i saw them once in a clinic by dutch session drummer Ton Dijkman.....the little set packed a lot oomph for its small measures, i came away very impressed

And it does this very well. I can recommend it if these are the types of gigs you're doing.

Sorry, I didn't see this one the first time around. I've been gigging regularly with it for about 3-4 months now. I love it. It's got a very compressed sound but packs a lot of volume. I think "punchy" is the best word to describe it.

In terms of durability, no problems so far. I wondered if the kick might warp with all that weight on it, but the way the front hoop attaches, it seems to avoid that. It has memory locks everywhere, so normal setup is very quick, about 20 minutes.

I've been using electronics with it, triggering the kick and the snare to a Roland SPD-20. I was having some problems troubleshooting some missed triggers, but I bought some new Pintech ones that are working beautifully. My band does a pretty varried set, so I can go from rock to funk to hip hop with it, just by changing the patches.

Tomorrow I'm going to try it for the first time at a major large club (been using it for mid-sized clubs up til now). I wanted to wait until everything was cool with the triggering thing. I'm also hoping to get a gig with a drum&bass/ambient/breakbeat/jazz group that uses gobs of electronics. So this kit will work great for that if I get the gig. I think it would also make an excellent jazz kit.

Anyway, rambling now. I'd recommend it if you think it'll meet your needs like I described. It meets mine very well. I love it.

 I plead the 5th.

LOL!!  

It worked great actually! I was very pleasantly surprised, not to mention relieved.

I used Pintech triggers (these are bringing me far more success with this kit than the DDrums I was using before) on the kick and snare, fed to the Roland SPD-20, and out to a mono channel strip on the board. I think the reason the Pintechs work better is because they have a good sized length of cable from the trigger itself to the quarter-inch jack. So I could attach it very close to where the beater actually strikes the head and get more vibration.

I miked both toms with Sennheiser e604 mics to individual preamps on the Mackie board. No overheads or additional mics.

It was all beautiful. Great sound and an excellent show. People loved it, and it was nice to have the ability to change kit sounds (at least the kick/snare) for different styles of music. The toms continue to amaze me with how good they sound for their size. They're not the best in the world, but with good tuning (which is crucial with this kit) and proper EQ, they sound quite nice. Know how to tune well if you buy this kit!

I have the Rick Marotta cherry red version.

Felix, yeah it has a snare and is birch/mahogany. I'm surprised how much sustain the toms actually have. Definitely not a big DOOOOooooommmm.... of a solid 16" floor tom, but I've always preferred smaller toms anyway.

Sushiman, I'd suggest you try them out before you make any decisions. Words we've used like "punchy" and "compressed" mean nothing until you try it out yourself. It's a very different sounding drum kit. It's like those Les Paul playing guitarists who suddenly shift over to playing a Fender strat one day. It's different, you play it differently, it sounds different. You get the picture.

Given that statement, I suggest you not go for the HipGig and look instead into a more conventional kit. The HipGig is made for quick setup/breakdown, convenient transport, small footprint, pretty good sound, more quirky music styles, and for placing various percussion around in easy reach. If you're playing rock 'n roll gigs and not triggering with it, it's not a kit for you.