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The E400 is the electronic brother of the A400 acoustic "Flats Kit" which means unlike most other Edrums you get a standard sized kit comprising of 13" snare, 10" tom, 12" tom, 14" tom and 20" kick drum all fitted with mesh heads and special triggers for silent operation.
The drums are constructed from high quality ABS with steel counter hoops and traditional multi screw tuning rods.
The electronic cymbals are also moulded from the same high quality ABS with an internal trigger and rubber pad to lessen stick noise.
The hi hat consists of one of these cymbals plus a switch which is triggered by a standard hi-hat pedal so that it functions in the same way as an acoustic hi hat allowing for open/closed hits. At first this seems odd but it works suprisingly well
The rack is made from substantial steel tubing which means that everything stays exactly where it's put when the kit is set up and doesn't move.
The Drums
The Kick Drum is double headed with an acoustic head on both back and front. It is also fitted with chrome plated steel hoops. A strong metal plate is fitted to bottom of the rear counter hoop so that when the kick pedal is fitted the beater strikes the head at the optimum position.
The snare and Toms have a great feel as a result of the high quality ABS moulding combined with the chrome plated steel counter hoops, acoustic heads and 8 square headed tension screws, fitted with a Traps trigger and dual mesh heads. The triggers are rather large and obtrusive but they do not actually get in the way and the snare drum in particular is very responsive for both standard snare and rim shots.
The Brain
The electronic brain contains 8 different drum sets plus 4 variations of each set. There are 10 trigger inputs, an audio input, midi output, line output and headphone output. The module contains 8Mb of l6bit, 44.1kHz samples which are organized into 8 separate drum kits.
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Rock
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Jazz,
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Effects,
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Doom,
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Techno,
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Ethno,
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Orchestral)
Each has 4 variations plus there are also 7 internal loops to play along to. All easily selectable via the front panel buttons. There is also a PA out which allows the E408 to be attached to external amplification and an external sound source such as a CD. It is also possible to drive external sound modules/samplers via the midi output.
Playability
Overall playing the E400 is quite satisfying, the drums themselves feel responsive and natural. The brain is pretty basic certainly not a sonic match to Roland. There again you are not paying Roland prices either. The cymbals are also a bit basic as well. However you can buy the kit without the Brain and use whatever module you like.
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