We are looking for something that our son can use at college to practice/improve his mallet skills. He played vibes and marimbas in high school, but won't be doing college marching band. We've looked at malletKATs and xylosynths online, but so far haven't been able to actually try one out. We aren't even sure one of these is the right choice for a practice instrument since they don't exactly replicate the design and feel of a vibe or marimba (or so it appears). He obviously can't put a vibe or marimba in his dorm room, so.... any feedback or suggestions you can give us would be GREATLY appreciated! We're hoping to find someone our son can take lessons from when he's at college, but he needs something to practice on. His ultimate goal is to become good enough to make a world class drum corps.