Mesh heads give a much more real drum feel. So I’d definitely go for them, if you can afford them, and your daughter will get more out of them from a learning perspective.
I like the Roland kits as the newer Roland drum brains, are better for more realistic sounds. But don’t rule out mesh kits by Alesis or Millennium.
But I’d definitely prioritise mesh heads over a fancy drum brain, as the skills learnt on mesh, will be easily transferred. But just one thing, I’ve never personally been bothered by mesh for the kick.
i taught drums for years and while an acoustic kit is great, its not always practical - i have had good experiences teaching on alesis kits in schools so you could get one of those and not lose money if it didn’t work out
…a mesh snare that also has a rim sensor is important…
while toms can be just pads…same goes for the kik…
hi hat and cymbal can be anything…
roland and nord drum are the top notch…but alesis will do all fine…
just make sure, that drum interface can speak midi, so the sound pallette can change to anything over the first years by attaching any sort of drum vst’s also…
good headphones is the last must have and she’ll be totally fine and might really grow into it, if she’s starting that early…
and since todays music scene has almost no neeeds for real drumming, u can count on the total paradigm change for sure, when real physical drumming/jammin’/groovin’ will become THE shit again, once she’s reaching double digit age…
I am not a drummer, but the Alesis DM10X, with mylar heads, has served me well over the years in the studio. It can probably be found fairly cheap on the used market, since it has been long discontinued.
With that said, for a young child, a Yamaha DD-75 might be a better option due to its size and portability:
I always historically had a laugh playing the drums in rehearsals and fancied playing along to my own jams so i grabbed a td11kv Roland set. Quite an old kit but seems decent. Will probs mainly trigger ableton drums or the tr8s.
Quick update. Set it up today. Just been pissing about with the (fairly basic) onboard sounds and loving it. I havent played real drums in a while so any “artificial feel” is sort of irrelevant to me. I think its going to complement my hardware really nicely. I think I might stick it through the bastyl thyme + semi permanently to give it some interesting subtle rhythmic glitch while I play. Very happy so far.
