Roland have introduced two entry level V-drum’s – the TD-1K and TD-1KV. These affordable electronic drum kits are great for beginners and beyond with all the playability and quality of Roland’s legendary V-Drums. Both kits are available now from UCan Play. Contact us for educational pricing as part of our Roland Champion School and Roland Student Ambassador initiatives.

Roland have included some of the most popular and important features for beginners and drummers into the TD-1 series, but with affordability in mind. Key features include:

  • 15 Expressive drums kits. Play a rock kit one minute, a jazz kit the next. 15 drums kits await and can be changed at the spin of stick. Each kit uses Roland’s legendary sound quality and expressive tones, so you can really get into them when playing.
  • Songs to play along to. Drumming on its own is just drumming. Learning an instrument is also about music. The TD-1 module contains real audio songs to play along to and each song can be played with or without a metronome, to develop your sense of timing. Or if you prefer, just plug your MP3/laptop/audio player into the ‘mix in’ to jam along to your favourite tracks.
  • Metronome built in. Also called a ‘click’, this is a vital tool for all drummers to improve their timing and accuracy. The click can be adjusted for different tempos and time signatures.
  • Built-in Rhythm Coach. What’s the point of practice if you don’t know you’re improving? That’s the job of the coach function; 10 tools that not only make practice fun (and challenging) but even give scores for playing accuracy. Get better and track your progress – you can even record your drumming and listen back to highlight where you need to focus.
  • It’s quiet. Buying an electronic kit for quiet practice? Don’t be fooled into thinking all electronic drums are silent – some can almost be as loud to play as acoustic drums. The Roland TD-1K and TD-1KV kits are particularly quiet where it counts, thanks to the beaterless kick pedal design that removes the ‘thud, thud, thud’ through the floorboards and the noise-reducing design of the mesh-head PDX-8 snare and the quiet tom/cymbal pads.
  • Upgrade as you improve. If you practice and work hard you’ll improve at an alarming rate, so it’s easy to quickly outgrow a ‘traditional’ beginner kit, meaning you need to spend more money for a new kit. The TD-1K and TD-1KV are designed to grow with you; upgrade the kick pad to use your own acoustic single or double pedal, or upgrade to the KT-10 kick pad for all the feel without the noise. You can even add an extra crash cymbal with the optional OP-TD-1C matching cymbal and mount.
  • Connect to apps. Thanks to its built-in USB-MIDI connection, any TD-1 kit can connect to a PC or iPad/iPhone (requires an Apple camera connection kit). Connecting the TD-1 allows you to record drums with computer software or connect to Roland’s free V-Drums Friend Jam applications, which offer jam tracks, practice features, and the ability to compete with V-Drums users across the planet.

The key difference between the two models relates to the snare drum; the TD-1K model uses a rubber snare pad, the TD-1KV uses a mesh snare pad.

Feel and response of the snare drum are important for accurate drumming technique. The mesh head is closer in feel and response to an acoustic drum head than rubber or silicone pads. That’s why we developed the mesh head with REMO, the world’s leading drum head manufacturer.

The mesh is also quieter than a rubber pad, can be tension-adjusted to suit the player’s preference (just like an acoustic drum head) and the PDX-8 mesh snare pad even produces two separate sounds; one from the drum head, another from the rim (also like an acoustic drum does).

But make no mistake – the TD-1K offers the same features and playability of the TD-1KV mesh snare model, but uses a rubber pad for the snare drum. The response and feel is a little different, but neither the sensitivity nor playability is lost for the lower price.