Simmons Titan 70 Review: A Lot of Zones for the Money, With a Few Catches

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The Simmons Titan 70 is the kit people look at once they realize a five-piece starter kit will feel small in a year. It gives you four dual-zone mesh toms, two crashes with choke, a 12-inch ride with a real bell zone and a 7-inch kick pad, all on a rectangular steel rack that ships assembled.

It also has catches. The hi-hat is a fixed pad with a pedal controller, the toms are all 8 inches, and since 2025 Simmons has sold the Titan 75 right next to it, a kit that is almost the same except for the snare.

I put this together from the Simmons product page and Titan 70 manual, Musician’s Friend and Long & McQuade listings, the DrumSilent and DrumSpy reviews and patterns in owner ratings. I have not played this kit, so everything here is on paper plus what owners and reviewers report.

Our score: 8.0 / 10. Excellent pad count and connectivity for the price, a solid rack and a good kick pad. Held back by the hi-hat, small toms and the newer Titan 75 next to it.

Titan 70 status in 2026 and the Titan 75 overlap

Simmons announced the Titan 70 in August 2023 as the new top of the Titan range, above the Titan 20 and Titan 50. As of November 2026 it is still listed on the Simmons site, and Musician’s Friend had it in stock (also in bundles with Simmons DA-series amps). It is not discontinued.

What changed is the kit next to it. The Titan 75 arrived in 2025, and going by the Simmons spec pages it is a Titan 70 with a different snare:

DrumSpy’s Titan 75 review says “the kits are quite similar” and that the 75 is not a dramatic leap over the 70. So the advice is short. At about the same price, the Titan 75 is the better buy because a 12-inch snare on a stand is a real improvement. If the Titan 70 is on sale for clearly less, it is still a good kit.

Above both sits the Titan 90 (June 2026), with a moving hi-hat, bigger toms and a new module, in a higher price bracket. My Simmons brand guide lays out the whole lineup.

Who the Titan 70 is for, and who it is not for

Good fit

• Beginners who already know they will stick with it. Dual-zone toms, a ride bell, two crashes and expansion inputs give you room to grow.
• Players upgrading from a Titan 50, Nitro Max or similar. It fixes the usual starter-kit gaps: single-zone toms, a ride with no bell and one crash.
• Double pedal players on a budget. The 7-inch kick pad is built for single and double pedals.
• Home recording on a laptop. USB audio records the kit’s own sounds over one cable.
• People who want everything in one box. Kick pedal and hi-hat controller are included, and the rack arrives assembled.

Not a great fit

• Adults who want acoustic-sized pads. The snare is 10 inches and all four toms are 8 inches. The SD1250 has a 12-inch snare and 10-inch floor toms.
• Players who care about hi-hat feel. It is a fixed pad with a pedal controller, and DrumSilent found foot splashes do not work.
• Anyone who wants to load their own samples. There is no sample import.
• Very small rooms. Simmons recommends about 60 x 43 inches of floor space.

What’s in the box

Budget for a throne and closed-back headphones on day one. My list of headphones for electronic drums helps with the second.

The module and sounds

Specs

A note on the kit count. The Simmons product page says “75 Preset and User Drum Kits”, but the Titan 70 manual lists 50 preset and 20 user kits, and DrumSilent counted 50 presets and 15 user slots. I go with the manual: 50 presets is the number that matters for most buyers.

What the sounds are like

Simmons says the Titan sounds were recorded at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, with Don Gunn engineering and mixing. Kit styles cover a rock kit in the “Black Album” mold, 70s kits, country, modern pop and electronic sets, with several samples from soft to loud per sound.

Reviewers are mostly positive. DrumSilent rated the module 3.5 out of 5: good sound quality, limited sound design. DrumSpy liked the drums but called the cymbal sounds “a bit thin” next to Roland and Yamaha. Hi-hat sounds are where I would expect to spend editing time.

Editing

Per sound, the manual lists pitch (downward only, 0 to -24), decay, level, pan and reverb send. Per kit, you get compression presets with a threshold and a high and low EQ. That is more than the Titan 20, though nothing like the editing on a Roland or Alesis Strata module.

The trigger menu covers sensitivity, threshold, retrigger, curve, crosstalk, MIDI notes, hi-hat mode and dual-zone ratio. Plan on 20 minutes of sensitivity and crosstalk setup. It makes a bigger difference than any kit change.

DrumSpy notes the module leans on the app for the best workflow, since the display is a small LED readout with basic buttons.

Practice tools

The practice mode scores your timing at several levels. You can play with a steady click, an intermittent click or a click that drops out for a few bars, which shows whether you keep time on your own. There is also a metronome and you can record yourself to a user song.

Pads and feel

Snare

The 10-inch dual-zone mesh snare has adjustable tension, rimshot detection and a fully enclosed shell. DrumSilent notes the shell has no open air underneath, which makes it slightly louder acoustically than the open-bottom Titan 50 snare. In a house that will not matter. In a thin-walled apartment, keep a rug down.

The snare mounts on the rack, which limits how freely you set its height and angle. That is the one thing the Titan 75 changes.

Toms

All four toms are 8-inch dual-zone mesh with tensionable heads. Four dual-zone toms is a real plus at this price, where many kits have three single-zone toms.

The downside is size. Eight inches is a small target for the two “floor” toms during fast fills, and adults with an acoustic background will notice it most. The SD1250’s 10-inch floor toms are the obvious contrast.

Ride and crashes

The 12-inch three-zone ride gives you separate bow, bell and edge sounds, plus choke. That means real ride patterns with bell accents, which most starter kits cannot do.

The two 10-inch crashes have choke but are single-zone. DrumSilent found the choke zone “somewhat small” and needed some practice to find it.

Hi-hat

The hi-hat is a 10-inch pad fixed to the rack with a variable pedal controller (closed, mid and open). It is the weakest part of the kit. DrumSilent reports:

• Foot chicks work, but foot splashes do not.
• The change from closed to open lags very slightly.
• Edge-only hits are less responsive, so the reviewer tilted the pad toward himself.

That is typical for pedal-controller hi-hats at this price, but you will notice it if you play a lot of hi-hat detail.

Kick pad and pedal

The 7-inch kick pad is built for single and double pedals. DrumSilent called it “my favorite Simmons kick pad so far out of the kits that I’ve tried”, with enough height adjustment for a lower beater position.

One catch for double pedal players: Axis long boards need a wider clip area and did not attach well, while a Tama Iron Cobra was fine. Check your pedal’s clamp before you buy.

The included kick pedal is basic, with adjustable beater angle and spring. DrumSilent’s squeaked at first and needed a drop of lube. DrumSpy also calls the pedals entry-level. It works for learning, and it is the first thing most owners upgrade.

Hardware and footprint

Rack

Simmons calls it a full-size rectangular steel rack, and the rectangular bars stop brackets from slipping or rotating. It arrives assembled. DrumSilent rated sturdiness 3 out of 5, about average for this price, and DrumSpy flags the mostly plastic joints.

The small issues DrumSilent ran into:

• The module mount sat the module half under the hi-hat pad. A taller tom bracket fixed it.
• Clamps and arms needed a check and retighten during setup.
• Tall players may need the posts near maximum height. The reviewer, who sits high, managed.

Setup took him about an hour, mostly cable routing.

Space

Simmons recommends about 60 x 43 inches of floor space for the Titan 70, and notes that the footprint varies with how you set the rack and cymbals. That is wider than the 52 x 32 inches it gives for a Titan 50, because of the extra tom, extra crash and bigger ride. Add room for the throne and your legs.

My guide on how much space electronic drums need shows how to measure for a four-tom kit before you order.

Noise for apartments

Mesh heads on all drums and rubber cymbal pads keep the room sound to soft taps and dull clicks. Two details make it a bit louder than a basic starter kit: the enclosed snare, and the kick, which is a real beater on a pad. That thump goes into the floor, and it is what downstairs neighbors hear.

If you live above someone, use a dense rug and think about a riser for at least the kick and hi-hat pedals. My guide on making electronic drums quieter walks through the options in order of cost.

Connectivity and apps

This is where the Titan 70 beats many kits from bigger brands.

Bluetooth audio streams songs or lesson videos from your phone into the module, so you hear them with the drums in your headphones. Bluetooth MIDI works with the Simmons Drums 2 app (Simmons lists it for iOS). It does one or the other, not both. Bluetooth is input only, so use wired headphones.

USB audio is the big one. The module works as a 2×2 audio interface, so you record the kit’s own sounds into a computer with one cable. USB MIDI is there too for drum software. My guide on connecting electronic drums to a computer explains both routes.

Two dual-zone expansion inputs let you add pads later, like a fifth tom or an extra cymbal.

What owners say

I did not find long owner threads I could verify, so these are patterns from retailer ratings and the two reviews. Musician’s Friend showed 4.0 out of 5 from 9 reviews when I checked in November 2026. That is a small sample, but it lines up with the reviews.

• Liked: the pad count for the money, the three-zone ride, the kick pad, a preassembled rack, and USB plus Bluetooth audio.
• Not liked: the hi-hat (no foot splash, slight lag, weak edge hits), small 8-inch toms, thin cymbal sounds, plastic joints and the basic included pedal.

Problems and fixes

If something seems broken rather than misadjusted, the manual gives a two-year limited warranty for the original owner. Keep your receipt.

Upgrades worth buying

1. Headphones and a throne. Neither is included.
2. A better kick pedal. The single best feel upgrade. My list of kick pedals for electronic drums has options that clamp well on small pads.
3. A rug. It stops the rack and kick from creeping.
4. Extra pads on the two expansion inputs, once you know what you are missing.

Alternatives

Simmons Titan 75

The newer sibling with the same module, toms, ride and kick, plus a 12-inch dual-zone snare on its own stand. If the price gap is small, take the Titan 75.

Simmons SD1250

Bigger pads: a 12-inch snare on a stand, two 10-inch floor toms, a 14-inch ride and 12-inch crashes, plus 750 sounds and WAV sample import. But no kick pedal, Bluetooth MIDI only, USB MIDI only and a rack that wobbles more. My Titan 70 vs SD1250 comparison goes section by section, and the SD1250 review covers the module.

Simmons Titan 50 B-EX

The cheaper route to four toms and two crashes, with a 10-inch snare and a 6-inch mesh kick pad, but single-zone toms and a single-zone 10-inch ride. Fine if the budget is tight. See my Titan 50 review.

Alesis Nitro Ultimate

The Alesis answer at this price. Its hi-hat mounts on a normal stand, which fixes the Titan’s biggest weakness, and its cymbals are dual-zone. But the hi-hat stand is not included and USB is MIDI only.

For Roland and Yamaha kits at this budget, see my list of the best electronic drum sets under $1,000.

Final verdict

The Titan 70 gives you more zones and more pads than most kits at its price: four dual-zone toms, a real three-zone ride, two crashes, a good kick pad and connectivity that rivals kits costing more. The hi-hat, small toms and rack-mounted snare are the trade-offs.

If you can get it for clearly less than the Titan 75, it is a smart buy for a committed beginner or a player moving up from a starter kit. If the prices are close, the Titan 75’s bigger snare on a stand is worth it.