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If you’re looking to upgrade the pads on your electronic drum kit, a new electronic snare drum ought to be the first on the list.
In this guide, I share the best electronic snare drums that offer accurate triggering and a realistic playing experience. I’ve compared design, build quality, performance, and cost to give you my top recommendations.
What Is The Best Electronic Snare Drum?
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Best pad for realism
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Best silicone pad
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The Best Electronic Snare Drums Reviewed
Roland PDX-12 V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum
Roland PDX-12 V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum Review
The Roland PDX-12 is an exceptionally high-quality electronic snare drum that is sized at 12” for an authentic playing experience. The pad itself has a shallow design that means it’s unobtrusive and fits easily into any setup.
The electronic snare drum features a smart dual trigger system that accurately picks up all types of playing across the head and rim. Rim shots, buzz rolls, cross-sticking, and solid backbeats – it brings them all to life with great detail.
The Roland PDX-12 electric snare offers fantastic performance, and the unit is very robust and of high quality. The mesh head is tunable to enable you to achieve your desired playing tension.
From playing this electronic snare on the Roland TD17 electronic drums, I think it’s the best electronic snare drum on the market. It’s versatile, feels great to play, and offers great value considering it has an impressive build quality and performance.
Features:
- 12″ Electronic snare drum pad
- Lifelike sound and performance
- Dual trigger outputs
Pros
- Excellent playability due to having good rimshots, cross-sticks, and buzz rolls
- Compact design with a shallow shell makes it easy to move around and position
- Great value for money considering how good this snare pad feels to play
- Large enough to feel comfortable when playing it hard
Cons
- No negatives to mention
Roland PDX-128S V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum
Roland PDX-128S V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum Review
The Roland PD-128S Electronic Snare Drum is another great quality electric snare drum that will enhance your electronic drumming experience to feel like you are playing acoustic drums.
The PD-128S translates musical ideas with ease through its advanced triggering and exceptional sensitivity. The new multi-element sensor system detects each playing stroke with astonishing detail.
Roland’s V drums offer the ultimate in performance and accurate sonic detailing. The PD-128S produces an uncanny snare drum-playing response.
The playing response and sensitivity from this electronic snare drum are both fantastic. Ghost notes, buzz rolls, strong backbeats and even brush playing are all brought to life with amazing detail.
If you are looking to upgrade your snare drum pad on your electronic drum set to something that is more realistic and enjoyable to play on, then the Roland PD-128S is the best electronic drum for you.
Features:
- 12″ Electronic snare drum pad
- Incredible natural feel and expression
- Dual trigger outputs
Pros
- Advanced triggering gives it incredibly good sensitivity
- The realistic buzz rolls and ghost notes make it perform just as well as an acoustic snare drum
- It feels like a proper upgrade when you replace a lower-quality snare with this pad
- The deeper shell looks great on an electronic kit
Cons
- One of the more expensive options available
- Roland has been phasing this pad out over the last few years
Roland PDX-6 V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum
Roland PDX-6 V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum Review
The Roland PDX-6 is a compact electronic snare drum that is very enjoyable to play on. It accurately picks up all different types of playing across the head and the mesh head offers an authentic playing experience.
The PDX-6 is small in design but big on performance! It is a dual-trigger electric snare drum which means it accurately picks up playing both on the snare as well as the rim for an authentic playing feel and sound.
Overall the PDX-6 is the best electronic snare drum pad for those on a budget. It features a strong build quality and it’s a great overall choice to play on for all styles of music.
Features:
- 8″ Electronic snare drum pad
- Ideal for smaller kits
- Dual trigger outputs
Pros
- Separate rim and head triggering to offer you two playable surfaces
- One of the best options available for drummers with a tight budget
- It works well as an upgrade for a beginner e-kit that has a rubber snare drum pad
- Will always stay useful, even if you upgrade to a better snare pad down the road
Cons
- The pad is only 8”, so many drummers feel that it’s a bit small to be used as a snare drum
Roland PD-140DS V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum
Roland PD-140DS V-Pad Electronic Snare Drum Review
The highly advanced Roland PD-140DS is one of the most sophisticated electronic snare drums on the market. It boasts a staggering 8 sensors across the head and rim that register playing with incredible realism and accuracy.
This is the best electronic snare drum that can translate musical ideas with ease through its advanced triggering and exceptional sensitivity. The new multi-element sensor system detects each playing stroke with astonishing detail.
The Roland PD-140DS undoubtedly carries a premium price tag, but it really delivers the very best in performance and playability. It feels unbelievable to play on, and it truly offers the most realistic level of performance available.
Whether you are playing strong backbeats, delicate ghost notes, snare rolls, rimshots, cross-sticking or even brushwork – the PD-140DS captures all the emotion from your playing and brings these sounds to life with huge character.
The PD-140DS electronic snare drum pad is the ultimate in expressive drumming and the 14” size helps to create the most authentic playing experience possible. This is the best electronic snare drum but the only big downside is that it is only compatible with Roland’s flagship TD-50 module because of the digital trigger outputs.
Features:
- 14″ Electronic snare drum pad
- 8 High-resolution sensors
- Only compatible with Roland TD-50 Module
Pros
- Most advanced electronic snare drum available on the market
- Innovative multi-sensor system that makes it perform just like an acoustic snare drum
- 14” diameter and 5” depth make it look and feel like an acoustic snare
- Seriously responsive to all styles of drumming
Cons
- The most expensive single electronic drum pad available
- Only works with Roland drum modules that are designed to allow digital drum pads to be used
Yamaha DTX XP120SD Electronic Snare Drum
Yamaha DTX XP120SD Electronic Snare Drum Review
Lastly, we have the Yamaha XP120SD Electronic Snare Drum Pad that features a unique textured cellular silicone head instead of a multi-ply mesh head that all Roland models are equipped with.
The Yamaha XP120SD electronic snare drum is ideal for practicing and live performances. It offers a slightly different playing feel when compared to the Roland mesh heads, but I do really enjoy playing on this electric snare drum pad.
The dual-zone trigger pad is sensitive and highly responsive to all types of snare drum playing. It produces a really satisfying backbeat when playing rock or pop music and feels great to play jazz and RnB, too.
The triggering of this electronic snare drum is highly accurate, and it would make an excellent upgrade for any beginner electronic drum set.
Features:
- 12″ Electronic snare drum pad
- Textured cellular silicone head
- Dual trigger outputs
Pros
- The silicone drumhead offers good performance and highly expressive playing potential
- Build quality and design are both very solid
- Rimshots feel amazing to play on this pad
- Good option for drummers that don’t enjoy mesh heads
Cons
- This model is quite dated, and Yamaha has released newer silicone pads recently
- Value for money isn’t amazing, as the other mesh head pads seem like better deals
Features to Look Out for in an Electronic Snare Drum Pad
Size
Drum pads come in various sizes. If you’re looking for a pad to use as a snare drum, larger pads will always feel better.
With acoustic snare drums typically being 14”, the closer you get to that size, the better. However, larger pads are more expensive, so keep that in mind.
You can also look at depth. Some Roland and Yamaha pads have deep shells that make them feel a bit more durable. They also look more like snare drums than the other pads on your set.
Material
All electronic drum pads have heads that are made from rubber, mesh, or silicone. Rubber pads are the lowest-quality ones, and I wouldn’t suggest buying a rubber pad to replace your snare drum, as they also have the worst playability. Rubber pads aren’t so bad to use for a bass drum.
You should choose between mesh or silicone. Mesh is the most common material, and it’s designed to feel close to how an acoustic drumhead feels when you play.
Silicone heads are only found on Yamaha electronic drum sets. They’re slightly harder than mesh heads, but they also feel similar to how acoustic drumheads feel.
Trigger Zones
A trigger zone is where you strike on a drum pad for it to send signals to the drum module to produce sounds.
Some pads only have two trigger zones, while others have several. The more trigger zones a pad has, the more realistic and authentic it will feel when you play it.
You should look for a pad that has a minimum of two zones, as that means you can play the head and the rim. You’ll get better performance quality with more zones, though.
Connectivity
Most drum pads work well with any module. You can connect a Roland PDX-6 to an Alesis Strike Pro module, and you shouldn’t have any issues with performance.
However, there are a few pads that don’t work universally. A good example is the digital pads from Roland. These only work with Roland modules that support them, meaning you can’t even use them with lower-quality Roland modules.
Just make sure to check what the connectivity options are before buying a new snare drum pad!
