaller pads and the shortcomings with the cymbal pads. The snare pad responds well and I like how it responds to rim shots in particular.

I tightened up the snare head quite a bit and it feels a little more like what I’m used to with an acoustic snare pad. I also ran the tom pads a little looser and the still responded well during play.

I really like the dual zone toms, they open up some more possibilities for expanding the sound scope around the kit. It’s fun to assign extra cymbal sounds to the tom rims to effectively add more cymbals to the kit and to get around the limitations of the three cymbal pads.

The rim height and profile for the pads feels about right, not too deep like some smaller pads tend too feel.

The cymbals, while they are all single zone pads, respond well to sticking and they respond about evenly from the bow to the edge, so you can hit them anywhere on the rubber and get good feedback. I also like the choke zones on these cymbal pads, it’s easy to activate the choke consistently, unlike some other budget kits I’ve played.

The bass drum pad has a mesh head, which allows you to adjust the tension which is great. This has helped me dial in a similar feel to my acoustic bass drum on my acoustic drum kit. The bass drum pad also responds well off the center of the pad, so it has worked well with the various double bass pedals I’ve tried, regardless of how well I was able to center the beaters on the pad.

The hi-hat pedal is something I’m usually less satisfied with on cheaper drum kits like this one, but this one feels decent. I haven’t had any issues playing quick open/close snaps and it doesn’t feel overly springy or cheap while working my foot on the pedal.

The hi-hats have three available positions – fully open, half open and fully closed. Due to the limited hi-hat positions it doesn’t sound as nuanced as other more expensive kits, but it gets the job done.

The Nitro Pro Drum Module

The Nitro Pro drum module is very similar to the Nitro Max module, but with a few new kits and sounds. It’s a really easy module to use, and like other Alesis modules you can dig in and figure it out without the manual for the most part. It also has a slick red casing color to match the color of the shells around the kit.

This module has a total of 36 preset drum kits that cover most popular music styles, along with an additional 16 user slots for saving custom kits. The sound library contains a total of 529 percussion sounds that are used in the preset kits and that can also be used in custom drum kits.

What are the new kits?

The new kits in the Nitro Pro module that didn’t appear in the Nitro Max module are:

• Gretsch
• HOP
• Jazz Noir
• VRT

This sound module can work well on it’s own, or it can work as an output controller for another sound module or virtual drum software.

Connections

Here’s what the module has for inputs/outputs and connections:

• The cable snake input – Connects to a cable snake which then has connectors for all the pads on this kit.
• The Tom 4 and Crash 2 outputs – Add another tom or crash cymbal pad. I’m sure there will be an expansion pack for this kit with another tom and cymbal pad soon, if there isn’t already.
• USB connection – Transmits MIDI over USB.
• 1/8-inch Headphone jack – Stereo headphones output.
• 1/8-inch Aux Input – For plugging in MP3 players or devices to play along with music.
• Left/Right 1/4-inch Stereo Monitor output – The main stereo audio outputs.
• Power Adapter Connection
• Bluetooth – Connect a Bluetooth enabled device to play along with music wirelessly.

This module does not have a standard MIDI output, which is something we’ll start seeing on more modules moving forward. The only way to transmit MIDI from this module is over USB.

Another feature that is lacking on this module is the ability to send audio output via USB. The USB connection can only transmit MIDI. So if you want to record the audio output from this module you need to use the main stereo audio outputs.

Sound Quality and Sample Library

The Nitro Max drum library uses drum samples from BFD, which is a popular drum player for computers. The drum samples are pretty nice, with some kits and sounds standing out to me more than others. You also get a free version of the BFD Player with this kit, so you can install that on your computer, connect this kit, and get access to more sounds if you like.

I like many of the sounds in the module and I find them fun to play. There’s lots of good snare and kick sounds. Some snare sounds respond to ghost notes and dynamic playing better than others. Tom sounds are pretty good as well but at default levels they are loud, I find myself lowering the volume of the toms on most kits. There are a nice variety of cymbal sounds but many seem to lack sustain. Overall though it’s a nice set of sounds and nice variety for a budget kit.

One thing I don’t really like about the module is that on the display it only shows you the number of the kit or the sound you are currently using rather than the name. So if you want to know the name or style of kits and sounds you’ll need to reference them in the manual. The manual does list them all out along with their names, so it’s probably a good idea to print out at least the sound and kit reference pages and keep them nearby.

Editing Kits and Sounds

Sound design is limited but not overly restrictive for a budget module. There are ways to tweak sounds and effects and you can save any changes you make to preset kits by saving to the custom kit slots.

• Editing sounds and making your own kits – 16 of the 40 drum kit slots in this module are for saving custom kits, meaning you can change the sounds of each of the pads to any of the sounds available in the module, and save your changes to these kits.
• Reverb settings – You can adjust the amount of reverb for each pad around the kit. You can turn reverb on/off for the entire kit as well. There is only one type of reverb and the reverb settings can’t be adjusted other then the amount used in the mix.
• Pad settings – For each pad you can adjust the volume, pan, pitch, and EQ. You can also change the MIDI note of any pad.

Settings

This module includes the typical utility functions for adjusting the responsiveness of the pads. These settings can be useful when dealing with triggering or sensitivity issues around the kit.

• Sensitivity – responsiveness of the pads, or how hard to have to hit it to make it play louder.
• Threshold – how hard to have to hit the pad to make it make a sound at all.
• Crosstalk – pads can sometimes be triggered if a nearby pad generates enough of a vibration when hit, tweaking the crosstalk can help fix this.
• Velocity Curve – you can select different force curves, to make it easier or harder to play dynamically on the pads.
• Rim Sensitivity – this controls how sensitive the rims of the pad are when hit.
• Hi-hat Splash Sensitivity – adjusts how responsive the hi-hat splash sound is during quick release foot taps.
• Local MIDI Mode – turn this off to only trigger sounds via MIDI over USB.
• General MIDI Mode – allows you to use general MIDI percussion sounds.

Songs and Internal Recording

The Nitro Drum Module includes 60 built in songs to play along with. There are songs within a lot of genres, such as jazz, funk, reggae, latin, swing, big band, pop, etc. The quality of the songs is actually pretty good, even though they do have that generic-built-in-song feel to them. The songs can work great as practice tracks to hone your skills with various styles.

You can turn off the drum parts on the songs and jam along with any of them. You can also record your own drum playing along with the songs, so you can listen to and analyze your own playing.

Learning Mode

There are some features built in for practicing and learning. You can play along with beats, rhythms and patterns that a preset in the module to practice keeping time and working with different types of tempos and time signatures. The module shows a visual display of accuracy while practicing to help you learn how to stay in time.

The Metronome

The metronome is a standard feature on all drum modules and this one works pretty much as expected. It’s easy to turn on and off and adjust the settings quickly. You can change the tempo, time signatures and subdivisions, which gives you lots of flexibility for practicing and keeping time. The volume and sound can also be changed, which is nice.

Accessories

In addition to the rack, the pads and drum module, here’s what else is in the box:

• Connectors and hardware – all the stands and hardware that you will need to mount your pads to the rack
• Bass drum pedal – having a kick pedal included with the kit is great since kick pedals can be kind of expensive on their own
• High-hat pedal – the pedal connects to a cable to electronically control the high-hat open/close sound
• The cable snake – to connect all your pads into the module
• Cable wrap strips – for clean cabling aficionados
• A drum key – used to adjust the rack clamps and drum heads
• Drum sticks – hey it even comes with sticks! They’re cheap but better than nothing if you’re just starting out.
• Power supply – to power up the drum module
• Module user guide – the built in user guide is ok, see our note below about more detailed, unofficial user guides
• Kit assembly guide – an outline of the hardware parts and how to connect them all together
• Safety and warranty info

What’s Not Included?

The only things that aren’t included that you’ll still need are a drum throne and headphones. Picking up a different bass drum pedal might be a good idea too if you want more adjustability or prefer a different style of pedal. You might also want more drum sticks. You might also want to get a drum rug, a 4×3 foot area rug is about the right size for this kit.

Expansion

The Nitro Pro module has expansion ports for an extra tom and cymbal. There currently are no standalone expansion packs available like with the Nitro Max, but I’d imagine there will be one soon. There is an expanded version of this kit, the Nitro Pro XL, which does include another tom and cymbal pad. That’s the only way you can get an extra matching tom/cymbal at the moment.

While I didn’t find the rack on the Nitro Max sturdy enough to support additional pads, this isn’t the case with the Nitro Pro. I find the Nitro Pro rack to be more than sturdy enough to support the extra pads.

The Nitro Pro XL version of the kit comes with an extra tom and cymbal pad.

Portability

This kit is small enough to easily port around in a car. I was able to fit all the pads and parts in a single, large storage container which fit in my cars back seat and then the rack folded up easily and fit in my trunk. That’s one of the nice things about these smaller budget kits is that they are super easy to haul around.

Setup & Assembly

This kit comes in a single box that was small enough to slide into the back seat of my Dodge Charger after picking it up. After getting it to my studio, it took me about an hour to fully unbox and put it all together. If you’ve assembled electronic drum kits before, you won’t have any issues with this one. And if you haven’t, it’s easy enough to figure out for a first timer.

The manual is pretty easy to understand, but it doesn’t get into the finer points of how you might want to align the rack mounts for the toms and cymbals. I like to align the rack mount brackets for the toms so that it’s easy to gain access to the wingnuts on the back side of the rack, which makes adjusting the position of the pads a little more manageable once it’s all set up.

The brackets and braces felt pretty sturdy and I wasn’t worried at all about anything breaking while tightening everything up.

In my case I aligned all of the cross bars as high as they could go on the vertical bars, which is better for higher vertical positioning of the pads since I’m over six feet tall.

One good setup tip is to only tighten things down just enough to hold them in place at first. Then once you get it all put together and get everything positioned the way you prefer, go through and fully tighten all the brackets.

The Verdict

The Alesis Nitro Pro is the best Nitro kit yet, and it fixes some of the major shortcomings that I didn’t like about the Nitro Max.

The drum module sounds good and it’s easy to design and save your own kits with the sound library. The Nitro Pro rack is nice and sturdy, which is a big improvement over the Nitro Max rack. The bass drum pad is larger and heavier and is better suited for double bass players. The dual zone toms are awesome for expanding the sound scope of your kits. As a taller drummer I also liked how I could mount the snare pad higher than the Nitro Max. Overall it’s a solid kit and for it’s price it has a lot to offer.