Advanced Trigger Variants

ATV’s long-awaited pad, cymbal and hardware pack is now shipping, giving the fledgling e-drum company a complete offering. Allan Leibowitz tested the aDrums artist kit.

FOLLOWING ON FROM its debut aD5 drum module, ATV first showed its aDrums kit at NAMM in January 2017 and began global shipping late last year.

What’s in the box

The kit is currently available in a basic configuration and an ‘expanded’ model with an extra tom and cymbal. I reviewed the standard seven-piece kit.

The kit ships in three boxes, meticulously packed to ensure the pieces arrive in pristine condition – down to double-bagging of the drums.

The kit is built around an 18”x12” kick and includes a 13”x5.5” dual-zone snare, a 10”x6.5” rack tom, a 13”x12” floor tom, a 14” three-zone hi-hat and controller, a 16” threezone crash cymbal and an 18" three-zone ride cymbal.

The chrome hardware is sturdy, elegant and relatively lightweight, reminiscent of the german-designed DrumCraft range. The kit comes with a snare stand and two cymbal stands, one of which has an attachment for the rack tom. There’s no hi-hat stand or kick beater – but those tend to be very personal choices anyway.

The drums

The first thing you notice is the size of the shells: this is an acoustic-size kit with real birch shells and finished in piano black lacquer. The downside of that dark, glossy finish is that it shows every fingerprint, so if you’re OCD, you might need gloves – at least during set-up. The drums look and feel substantial, robust and built to last.

The 18” kick, with mesh heads on both sides, has just enough presence without the bulk of a ‘full size’ 20” or 22” bass drum. I did have to shorten the beater on my kick pedal to ensure that it struck the centre of the head, but that was no hardship.