Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "drumsonly2002" <dan@n...> wrote:
I thought I was the only one who loved Yamaha 
> pads. Just to put my two cents into the pot. I've been drumming for 
> over 20 years. 
Roland has a bigger following, 
> and that's fine with me, but the Xtreme is very under rated. The 
> entire line of DTX samples and modules, under rated. Why? Under 
> hyped. 

In this group, we can amass a lot of years of experience. I have 
forty years of drumming, and was much relieved at the mesh head 
revolution in e-drums because it made e-drumming more like a-
drumming. The truth is that Roland owns this market, with its 
formidable patents, thus keeping Yamaha, and others, at least at some 
disadvantage if not completely nonplussed. I don't happen to like 
Roland mesh heads (the skins, that is); the Harts are worlds better, 
especially the recently discontinued two-plies (ask Roland about 
their demise). Yamaha, too, would have offered a woven-head option 
had Roland left the door open. But Yamaha seems to have benefited 
from the misfortune; they concentrated on creating a great rubber pad 
instead. I'd love to know how they arrived at it. I'm envisioning 
lots of computer modeling and material research, intense trial and 
error, and firsthand contribution from Yamaha's renowned stable of 
drummers. 

Anyway, at the lower end of the market, Yamaha has certainly held its 
own; the DTXpress is a whopping success. The relative failure of the 
first DTXtreme vis a vis the Roland high end, however, might not have 
boded well for its successor. But what a pleasant surprise. As I 
said, the physical response of the pads leaves nothing to be desired. 
Interestingly, the cymbals feel (and work) a lot like Roland's 
(people in the industry have wondered why the similarity seems to 
have escaped Roland).

I like what I've heard of the module, too, though I have a long way 
to go in plumbling its depths. Despite its innovations, Roland's TD-
20 seems like more of the same from that company to me--not 
necessarily a bad thing if you're a Roland fan with deep pockets, but 
if COSM and $2,000 are not your idea of a good time, the Yamaha picks 
up big points at barely a grand. As far as I'm concerned, the ten-
year-old ddrum module still sets the standard in speed, sound, 
dynamics, and simplicity (ergonomic and processing). But the price 
paid for this elegance is financially and practically steep. It costs 
a lot for what it doesn't do: MIDI functionality is seriously 
limited, its computing ability sadly dated, and its hi hat is largely 
proprietary. So, in comes the Yamaha; we need to know how it acts 
with components from other companies. I hope that more and more 
information on that score is forthcoming from early adopters in the 
groups, as well as from Hart, which seems to have plans to test (I've 
heard that one before), and Pintech.  Before he left Pintech, Brian 
LaRue had major plans for producing components compatible with the 
new Yamaha modules, and some of them have seen the light of day. But 
let's hope that Pintech's engine hasn't stalled since his departure.

Ed