Ddrum dominion birch vs natal cafe racer

AZDRUMZ

Active Member
Hey all,
so I've been looking for a new kit for a while now and I have narrowed it down the new Drum dominions that were released this year and the NATAL café racer kit

The Ddrums:
they have a standard 5 piece config with traditional sizes (10, 12, 16, 22k, 14s) and it comes with an all-birch shell with an ash veneer and gloss lacquer finishes (which I`m a big fan of), and it comes with Chinese Remo heads (CS dot on the snare, P3 for the kick, and pinstripes for the toms). One finish that stands out to me is the red burst. The price for the 5 piece is $949.99 on GC, which isn´t bad. The only videos of the kit were the ones that ddrum put up on their channel. At the same time, I have heard tons of bad stuff about ddrum and their QC, so that is concerning me a little.

The NATALS:
The natal kit is a 4 piece shell pack with the same sizes excluding the snare. The wood is American tulipwood, which I hear is a darker tonewood. Natal offers a lot more finishes for these drums rather than the four that are available for the dominion. This kit features Evans heads (G2 coated for toms, EMAD for the kick). The finish I want is seafoam green with white kick drum hoops. the list price is $1399.99 On GC, which is barley under my budget. since this kit has been around longer, there were a lot more audio demos, and I watched the drummer's review video of this kit and it had a lot of positives
to it other than the reso kick head but that doesn't matter to me as much as build quality and sound quality

So I need some help figuring this out, Cheaper ddrum or Pricier Natal, thx

~~azdrumz
 
have a listen to both kits on youtube/vimeo/floatplane, and see which one suits your sound better. i would personally go for the natal, but thats just me :)


I have to say that the natal kit is the only one that I have actually played/heard in person and its sounds amazing. plus the ddrums come with Chinese heads, and they had to go with pinstripes, which I hate with a passion
 
I have to say that the natal kit is the only one that I have actually played/heard in person and its sounds amazing. plus the ddrums come with Chinese heads, and they had to go with pinstripes, which I hate with a passion
well, theres a couple more reasons to go with natals then :)
 
Welcome to the forums!

Ddrum has always represented mediocrity to me. With the exception of the Dios line that I saw in person last year (it was very nicely made, possibly as well made as the Gretsch Renowns). The rest of the Ddrum stuff makes me crinkle my nose. To me Ddrum is what parents buy their kids when they don't know anything about drums. Maybe my bias against them isn't fair anymore, maybe they've improved QC in the last few years, but the stigma is still there.

The other problem with Ddrum is their 'signature' feature...all their bass drums are 20" deep. That's too deep to be practical if you're a gigging drummer.

I like what I see from Natal and the Cafe Racer. I haven't played or seen them in person though so I can only go by the videos I see online.

All that being said, I'm assuming you don't already know about the better options in your price range? Neither the Ddrum or Natal would be in my (or anyone else's) top 3-5 picks for drum kits.

The absolute best kit you can get for $1,500 is the Gretsch Renown. Most people here are in agreement. It looks and sounds like a $4000 kit. I bought mine a year ago after an extensive search for the right kit, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Other kits that are well-liked, but perhaps not as widely acclaimed as the Renowns...the Yamaha Tour Custom, Mapex Saturn V, Pearl Session Studio Select, DW Design Series. All are great kits, but not quite as great as the Renowns (IMO). And all of these kits are better (and have a long history of high quality) over anything from Ddrum or Natal.

Sorry to derail your post, but I'm kinda assuming you don't know about these other great kits and thought I'd let you know. :)
 
Welcome to the forums!

Ddrum has always represented mediocrity to me. With the exception of the Dios line that I saw in person last year (it was very nicely made, possibly as well made as the Gretsch Renowns). The rest of the Ddrum stuff makes me crinkle my nose. To me Ddrum is what parents buy their kids when they don't know anything about drums. Maybe my bias against them isn't fair anymore, maybe they've improved QC in the last few years, but the stigma is still there.

The other problem with Ddrum is their 'signature' feature...all their bass drums are 20" deep. That's too deep to be practical if you're a gigging drummer.

I like what I see from Natal and the Cafe Racer. I haven't played or seen them in person though so I can only go by the videos I see online.

All that being said, I'm assuming you don't already know about the better options in your price range? Neither the Ddrum or Natal would be in my (or anyone else's) top 3-5 picks for drum kits.

The absolute best kit you can get for $1,500 is the Gretsch Renown. Most people here are in agreement. It looks and sounds like a $4000 kit. I bought mine a year ago after an extensive search for the right kit, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Other kits that are well-liked, but perhaps not as widely acclaimed as the Renowns...the Yamaha Tour Custom, Mapex Saturn V, Pearl Session Studio Select, DW Design Series. All are great kits, but not quite as great as the Renowns (IMO). And all of these kits are better (and have a long history of high quality) over anything from Ddrum or Natal.

Sorry to derail your post, but I'm kinda assuming you don't know about these other great kits and thought I'd let you know. :)


Thx for the suggestion but Gretsch isn't my cup of tea, they make great sounding kits, but my top three go-to brands are NATAL, Mapex, and Tama.
the renowns are great, but the thing with Gretsch is the 5 lug rack toms, it just makes no sense to me on why you would have an odd number of lugs on a drum. and to go off of the suggestions you put, I would only go for the Saturns and the tour custom. I find DW to have features that are useless or that I don't like (every shell has a note makes no damn sense, and they don't rubber-line the claw hooks on the kick drum while every other brand does), and I´ve never owned any pearl kits or hardware. I would consider the Saturns the most though mainly because all of my snares are Mapex (BP & armory) and they updated the Saturns this year.

the whole reason I'm looking at a Café Racer or dominion is the prices, I have a 1500 dollar budget and these 2 kits fit in that price range (along with the TC´s, and Saturns ofc). and i played the natal at a drum shop in Oregon and it had a great feel to it
 
even for the $950 you're potentially willing to spend on the Ddrum kit, you could get a high quality used kit of a different brand, but it sounds like you kind of have your mind made up for the Natals. the seafoam finish is pretty cool though. I just listened to a few demos and they sound good. between that and the ddrum, I'd go for the Natals. I am not sure what the market is like for Natal, but I imagine you wouldn't make much back on that Ddrum kit if you ever decide to sell down the road.
 
Another vote/suggestion for the Yamaha Tour Custom Maple ....... $1299.99.
 
even for the $950 you're potentially willing to spend on the Ddrum kit, you could get a high quality used kit of a different brand, but it sounds like you kind of have your mind made up for the Natals. the seafoam finish is pretty cool though. I just listened to a few demos and they sound good. between that and the ddrum, I'd go for the Natals. I am not sure what the market is like for Natal, but I imagine you wouldn't make much back on that Ddrum kit if you ever decide to sell down the road.
you have a point, i was looking at used dominion kits and they run for $400 - $500 dollars used.
 
I bought a new, lower priced ddrum kit about a year and 1/2 ago. It's solid. Sounds great. The hardware is better than a lot I've seen. They go cheaper on lugs, and hoops within their lower end lines. So, it depends on what you want for looks etc. BUT, there is NOTHING wrong with the kit.

With that said, if it were 17 months ago, and I was getting ready to buy my first kit in 17 years, I would have bought used--PDP, yammy, whatever in my price range. But I'm not at all unhappy with the ddrum kit. 10x7, 12x8 toms and the 13x7 snare are great.

ddrum is NOT popular. They get a lot of flack for their past deficiencies. I don't think it's the same now at all though.
 
thanks for all the feedback guys, I think I should maybe open up my options a little bit from just two kits

plus I just remembered that sonor makes the AQ2 series, which seems like a good quality kit
 
Having just found this thread, I figured I'd interject. I'm a Ddrum artist, and I own and use a Dominion Birch Ash in Transparent Black Ash. The model I have is a prototype, but it's essentially the same kit you can get now. I can wholeheartedly vouch for the way they sound and feel, and the QC is eons ahead of their past bad years. The heads that come with them are better than most stock heads, even though I play a different company now (Attack Drumheads) and have replaced them all since then . The kick is super punchy yet full-bodied, the toms tune up easily and have a great balance of articulation and depth to them, and the snare is snappy & sensitive yet full of enough body at just about all tuning ranges (shocking for a stock snare). Add to that, they're gorgeous with that outer ash veneer and transparent gloss. Here's my kit from a recent studio session (Dios 6.5" x 14" Hammered Bronze pictured). I haven't played a Natal kit of any kind so I can't really compared the two, though I've heard nothing but great things from them. I'd say you can't go wrong with either kit, but these Ddrums feel, sound, and play like a kit twice the price.
 

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Have you considered Mapex Armory? Peace and goodwill.
 
I have read of the past QC issues with DDrum, but a while back I got a newer 13x7 birch (w/ash veneer) (Dominion?) snare drum that I'm pleased with.

That said, when I got my kit, I went with a used mid-level Yamaha set, no regrets at all.
 
I realize this thread is a bit old, but ... just saw new Dominion Birch for 2022. They say upgraded tom mount, 2.3mm hoops, 10 lug bass drum hoop, pin stripes on the toms. Here's a 4 piece with the 20" kick - $600
 

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I have NO problems with DDrum. I like my Journeyman kit. Honestly, it's some of THE best tom mounting hardware I've seen and used. SOLID, doesn't move around, when it's set, it's set. It's not take a huge amount of punishment.

That's a good looking Dominion kit.
 
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