Black Friday is all at once an extremely promising and extremely difficult time of year for the musician, as myriad jaw-dropping deals make it harder and harder to exercise restraint with respect to gear expenditure. ‘Restraint’ is an apt word to use here, as Alesis’ top-of-the-range Strata Prime electronic drum kit exercises absolutely none in the spec department - and as a result it’s one of our favourite kits on the block right now. Thanks to Sweetwater’s own no-restraint Black Friday price reductions, you can pick up the expanded edition of the Strata Prime for $300 less.
Alesis is a leading brand within the electronic drums space, with a hugely competitive range of e-kits for every skill level; in the last year alone we’ve seen a complete overhaul of some of their key ranges. Though much better-known for cost-effective entry-level kits like the Alesis Nitro Max, they now have some real weight to throw around at the upper end of the price spectrum, thanks to the Strata Prime, a break-the-bank slice of e-drumming excellence that we absolutely love. You can read our full 4.5-star Alesis Strata Prime review here.
The expanded version of the top-shelf Alesis kit is an expansive 7-piece affair; besides the huge 20” kick and a 14” snare, you’ve got five (yes, five) dual-zone toms to play with, including two beefy 14” floor toms. On top of the stand-mounted 14” hi-hat, you also get five tri-zone cymbals - two 16” crashes, and three 18” crash/rides. These cymbals feature a 360-degree playing surface, which means that wherever you hit them, you will produce a sound.
All of these feed into the awesome Prime drum module, which offers a frankly ridiculous level of versatility and customizability. The Strata Prime’s BFD sound engine is a major selling point here, allowing you to benefit from high-quality BFD samples that rival other sample libraries - but the beauty is that they’re native to the module, rather than needing a separate laptop to run them. There’s over 400 kit pieces arranged into 75 drum kit presets, but you can also build your own presets, or use your own samples.
Want to delve deeper and unlock even more cool tech? The built-in Stacks feature means you can layer up sounds, from cool trashy cymbal stacks to hand claps layered over your snare.
We love that the module has a big old 10.1” touchscreen that makes navigating presets and variables as easy as can be - you also have a row of rotary encoders beneath to add tactility and convenience to the experience. On the back, you’ll find I/O for days, making it super easy to interface this kit with your specific recording or MIDI needs.
Will we see Black Friday discounts on the standard Alesis Strata Prime configuration, or the all-new Alesis Strata Core? Here’s hoping, but we should find out in the coming week as the deals hot up. We’ll be sharing all the offers on our highest-rated e-kits on our Black Friday electronic drum set deals page.
- Shop Sweetwater's up to 60% off early Black Friday sale
- Our pick of this year's best Sweetwater Black Friday deals
“I’m not getting any sound from one of my pads!”: 10 common electronic drum set issues and how to troubleshoot them
“What we get here is the essence of Alesis’ flagship electronic drum set, with all the great features, minus the stuff that is likely to be ‘nice-to-have’ rather than essential”: Alesis Strata Core review
“I’m not getting any sound from one of my pads!”: 10 common electronic drum set issues and how to troubleshoot them
“What we get here is the essence of Alesis’ flagship electronic drum set, with all the great features, minus the stuff that is likely to be ‘nice-to-have’ rather than essential”: Alesis Strata Core review
