The answer out with insanely expensive custom sets is probably Sonor, however, in terms of favourites, it's Tama for me

Absolutely. This x 300000000

Love my DW collectors kit but my Ludwig BB is sacred.

I'm of the opinion that pretty much every company makes good stuff. The big brands all have their flagships like Tama, Pearl, DW, Mapex, Yamaha, etc.

There are also boutique shops doing great work like Reverie Drums, AF Drums, CC, SJC, etc.

If you're a 1% and have thousands to drop you could look at Craviotto or Noble and Cooley.

This might have been true in before the 1970s, but the quality control at Ludwig has been downhill since the Beatles broke up.

2013-2018, I worked at a drum shop on weekends and assembled tons of kits. Every brand had some occasional issues, but we sent back an ENTIRE shipment of Ludwig NeuSonic kits due to poor quality control issues and then stopped carrying the brand after a few more shipments like that.

youre a drummer who likes motorcycles and lawn mowers? Yamaha's gotchu fam

That's my vote as well. Their hardware is phenomenal too. 

I love Sonor out of Germany, they are my favorite for sure. Ultra high end and their custom drum builder is addictive and fun. This is my go-to ply shell company.

Craviotto also makes incredible drums. This is my favorite single ply shell company.

Oriollo is making beautiful snares and metal drums, they're amazing.

Jenkins Martin has some sounds that I like, they make fiberglass drums but I do not have any experience or real knowledge of that company. Just recently realized they sounded as good as they did.

There is not a correct answer to this question, because all the major manufacturers make great stuff, and most of them also make entry level garbage. By the time you're spending above approximately two grand for a kit, you are getting virtually the same quality across the board. From there, it becomes strictly a matter of preference.

There are no wrong answers in this thread. Different players sound different on different drums. Opinions vary. It’s a very personal thing.

I’m a DW guy - the quality is undeniable. I see the comments about “it takes forever to tune” or “not for rock or metal” which I don’t agree with at all. They are not dry sounding drums, unless you put in some work to get them there. They do tend to have a low fundamental tone for the size, which I like a lot.

Their hardware and pedals are durable, perfect and reliable.

The cost aspect, I think, is the price of doing business at a high level. I have a Collectors Series kit that is 20 years old and only comes out for sessions and special gigs. A Performance Maple is my go to for most gigs: a couple different bass drums, lots of toms to choose from. My beater kit, if you will. It sounds great, too.

Snare drum-wise: I’m more of a Ludwig/DW hybrid dude. Black Beauties, Supraphonics, Acrolytes, DW maples in various sizes, and DW edges are my A Team.

I enjoy hearing everyone’s opinions. Great topic, OP.

Not sure why you got down voted. I grew up playing Gretsch and think they are great (my OG set is #5 on this list). But I'm a Pearl guy nowadays.

DW

I'd suggest the "Vibraband" mounting for the tom.

As someone who has wanted that same set for some time: there’s TONS of great options when you can spend that amount of money, but if you’re after that “look” then anything else just won’t scratch that itch.

If you like the “classic” look, the only other options I can think of (aside from custom) are Gretsch, Pearl President, Rogers, or something actually vintage. Maybe take a peep at their catalogs online and see if anything sticks out to you.

Don't have a DDrum kit, but there was a time I was a touch obsessed with the Reflex Bombardier. If only for the fact that it had a 26" bass drum.

Then again, I was a little obsessed with the Gretsch Catalina Club Rock with the 26" around the same time.

Complete with the “cannon kick”! Soooo boomy!🤘🏻🤘🏻

I have the same kit in the yellow/Orange fade. Nice kit for the price. Sounds good, decent hardware, good looking. Nice one.

Love the color!

That looks amazing

Zildjian K custom dark

I'm a Meinl guy, but you can't go wrong with high-end Zildjian. In regards to Meinl, they have product demonstration videos for their entire range on their YouTube channel and website. I've had Byzance, Mb10 and Mb20 cymbals for nearly 10 years and would highly recommend the Byzance traditional finish range for a warm sound.

Wuhan. They sound great and are cheap. The western collection has some great sounding cymbals are b20 bronze and come at an even better price than most cymbals.

Don’t get the Zildjian s line of cymbals. Buy one or 2 of the K ones and save up for the rest. Keep them forever no upgrades needed

It’s a slow burn rather than a quick upgrade! Better to buy a set of hats and one nice crash and slowly upgrade the rest. You’ll get much better cymbals that way. Used cymbals are great… look for deals on eBay, reverb, Facebook marketplace. Zildjian new beats are classic hats but you can also usually find good deals if you’re patient.

I’d recommend A Custom and K Custom. The Istanbul Agop Xist can be nice if you find cool ones. I’ve rehammered an 18” Xist a few times and it’s finally starting to get to where I want.

It’s taken me 26 years to get to the collection of cymbals I currently have and I’m still trying to find certain ones to fulfill different roles.

My first kit is a Gretsch and I have always liked Gretsch but Pearl has some amazing drums. I love Pearl and I am probably going to get a pearl president series kit

I’m curious how people make this assessment. Anybody could research ad infinitum on the different drum brands but it comes down to hands on play testing in my opinion. Tone should be at least 75% of the decision with the remaining being hardware, aesthetics and accessibility. Unfortunately, I think it’s hard for folks to make this decision objectively because music stores don’t take kindly to folks truly play testing their showcase kits (nor do customers feel their most comfortable in that situation). Seems like for most folks it comes down to committing to a kit/brand then it likely grows on the drummer over time.

Pearl not to expensive all ther kit are reasonably priced (unlike dw) pedals all great even the cheap ones even the older ones such as the p-100 best drum stands and racks in the business and always innovating such as the emerg and Pearl demon drive pedals and powershifter but i also like tamma expect for the tom mounts

Dennor, they got good quality drums including ones for more quiet times

Yamaha. Imo, all of their kits are extremely well made (even their cheapest sets). The fact that they moved a lot of their production to China, yet there is absolutely no decline in quality (again, imo) says to me that they have a great grasp on quality no matter what changes. Their hardware is rock solid, their tom mounts are amazing and I find their finishes are great and classic. They don’t have some weird finishes like some of their competitors, eg Pearls pink kit, Gretsch renown 57s and some of the Mapex Saturns (I still love Pearl, Gretsch and Mapex though). Plus, they also make all sorts of other stuff and that’s all great quality too. Amazing company.

Counter-point.... I disagree that there is a higher level of detail that DW has versus a Pearl Masterworks or Tama Star or Yamaha PHX.

Prove me wrong.

spoiler - >!you can't. It's a baseless claim.!<

Best brand: mine

Worst brand: yours

I'd be with you on dw but damn it I hate those lugs ��

This should go well...

Yamaha,the most popular drum brand.

Your dream kit is a decade maple? They sound great, but why not just go all the way with a reference or masters?

What is drum structor?

Drums 👍🏻

Things badass. heres mine. Mapex Armory, and pearl hardware.

https://preview.redd.it/6c62v9h2s23f1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f6f6090a4e6d067df3fdf566417a617e569ac2d

dream kit

I think it needs more lights.

I don't play hard rock or metal, but the "tight" kit on EZDrummer sounds absolutely great for me.

I'm not going to say it's the absolute best or anything definitively, but the features of EZ Drummer are pretty amazing. Like the song features and all that.

But I haven't used anything else in awhile. Might try Addictive again

Have to echo Get Good Drums; I only have the Modern Fusion kit from their One Kit Wonder series, but it is extremely versatile if you take the time to mix it. That being said, the One Kit Wonder drums have a variety of pre-mixed setups that are designed to just be dropped into projects, so if you don't have the patience to mix drums, they're great for that too!

I’m personally very unable to find anything that beats Superior Drummer 3, and I’ve used just about everything.

On a budget, Steven Slate Drums is not bad.

ED3 is goated. I use Studio One, and I record through my kit in EZD with electric drums. I can then go into the mixer select original mix and multichannel out. Then convert midi to audio stems and I have raw unprocessed drum sounds with corresponding stem tracks right there to mix as realistically as it’s going to get.

I'm a huge fan of ezdrummer 3!

Another vote for GGD. I have three of the one kit wonders and love them for both quick track building/idea building and for more detailed mixes. Suits all the rock stuff I’ve recorded so far.

I’m about to try the Circles 1987 samples too. That kind of shit is right up my alley.

Yep. It's about the sounds, and nobody has better sound packs.

Vintage Dry and the Fairfax kits are killer.

Though, I have to say I don't like United Heavy, Studio Rock, or the Metal sets. But, mostly that's because they accurately reflect what production in the mainstream of those genres has sounded like since the late 90s or early 2000s, and I truly hate that sound. I suppose for someone trying to achieve those sounds, those kits would do the job.

I’ll have to check it out. I was on Rooms of Hansa for a minute, but I’ve started using all the Ludwig stuff in The Rock Foundry and it’s really blown me away, especially the Black Beauty snare in that expansion.

What is your take on MT drums?

Honestly, all the industry standards mentioned in this thread are excellent, I even use Logic's drummer, which can be phenomenal if you go the extra mile and mix the drums well to give it more life - I often play the drum mix in the room and record it with a far room mic to blend in with the samples, this adds a lot of realism