Initially, I wanted to return this, but felt Amazon deserves a second chance, so practiced with it, and changed my mind. Have experience with Simmons SDMK1 pad, which costs over three times as much, without speakers.

This is a terrific drum learning product, and at a bargain price. If beginning, I would choose this over any other pad. It is a for-fun or learning tool, less so than a performer’s tool.

First, the downside, and it is a major one. The rubber pads aren’t that sensitive for about ?” from their edge. This means that, one has to strike harder near the edge or one has to be accurate. And, there is no soft hit, because the strike needs to pass a threshold. It’s actually quite a problem. For the beginner though, this may be an advantage, because it encourages accurate, forceful strike placement and increased force.

Otherwise, it’s a great, complete product:

. Sounds very good; my Simmons sounds better, but costs significantly more.

. Can be played with hands as well, and this actually worked well after some practice.

. Learnings can be transferred to real drums.

. Portable, including use with batteries. For example, can be played on camping trips.

. Has accompaniment music without drum portion that’s great for learning how to play in harmony.

A serious drummer probably won’t like this product, because of the above mentioned pads’ sides issues and because it isn’t fast. But, if you’re wanting to learn drums to accompany others’ music, the speed issue is lesser important.

So, I have to give it a 5 star–because, for the beginner and for the bargain price, it is an excellent tool.

I bought this while it was on sale on the Amazon Lightning deals. For the price I was hoping to be able to use it to practice drum parts while at home and hopefully for recording.
Pros:
It works fine for practicing drum parts. It sounds like something you would hear out an 1980s American pop song. It is laid like a normal 8 piece drum set with 2 pedals(1 kick, 1 hi hat), except for the hi hat pad which is in the middle of the kit. Since it is set up like a normal kit, it gives a good idea of the movements you will be making when sitting behind a real kit.

Cons:
The build quality of these drum machines is definitely lacking.
The hi hat pad on mine it not as responsive as the rest of the pads. It works fine as long as i remember to hit a little harder than the rest.
The pedals are really light and the kick will register extra kicks regularly. I think it is because it is so light that the spring in it pops back very quickly and triggers a second kick. Also I found i need to rest the kick pedal up against something solid so it will not move far away half way through a song.
Due to it being lower quality, it does not work very well as a MIDI interface. It works well to give me ideas for drum pasterns in a song I might like to use. But due to all the unpredictable hit registers on the pads/kick drum, it would take too much work to record a MIDI part with this and then have to edit the whole thing to my liking. It is more effective to just use a built in MIDI editor in my DAW software when I want my final drum track.

I can not compare this to any other drum pad machines, since this is the only one i have used. But I would not recommend this for 0 if you need it for anything more than drum practice.

After a couple months I wanted to update my review. A 100 bucks is a great deal. Competing products come in at 2x as much. I used to play the drums and enjoy these pads. There are many drum set sounds. I found half a dozen pretty good. The cymbols appear a little faint. The foot pedal is a little tricky. Hard to get accurate beats all the time. I’m looking for a replacement. So far I haven’t found any. Use them on a hard surface and it helps. Take your shoes off and you get a better feel. Here comes the good part. It has a midi output. You can use drummer software to pick some awesome drum sounds and re-assign the pads if you like. I use addictive drummer which I got for a discount. But there are cheaper one’s for 25 bucks instead of 100-200. You can select drum sets like Perl, Tama, and Sonic. It’s awesome. Each drum can be tuned. Drum mike, reverb and other things can be tweeked too. Personally, I go for one of the 3 Addictive Drummer presets and then re-assign the pads. There are youtube videos that make it easy to learn if you want to get involved. Lots of fun if you’re into it. In summary this is a great product. For beginners and for drummers who want to record or do other things. Yes, there are limitations but take into consideration portablity. An electronic drumset takes space. It’s all what you want to do with it. Obviously, it might be a little ridiculous to show up for a gig with them. But don’t kid yourself the pads, though small, feel good and I enjoy it more than the DM10 Alesis that I returned at 1000. So in summary. Good sound, portablity, pad feel, and fun… Won’t break the bank and you can sell it back on Amazon if you take another path in the future. I have nothing but good things to say about these pads. I’ll add a video soon so you can hear how awesome it is. I was worried I was buying a toy. The truth is that I did, but potentially a very sophisticated one that can be used to make some serious music.