Donner DED-200 Electronic Drum Set Review
I’ve recently received the Donner DED-200 electronic drum set and had a chance to play around with it. It’s quite a decent kit for its price range. It’s a sturdy set with great stability and good-quality parts, its mesh pads are decent and its kick pad is particularly good. Its drum module is not amazing and the sounds are a bit limited, but it does the job for basic use.
Donner sent us a free sample of this kit in return for our honest review of it. This will not affect the opinions mentioned in this review.
In this article, I’m going to make plenty of references to how this e-drum set compares to other kits in this price range, as that’s likely why you’re reading this article. Therefore, this won’t just be a regurgitation of the tech specs of this kit!
Just as a heads up, if you’re getting this on Donner’s website, you can receive a $66 discount starting from Jan. 25th 2022 (dropping from $465.99 to $399.99 on their site) Discount codes are still usable to get the price down even more.
Contents
Donner DED-200 Electric Drum Set
Verdict
The Donner DED-200 is an e-drum set designed for beginners and budget-conscious drummers. After setting it up and playing it, the build quality of this kit seems very decent to me. Its pads and basic module make for a respectable entry-level drum kit for any beginner drummer, especially considering the price.
Pros
- A sturdy e-drum set with good adjustability
- Good-quality mesh heads and pads with decent responsiveness and sound.
- A great kick tower that comes with a standalone kick pedal for easier use.
- Great for beginners
- It’s pretty quiet to play
Cons
- The drum module is not amazing, and a bit awkward to use at times.
- Playing very fast rolls on the pads can sound a little bit clunky (though pretty consistent with many entry-level modules).
Donner DED-200 Electronic Drum Set
The Donner DED-200 Electronic Drum Set is a budget-friendly e-drum kit that offers good playability, good parts, and reasonable sound quality.
The set came in with great packaging where everything was boxed up nicely. All the parts we’re cleverly packaged (more so than plenty of other electronic drums sets I’ve received), along with very clear instructions on how to assemble this set.
This electronic drum set features an 8″ mesh snare drum, along with three 8″ tom pads, a drum-kick pad, four cymbal pads – two of which are 12″ crash cymbals, one 12″ ride cymbal, and an 8″ hi-hat pad.
Drum Module
The drum module of this electronic drum set is what drives the whole kit. It comes with a MIDI to USB connection, an AUX port, a headphone port (1/8th inch headphone jack connection), and a main audio output (¼ inch connection, which can be used for drum amps, audio interfaces, or PA systems).
The module certainly has a few limitations. I’ve found that trying to skip between drum kits is a little bit awkward (It doesn’t seem to hold your current kit on the interface. If you’re currently on kit 5 for example, then when you want to change kits then the menu starts from the start instead of holding on kit 5, which is a bit awkward to use, but you can get the hang of it). The module has limited functionality overall, though it does at least have a metronome. For simple use, it is adequate for a basic e-drum kit, but it’s not the most exciting drum module by any means.
Like many entry-level electronic drum sets, all the cables connect to one singular source (using a parallel connection like you might have seen in older computer monitors). The cables are very well measured so you won’t get any tangles or any unnecessary space used. The advantage of a single source is that it’s simple, but if one of the connecting cables from the pads breaks, you might need to replace the entire snake cable.
Kick Tower
The set uses a very good kick tower, which is probably one of the best kick towers that I’ve come across on budget-friendly kits like this. I think it’s far better than alternative budget trigger pedals that are sometimes used on other kits. The drum pedal also does the job nicely.
Oftentimes, e-drum sets use rubber kick towers, whereas this one just feels a lot better and is definitely an advantage above many other e-drums in this similar category.
Overall, the responsiveness of the kick is very solid and works nicely. I personally didn’t use a double pedal with this, but I think the pedal would handle it nicely, and the module likely wouldn’t have any issue with this.
Pads and Cymbal Quality
The pads on this e-drum set are very decent overall. Of course, they don’t compare to higher-end Roland or Yamaha heads, but they still have very good sensitivity overall, which is either above average or on par with most other e-drum sets in the budget-friendly category.
Mesh heads became a standard a few years ago for entry-level kits (previously rubber heads were mainstream).
The cymbals are pretty standard and on par with most other e-drums in the budget category also. It would be nicer if the ride pad were a bit bigger. The cymbal choke is somewhat clunky as you might expect. But they still work at a basic level.
Sound
The overall sound is pretty average for a budget kit. The rims of the drums are somewhat playable and technically you can play the rim shots on the snare, but definitely not to the extent as you would get from a high-end e-drum set but at least the option to
The cymbals and drum kick, along with the steadiness of the drum rack offer stable playing. The sound of the overall drums all reverts back to the drum module which is responsible for it all.
As mentioned, the drum module is not perfect but does offer a decent functionality with the same on-par performance as most e-drums. You can adjust the volume to your preference and use the module to choose between 225 songs as well as 30 demo songs.
Assembly
The setup took no more than usual for an electronic drum set with an adjustable rack. Everything had very clear, step-by-step instructions which were very easy to follow. (Though it took a slight bit longer to unpack everything due to extra packaging, but I’d happily accept good packaging for electronic instruments like this).
The drum rack specifically was easy to assemble as it had letters assigned to each one to further ease the process. Everything was of decent quality, particularly sturdiness and stability.
The pads and cymbals were easy to attach, and the cable snake had all labels assigned with their respective pad or cymbal name. All connections for the pads and cymbals were in reasonable positions, and velcro cable ties were included to help tidy everything up (I didn’t necessarily do a great job of that in the photos, but you can tidy them up as much as you like, as multiple ties are included).
Adjustability
On this particular set, the drum rack is relatively good when it comes to space management. All the pads are set up nicely and the playability is decent.
It is adjustable to personal preferences, so it does allow for reasonable changes of positioning.
One drawback is that most main parts of the drum rack itself require the use of a drum key to adjust parts (an e-drum rack with knobs would be more convenient). However, you can still make reasonable adjustments to cymbal and pad placement without using a drum key.
How Loud is the Donner DED-200
The Donner DED-200 is pretty quiet to play. No e-drum kit is absolutely silent, but overall, it’s pretty much on par with most other entry-level kits in terms of quietness (apart from ones that use a standalone kick trigger pedal).
Since this kit uses a kick tower and standard pedal, it’s slightly louder to play than one that uses a standalone trigger pedal (but it’s definitely more enjoyable to play a kick tower). Though the kick tower also uses a mesh head which also sounded a bit quieter than usual rubber kick pads to me.
Since the pads have cushioned rims, they would also be a bit quieter to play than ones that have bare metal or plastic rims, particularly if the drummer hits the rim of the drum (either intentionally or accidentally!)
What Accessories Do You Need?
The set that I received included a pretty standard but usable set of 5A-sized drumsticks from Donner. I think these are perfectly fine to use as a starting point. However, if you want to upgrade then you can do so at a reasonably low price. So check out our article on the best drumsticks for electronic drums to learn more about those.
My set didn’t come with headphones or a drum amp. These are almost always separate purchases when it comes to entry-level e-drum sets.
This module includes a 1/8th headphone jack connection. If you already have a set of headphones lying around the house then they might be usable. However, it is a pretty good option to get proper electronic drum headphones because they isolate the noise and it’s just more enjoyable overall to play with a good set of headphones.
Other than that, if you want to either jam with friends or if you don’t want to use headphones and check out our article on the best electronic drum amps for the most up-to-date list of those.
However, if you’re thinking of buying, then please make sure to check the details of the offer, to see if they include any of the items above!
Who is the Donner DED-200 for?
The Donner DED-200 e-drum would be best suited for beginner drummers or more experienced players that want a quiet practice kit on a relatively low budget. Adult and kids (as long as they’re tall enough to reach the pedals) can use this drum set.
It has plenty of strong points, but it still does have its drawbacks. The drum module is not amazing by any means, but it can certainly be useful for practicing and playing around with.
Conclusion
The Donner DED-200 is a good e-drum set for any beginner drummer with a reasonable price range. It offers good overall quality and durability as well as decent sound.
The drum rack is adjustable to personal preference and the playability of the drums is adequate considering it’s an e-drum. The overall built quality is very durable and sturdy, which shows that Donner certainly paid attention to the durability factor.
Considering it is an e-drum, the sound of the drums reverts back to the drum module which offers a relatively normal quality in terms of use and options. For any beginner drummer, this drum set would make for a great starting kit as it offers good overall quality and performance at an affordable price range.
