Pearl Mimic Pro First Impressions

After months of waiting, Pearl Drum company has finally released the Mimic Pro. I have to say, in all the years that I've played electronic drums, I cannot recall there ever being so much anticipation for a new module. The Vdrums forum has been lit up about it. I have to admit that I have been extremely eager to get my hands on it.

I ordered my Mimic Pro in March and received it on June 27th. A long time to wait.

I won't bore anyone with an unboxing video or bland description of the packaging (it comes in a nice box). For all the anticipation, there was very little hype from Pearl. A couple of NAMM videos. One promo video. A single page on the Pearl website. Virtually nothing, considering that, for all intents and purposes, this module is a radical departure from standard electronic percussion "brains".

For those who don't know, the Pearl Mimic Pro is basically Steven Slate Drums 5 in a dedicated electronic drum module. It has VST quality samples and incredible routing and FX capabilities.

So, the first thing I noticed is that the module is smaller than it looks in the videos. It is about as long as my Yamaha DTXtreme III module, but only half as wide. It is much thinner than the Yamaha, as well. However, it is very sturdy, and the shell is largely metal. It has a large touch screen and a single rotary knob on the face. It definitely gives the impression of being a very solid pieice of equipment.

There are inputs for kick, snare, hi-hat and control, 4 toms, 2 rides (for Roland-like two-cable rides), 2 crashes and 5 auxillary pads. Then, there are 6 TRS balanced outputs, Headphone output and Aux input. These are very heavy duty 1/4" jacks. There is also a DB25 output that you can use to get addition 8 outputs.

I plugged all my pads in and turned the unit on. The touch screen is great! It tracks perfectly and is very sensitive. If you've used an iPad, you'll be comfortable with this screen.

I set up my triggers as best I could without actually hitting them (didn't want to spoil the surprise on how it sounded). I expected that I would need to tweak the settings a bit to make it play well for me. With the triggering set as basic as possible, the real test would be the sound. Would months of anticipation lead to a monumental let-down? Would it only be a slight improvement over the excellent DTX module? With no small amount of trepidation, I hit the snare...

I have used Toontrack's Superior 2.0, EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, Steven Slate 4, and Session Drummer in my recording software. I'm used to high quality responsive sound sources. While I've been taking a break from playing live, I've used Addictive Drums triggered from my kit. To be honest, listening to Roland drum sounds and even my beloved DTX module is hard after getting used to VSTs.

That said, the sounds in the Mimic Pro and, beyond any exaggeration, incredible. The depth of the sounds compared to Addictive Drums is not even in the same chart. The kick drums through my Turbosound IQ15b are absolutely thumpin'! The dynamic range of the toms, for example, are so much that I am actually going to have to adjust my playing. Years of playing with the limited range of other modules has, to be honest, made my a bit dynamic-lazy. The Ludwig Black Beauty snare sample is so tight, so clean I just want to play on it. The cymbal decay is way beyond other modules. The decay is not just simply a repeating sample to give the impression of fading out. They are the actual recording of the entire cymbal decay.

If it sounds like I'm gushing, well, I am. This module has exceeded my expectations by a mile. I've had it for a week and absolutely love it.

That is not to say, however, that it has not been without its problems. I was not able to get my Yamaha PCY155 cymbals to trigger correctly. If I hit the edge, they would auto-choke. My RHH135 hi-hat did not respond very well. I could not, for the life of me, figure out the mixer set up.

On the VDrums forums one of the developers of the module, named Mr. Boo, has been absolutely indespensible in helping users to troubleshoot and fix problems. He sent me dev software for the module to gather trigger data on my cymbals, which I sent back to him. In no time, he sent me an update to my module that completely corrected my cymbals.

This kind of user assistance is unheard of from "The Big Boys" and I really cannot stress enough my appreciation to Mr. Boo for all of his hard work (for me and everyone else).

To summarize, this module is a true game-changer. While that term is thrown around way too much, it really is applicable in this case. Yes, it is expensive, but if you truly want an immersive electronic drumming experience the Mimic Pro is, far and away, the best choice.