Full-size eDrum kits are increasingly common these days, eschewing the small rubber pads of yesteryear, but such things come at a price. The Millenium MPS-1500 Hybrid-X kit has other ideas!
Many moons ago, during the late 90s and early 00s, I played drums in a covers band in my local area. My kit of choice was a Yamaha DTXpress, a highly compact but pretty decent eDrum kit with five circular rubber drum pads, a kick pad and a couple of quarter-circle cymbal pads.
The drum brain was certainly of its time, but had a decent range of built-in sounds and, by and large, it did the trick. However, its stage presence was, how shall I say… minimal? Having played acoustic kits for most of the 80s and 90s, I did feel somewhat exposed. But the versatility and portability of the DTXpress were hard to ignore.
When Roland started producing V-Drums in small-depth real shells, it was a pretty defining moment, and soon, others, like Alesis, Efnote and Yamaha, started to follow suit. One thing they all had in common was a significant price premium. Now we have companies like DW producing kits that are both acoustic and electronic, but still with a hefty price tag.
The Millenium MPS-1500 Hybrid-X
Millennium has sought to address this with its range of affordable kits, with the MPS-1000 standing out as a flagship eDrum kit with an acoustic aesthetic. But the MPS-1000 has been toppled, and we now have the MPS-1500 Hybrid-X.
The MPS-1500 Hybrid-X has done something rather clever. One thing I always found myself doing was adding some extra pads to my kits, like the Alesis PercPad, just to give me some extra triggers for percussion, samples or loops. The problem was adding this to an already well-populated rack.
The Nexus Module
The MPS-1500 Hybrid-X solves this by combining the full kit drum brain AND the multipad device into a single unit, called the Nexus. And it’s very well specified! 3,622 sounds, 160 kits (80 Preset/80 User), a decent-sized colour screen and nine pads of its own!
Around the back, there’s plenty of pad connectivity and room to add more, 8 individual outputs for individual mixing, built-in FX, USB connectivity for hooking up to a computer, as well as additional storage for 500MB of samples.
The Pads
The drum pads (it feels odd calling them that!) are full-size shells with dual zone mesh heads as follows:
- 22″x16″ Kick Drum
- 13″x5.5″ Snare + stand
- 10″x6″, 12″x6″ and 14″x14″ Toms
- 13″ Dual-Zone 2-piece Hi-Hat with controller + stand
- 2x 15″ Dual-Zone Crash Pads with choke + stands
- 18″ Triple-Zone Ride with Choke + stand
There’s even Bluetooth Audio for playing along with your favourite songs and, get this, built-in, customisable LED lighting on the Nexus module!
More information
All of this would set you back a pretty penny with some of the major brands, but this is where Millenium might well clean up. The MPS-1500 Hybrid-X clocks in at a cool €1,398/£1,219/$1,369. For this level of spec, in an acoustic-style kit, that price is pretty staggering and less than half of what you’d pay for a larger brand equivalent.
The MPS-1500 Hybrid-X is available now from our affiliate partner, and right now, you will get 90 days of free Drumeo drum lessons thrown in for free!
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