Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Nick Carroll" <njcarroll56@y...> 
wrote:
> Thanks for that feedback about Drumbalaya. Sounds like the way to 
> go! I'll check with the Australian Customs Service to find out how 
> much duty I'll have to pay.  If you got stung $500 GST, then I 
> assume you paid roughly $5,000 for your DDRUM kit.  That seems very 
> expensive, but I've seen the DDRUMs and they do sound fantastic. 
> What puts me off DDRUM is the lack of extras, such as a metronome.  
> And I never found out how many kits/sounds you can get - can you 
> tell me that?

Nick,

Go to the ddrum site at http://www.ddrum.com/ddrum/index.htm and look 
around. When you buy a ddrum kit with a particular operating system, 
you get scores of kits loaded (many of which won't do much for you), 
with the option of making your own as well, with the default sounds 
from the current library. But remember that the extensive ddrum 
library, past and present, is available for download for free at the 
site via MIDI. All you need is the ddrum tool, which you'll have to 
download first. You can dump any and all of what is in the memory for 
different sounds at any time. The new megasounds, in particular, 
which are sampled from the kits of contemporary drummers, are 
astounding, but they take up an enormous amount of the ddrum's 
outdated 8MB memory. If you go with them extensively, the number of 
kits available to you may be as little as three, depending on the 
size and number of samples that you select. The various readouts in 
the tool and on the ddrum's display will always inform you of how 
much space is free or used. Ddrum is unique for also allowing you to 
approximate particular acoustic kits. You'll have to read through the 
library to see the alternatives. Give yourself some time. I've had 
mine for a long while, and I've barely scratched the surface. I've 
posted bits and pieces of information here about the ddrum's joys and 
frustrations that you can access by searching the archives for ddrum. 
To my mind, the former outweigh the latter, but you should know about 
the foibles and warts.

Unlike the products that you know now, the ddrum is actually simple 
to use, without the endless layers of digital programming and 
bells/whistles. The manual is well written and well organized. 
Basically, what you see/hear is what you get with ddrum. You'll need 
to buy a metronome separately, as well as a little mixer that you can 
use for practicing with various media. But the ddrum module has six 
outputs, so a mixer with enough inputs will let you put a finer point 
on it. 

Ed