If you are a beginning drummer looking for an electronic drum kit for beginners, you will soon find what you are looking for at Bax Music. Fazley DDK-020This compact electronic drum kit is suitable for beginners and proves that an electronic drum kit does not have to be expensive.
Fazley (not to be confused with Fesley, also a supplier of electronic drums) is the house brand of Bax Music and offers musical instruments from different categories. In terms of electronic drums, there are four types: the Fazley DDK-020, DDK-040, DDK-080 and DDK-120.
Now that I have had the Fazley DDK-020 at home for a few weeks, I would like to share my honest findings with you in this review.
In this blog
Fazley DDK-020
Judgement
This kit from Fazley is an attractively priced electronic drum kit that offers everyone the opportunity to learn to play the drums without disturbing others. Because the kit is not expandable, has small pads and you cannot assemble kits yourself, the kit is fine for adults but most suitable for children.
Pros
- Lightweight and compact electronic drum kit
- Includes stick holder
- Mesh heads play realistically and produce little noise pollution
- Very good value for money
Cons
- Tom pads are small in size
- The kit cannot be expanded with additional pads
- Cymbals are more difficult to position
- The position of the module can cause the headphone cable to get in the way while playing
Pros and Cons of the Fazley DDK-020
The mesh heads are a big plus of the Fazley DDK-020. These produce really little noise pollution and feel realistic while playing. With a surface of 6″ they are a bit small for adults.
What I found less pleasant was the positioning of the crash and ride. These cannot be tilted at the top so they always have a somewhat slanted position. Also, the tapping of the stick on the cymbal gives quite a bit of sound, despite the silicone layer on half of the pad.
What I also found disappointing was the position of the module. Because the module is at the front, the cable can get in the way while playing.
The module itself is fine though and does everything it is supposed to do. Plenty of sounds, a metronome and all the necessary connections are there.
The price of the kit is a big plus. Many beginner kits start around 350-400 euros, but Fazley proves that you can buy a good electronic drum kit for an even lower price.
Overall, the Fazley DDK-020 is a great drum kit for beginning drummers. Given the size of the pads, I would recommend it more to kids, and adults would recommend the Fazley DDK-080 or Fazley DDK-120 to consider. These kits are larger and offer more playability
What's in the box?
- 1x 06″ snare drum mesh pad
- 3x 06″ tom mesh pads
- 1x 09″ hihat cymbal pad
- 2x 09″ cymbal pads
- 1x Kick drum trigger pedal
- 1x Hihat controller pedal
- Module with 12 drum kits
- Rack
- Stick holder
- Drum sticks
- Manual (also available for download online)
💡 The kit looks nice without wires, but as soon as you connect the pads to the module, the cables hang loose behind the drum kit. You can easily hide this with the V2020 Cable Tie so that the kit immediately looks a lot tighter.
Toms and Cymbals
The Fazley DDK-020 consists of the standard setup of a drum kit, namely a snare, three toms, and a hihat, crash and ride cymbal. All pads are velocity sensitive, so they react differently when you hit them hard or soft.
6″ Mesh Head Pads
With a size of 6″, the pads can be called relatively small. You therefore have to “aim” fairly precisely to hit the pads well. The pads are very responsive so they react well to the hardness with which you hit the pad, also when playing ghost notes.
The pads have a surface of woven mesh (mesh heads), which makes playing comfortable and realistic. The pads also make little noise for the environment (which is nice for other people in the house).
Three 9″ Cymbals
The cymbals of the Fazley DDK-020 are 9″, slightly larger than the toms. The crash and ride cymbals have two zones, so they produce a different sound depending on how and where you hit the pad.
The cymbal pads do not have a choke function, so they are not dampened when you grab them. However, they move realistically and feel solid.
Kick and Hihat Trigger Pedals
In the Fazley DDK-020, both the kick and hi-hat are controlled by a trigger pedal, unlike an acoustic drum kit. This makes for a slightly less realistic playing experience. However, in this price range of electronic drum kits, it is not to be expected that the kit has a real kick and hi-hat pedal.
The pedals are the same size as pedals for an acoustic drum kit. Thanks to the spring under the top, the pedals have a realistic rebound. A real kick pedal always plays more realistic, but these pedals are good enough for practicing and playing. learn to play drums.
DDK-020 Module
All signals come in on the compact module of Fazley. This module is simple so that after playing it once you actually know exactly how it works. The module is comparable to modules of kits like the Millenium HD-120, Fame DD-Lite V2 and Fame DD-Lite Pro.
12 Varied Kits
The module contains 12 kits, ranging from jazz to metal and from electronic to percussion. It is not possible to compose kits yourself (the Fazley DDK-080 does offer this option).
As a beginning drummer, the Rock and Jazz kit is actually enough. If you want to play heavier music, the Metal kit is also fun to try.
Some modules allow you to import your own samples, which is not the case with the Fazley DDK-020. But as a beginning drummer you don't need that function.
Metronome
The integrated metronome (40 – 240 BPM) allows you to work on your timing. The click sound of the metronome has a clear and distinct sound. Also handy is that the light of the metronome gives a different color every fourth beat.
Connections
The module has 5 different connections:
- DC9V connection (power supply)
- USB-MIDI (allows you to import the drum kit sounds to your PC)
- 3.5 mm stereo jack aux in (to connect your smartphone so you can play along with your favorite music)
- 3.5mm stereo jack headphone output (for headphones )
- 3.5mm stereo jack line output (connect to a amplifier or for recording a drum cover)
Overall playing feeling
The overall playing feel of the Fazley DDK-020 is more than adequate. You can move and tilt the pads attached to the rack to your liking, allowing you to create your ideal setup. Apart from the small pads, the kit does a good job of replicating the feel of an acoustic drum kit.
The distance between the pads is good. If necessary, you can use a drum key easily increase or decrease the distances. The pads feel responsive and react exactly like a real drum head would.
The kit is not height adjustable like other kits such as the Millenium Rookie is the case.
Hihat and Kick Pedal
The kick and hi-hat pedals feel solid and robust and can easily be connected to the module with the supplied cables.
A sore point with many electronic drum sets is the hihat controller; it is never as accurate as a real hihat pedal, unless you go into higher price ranges such as Efnote is looking for.
However, the hihat pedal is quite accurate and the opening and closing of the hihat works fine. The bass drum also gives the nuances well.
Included Drumsticks
The drumsticks supplied by Bax Music are very lightweight, so great for children. However, the sticks are much too light for me, which made playing unpleasant. The regular 5A sticks by Vic Firth worked a lot better for that reason.
If you are going to use the Fazley DDK-020 as an adult I would recommend other drumsticks to use.
What alternatives are there?
If the Fazley DDK-020 isn't quite your kind of drum kit, there are a few alternatives you can consider. Are you specifically looking for an electronic drum kit for kids? Then view the Top 5 here.
Millenium Rookie
If you are looking for another electronic drum kit for beginners or kids, the Millenium Rookie a model you can consider. This kit has slightly larger pads, but somewhat smaller pedals. This kit has mesh heads like the Fazley DDK-020 and is slightly lower in price.
A review of the Millenium Rookie read here.
Another electronic drum kit designed specifically for children is the Gear4Music Digital Drums 200 Junior.
Other Kits from Fazley
Fazley offers 4 different kits in the DDK series: the Fazley DDK-020, DDK-040, DDK-080 and DDK-120. The kits also increase in quality and functionalities in that order.
An overview of the differences between these kits and for whom each kit is suitable, find it here.
There are a number of differences between the various Fazley kits:
| Bass drum | Pads | Cymbals | Expand | |
| DDK-020 | Trigger | 6″ | 9″ | No |
| DDK-040 | Kick | 6″ | 10″ | No |
| DDK-080 | Trigger | 8″ | 10″ | Yes |
| DDK-120 | Kick | 10″ | 12″ | Yes |
The DDK-020 and DDK-040 cannot be expanded with additional toms or cymbals. The pads are the same size (6″), but the DDK-040 has a kick pedal that makes drumming feel more realistic.
The DDK-080 and DDK-120 can be expanded with an extra tom and extra crash. The toms and cymbals are also larger, giving you more playing freedom. The DDK-120 also has a kick pedal.
Conclusion
All in all I am quite happy with this kit from Fazley. It is an electronic drum kit that offers everything you need as a beginner.
A strong point is definitely mesh heads, something you almost never see on kits in this price range.
The material is of sturdy quality and can certainly withstand a knock. The extra horizontal bar in the middle also makes the rack extra sturdy.
What disappointed me was the loud sound of the sticks on the cymbals (which cannot be tilted), the small pads, and the position of the module.
With realistic mesh heads, simple module, stable rack, the price-performance ratio is better than other electronic drum kits. I was actually quite surprised that I could get such a good electronic drum kit for such a low price.
