Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Phil Doughty" <phildoughty@h...> 
wrote:
> depending on my playing
> styles ie: heavy handed-chopping wood
> or light touched-dropping of a feather on the skin.
> 
> those are 2 extremes but if i can, i wanna try to get it.
> if the velocity works like any midi parameter
> then i should have 0-127 to play around with.
> 
> from what i understand some
> modules send only a few velocity trigger
> messager before moving to the next sample.
> 
>      light          mid light          mid         mid heavy     
Heavy
> {...............}{...............}{..............}{...............}
{...............}
> 
> i want a new sample
> trigger for every touch
> then have that midi
> message sent to the computer.

Phil,

I'm not sure where we're going here, but the nature of MIDI is to 
limit velocity theoretically to 127 steps.  As your diagram 
indicates, modules at the low end won't necessarily be able to 
resolve all of them--by a longshot; nor will they tie velocity to 
other parameters so that the percussive sound will vary not only by 
the force of the hit but also by timbre, pitch, attack, position, 
etc. The DTXpress, for example, is limited to only what crossfading 
two voices can achieve, which makes it susceptible to the machine-gun 
effect. The more expensive digitally triggered modules have their own 
ways of elaborating velocity with positional and sonic effects. As I 
said, among the modules, only the ddrum's analog triggering, which is 
released from MIDI, can allow a substantially wider dynamic range. 
Its multisampled voices allow further variations in sound quality--in 
up to eight stages.

Software modules are usually much more intricate and flexible. BFD, I 
think, has at least 46 velocity stages mapped on volume intensity. 
That's why I wondered why not take advantage of your PC for velocity. 
The only genuine advantage that stand-alone drum modules have over 
computer software is their convenience and portability. Whether the 
ones at the high end are good enough to trump the computer option 
altogether is a personal decision. By mere specs, I wouldn't think so 
at this point.

Ed