I had a bit of trouble getting the sound to work with my system, so my first attempts with this program were strickly visual. I could hear drum sounds from my drum module, but not from the software / computer. This prooved very frustrating and boring. The manual and tech support were of no help to me since I did not have the HD-1 drum kit. I did a lot of experimentation and finially found the right combination of settings that work with my system. Now that I can hear the notes and background music being played it is definitely more interesting and more practical. This prooves that the visual part of this software is for confirmatation, more than for timing (wheter in Graphical mode or in Notation mode). I still think this program has a lot of potential especially for experience drummers, but it may be very challenging to beginners. I don’t think it is fair to compare this program to Rock Band or Guitar Hero. The graphical interface is much more like Dtx Mania or Rock Revolution. There should be more lessons / excercies for beginning drummers, since that is who they are supposedly marketing to. There should be links / integration with this software to good usable midi songs and the lessons available from Rolands web site. It would also be very helpful if you could see your results until you start a new set. Instead the scores dissappear as soon as one stops drumming. Ideally they should have allowed us to save our progress. Roland should also have links to a support group, for tips, suggestions and trouble shooting. I don’t understand why they can’t incorporate drum rudiments, for the snare. These could also be adapted later for the rest of the kit. They could show rolls and buzzes similar to the extended notes in RB / GH. I would consider paying extra for midi files that have been tested and proven for this program or for additonal lessons / exercise. Again it would be helpful it this was integrated in the program or at least available through links without having to leave the program. They need to add some elements to make it fun to play along - I am not sure how, but again perhaps some cues from GH / RB are in order. Perhaps inclusion for some popular tunes or at least clips of intersting parts. We don’t need a lot of video / animations as they can be distracting. The interfaces (graphical and notation modes) are very clean, so I hope they don’t bog the sceen down with useless information (or at least alow us to disble / hide). The menu system seems very bleak, especially for chosing setup options. Recommend settings should be highlighted. I hope Roland is committed to improving this software and makeing it more accessable to both Roland and non Roland drum kits. I will be looking forward to the next version and any updates / upgrades that might be available (hopefully as easy downloads). Perhaps they will even consider making a version of this for people who only have USB or GHWT and Rockband drum kits. I hope this sets a standard for other visual oriented (scrolling tab) lessons. Perhaps a little competition will push Roland into deleoping this package into something really useful and fun?

I purchased this product based on recent advertisements and was quite dissappointed that it does little to teach anyone to play drums. There are excercises to practice, but they are even more boring than the many books I have purchased! I was expecting some of the game play and fun of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but thier version of the graphical interface is very crude and boring! There is no “feel for the music”, just repetition of a series of notes. If someone puts together a series of Midi music files to play along with then these weakness may be reduced, but so far this has been much more of a challenge than expected. The review above is pretty good - certainly more accurate than the advertising pieces from Roland. I hope they come up with some updates at reduced prices for people who took a gamble on this over priced software. It has potential, but much needs to be done to make it fun and to make worth of the title Drum Tutor! BTW: I purchased this software to use with my Alesis D4 drum module and two drum kits (one early Ion with rubber pads and one Multi-brand kit with mesh screen pads and Roland cymbals.

Overall it performs exactly as advertised. Very fun - I can definitely see this as my primary practice mechanism. In fact, because I was formally trained many years ago, I find it easier to read the drum notation than the "game"-style notation! My only complaints are around the interface - the window itself can only be 1024x768, and there are no keyboard shortcuts (that I can see) to play, rewind, stop, etc. There are others, but very minor; I only care because I'm a UI designer by profession. But overall, I'm happy with this purchase.