Alesis Strata Club – Big Brain, Compact Footprint
Another level of Strata drums
4,9 / 5,0 | 
If you want great sounds but don’t have the room for a big kit, the new Alesis Strata Club might be just what you’re looking for.
Alesis took their e-Drum offering up a notch with the release of the top-of-the-range Strata Prime, then followed it up with an entry-level model called the Strata Core. Now, the Strata Club looks to offer an alternative that cuts down on size but not on sound.
The Alesis Strata Club
The Strata Club is an attempt by Alesis to deliver a kit that fits into tight spaces, be it your home studio or a small stage, without the need to compromise the sound quality of the drum module. In fact, the Strata Club uses the same module as the Strata Core.
Since acquiring BFD, inMusic has successfully used it to beef up its onboard drum sounds on its mid to high-end kits and it has worked a treat. The Core module features 25GB of drum content with over 144,000 individual samples. These samples make up more than 370 drum and percussion instruments and deliver around 800 articulations.
Big Sounds, Big Screen
You will likely never need to hook your module up to an external library anymore. Those days seem to be well behind us and I think we can all be grateful for an increasingly untethered experience. The Core module has a 7″ touchscreen with incredibly detailed graphics and controls, supported by six large rotary knobs that are soft-assigned to specific functions related to the information on screen.
Connectivity
Some trimming has to be done to get the unit down in both cost and size so you will only find two additional trigger outputs on the rear, along with regular 5-pin MIDI and 2x USB sockets; one for hooking up to a computer, the other for you to import your own sounds.
There’s an aux in, so you can hook up an audio source to play along with, plus a pair of TRS outs. There are, handily, two headphone sockets at the front, one of each size, so no worrying about having a headphone adapter!
The Pads and Cymbals
As for the pads, you get 3 mesh head pads (12″ dual-zone snare, mounted tom, floor tom, both dual-zone 10″) plus a 8″ mesh-headed kick pad. There’s also a 14″ triple-zone ride, 12″ triple-zone crash and their excellent new 12″ hi-hat with Active Magnetic Controller, all of which benefit from Alesis’ ARC 360º playing surfaces. All of these are mounted on a compact but sturdy black, tubular metal frame with four posts and three cross members.
All drum heads can have their tension adjusted to suit your playing style and the crash and ride cymbals are both chokable. So if you’ve been looking for the sound of the Strata range but in a unit that can easily be played in a small space, Alesis now have you covered!
More Information
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