Hello!
Hope everyone had an excellent holiday season, and please let me wish a huge Happy New Year to each and every one of you. We were going to get back into the reviews today, but I’ve been given a great opportunity that simply trumped everything else I had planned. I get to break industry news! Who’s the big intrepid reporter ova here, AAAAYYYOOOO!?! Sorry, I’m very excited.
Anyway, here’s the scoop.
TAMA Drums and Hoshino USA Announce Exclusive Distribution Agreement with 2Box AB Electronic Drums
It’s been quite some time since the name TAMA has been associated with electronic percussion. The venerable company’s Techstar line of e-drums proved an effective, but fairly brief, foray into the electronic market, but TAMA’s penchant for keeping up with market demands had many wondering when they’d give it another go.
Well, knowing that any electronic drum bearing the TAMA logo would have to live up to the brand’s legendary standards, the company elected to partner with one of the European market’s fastest rising stars in 2box AB. Having quickly developed an excellent reputation overseas, 2box was poised to make the leap across the pond, and TAMA was more than prepared to punch the ticket.
Now, the 2box AB e-drums will maintain their original branding (rather than carrying the TAMA imprint), but they will enter the American market alongside all of Hoshino’s stateside offerings. With that, consumers will be able to purchase 2box gear through official Hoshino retailers come May of 2013 (target date).
Starting their US launch with their celebrated Drumit Five MkII configuration, 2box AB is touching down in a big way. Featuring an extensive catalog of pre-programmed sounds and loops, interchangeable heads, dual sound pads, multi-zone cymbals and an honest-to-goodness hi-hat stand (awesome!), The Drumit Five MkII kits are designed to make the transition from acoustic to electronic drums as natural as possible.
One more feature that warrants extra attention is the ability for players to upload their own sounds and loops to the 2box brain. With a 4GB onboard hard drive, the Drumit Five MkII’s control system offers a world of easy customization (simply transfer the files over from your computer) for the modern player. Pretty slick.
Learn more about 2box AB Electronic Drums here.
Alright, I’m pretty excited to see and hear these drums in action. Watching the evolution of electronic drums unfold right before our eyes is pretty incredible, and 2box looks like one of the companies that are really seeing how far they can push it. For our European readers, do any of you guys have experience with the 2box product? Let me know how you feel in the comments section, or share your thoughts on the Drum Gear Review facebook page.
Drum Gear Review 
I’ve had my 2box kit since October and absolutely love them! Was a hard decision to go from acoustics to electronics but 2box made the choice easy. It’s awesome to have the snare on it’s own stand, and the sounds are amazing. Only thing i don’t really like is the cymbals/hihat, but still, i’ts waaay better than rolands or yamaha. Only thing I would change to is the Zildjian Gen16 cymbals.
But as far as I’m concerned I rather go with a 2box Drumit5 than any other electronic kit out there!
E-kits are nice! Today I use an Yahaha kit, and, before it, I had one from Alesis.
I also had a Tama, but it was an acoustic Rockstar kit. 😛
The two best things about e-kits are the fact that you can have them in an apartment due to its low noise and how easy they can make recordings be. Check out one of my recordings with my Yahama e-kit: http://onecutemanband.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/my-version-of-the-offsprings-dirty-magic/
Cheers!
I’ve played them at NAMM since their first year introducing them there. Incredible kit. The only one in my opinion that can compare to the Roland. At the price(half of the TD-20), it is a no brainer!