Alesis Crimson III – Return of the Red One
Alesis' mid-range mesh kit gets an upgrade
4,5 / 5,0 | 
Alesis Crimson III · Source: Alesis
Alesis Crimson III Module · Source: Alesis
Alesis Crimson III Module Rear · Source: Alesis
Alesis Crimson III Snare · Source: Alesis
Alesis Crimson III Cymbal · Source: Alesis
The Alesis Crimson III is the latest iteration of its very popular mid-range e-Drum kit, getting a much-needed module upgrade.
My very first mesh-headed kit was the original Crimson kit from Alesis. It won me over with decent-sized pads, pretty responsive mesh heads and stylish good looks, but it lacked a decent module. This has now been addressed with a much-improved unit.
What’s New?
Before we look at the module, how has the hardware fared since the last update, the Crimson II? The first thing we notice is that the heads are now white, instead of black. This may appeal to some more than others. I kinda liked the black ones!
You still get nine pads overall. A 12″ snare, 2x 8″ toms, 1x 10″ floor tom, all dual-zone, a 14″ triple-zone ride, 2x 12″ crash cymbals with choke and a 12″ hi-hat pad. The 8″ kick pad is mounted on a matching crimson stand. There’s no info on the hi-hat pedal that is included but I do hope it’s of the continuous variety and not a simple on/off affair.
You don’t get a kick pedal supplied but you do get a double-braced snare stand. I’ve said this before, and I’m going to say it again. Whilst I appreciate that a kick pedal can be a very personal choice based on a number of performance factors, would it kill Alesis to include their own pedal with this kit? Anyway, be warned, you’re going to need one of those! The whole kit is mounted on a 4-post tubular rack.
Alesis Crimson III Module
And so to the module. This was always the Crimson’s weak spot. So much so, in my case, that I never used the sounds on it. I always MIDI’d up to my MacBook and used Superior Drummer. Thankfully, since inMusic bought BFD, they have started to use their far better drum library in more and more of their modules.
Internally, the new Crimson module contains 80 kits, split in half with 40 factory and 40 user kits. The module contains 470 multi-sampled individual sounds, all taken from the BFD libraries. There’s a collection of 100 songs to play along with, plus space for 10 user songs and a built in sequencer so you can record these.
On the outside, there’s a very welcome mixer with 6 faders. Each fader can control two sounds by selecting the top or bottom instrument. Knobs and buttons are of a good size, but the screen is a little plain and small. However, we are looking at a certain price point so corners are going to be cut.
Connectivity is still not great. there a 25 pin D-Sub connector for the 9 pads and hi-hat pedal. Two further triggers can be added by way of a pair of 6.35mm TRS inputs assigned to Tom 4 and Crash 2. There’s full size MIDI and USB plus a stereo output and stereo headphone connection.
There’s a stereo input so you can play along with your favourite tunes and an SD card slot that allows you to play WAV or MP3 files as well as MIDI files. You can also import samples and there’s a Bluetooth Audio connection available too.
More Information
And thrown in for good measure, you get a 90 day subscription to Drumeo and a copy of the BFD Player software that comes with the core BFD Player library plus the Dark Mahogany expansion pack.
The Alesis Crimson III is available now for €1,199.00.
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One response to “Alesis Crimson III – Return of the Red One”
The Manual says also Midi out over Bluetooth!! Nice!