Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas" <kveldalf@h...> wrote:

> RE: DTXpress III Special
>
> I have recently rekindled an old flame with drumming, and due to 
noise levels must 
> consider electronic drums instead of acoustic.  After watching demo 
videos of Roland V12 
> and the DTXpress III Special, there's  strong reason why I am 
considering Roland instead of 
> Yamaha.  
> Questions:
> Can you add snare buzz to the toms? 
> I've listened to the member samples, and unfortunately cannot say 
this helps clarify the 
> concerns I have.   The voices seem to be "cut short" that is, for 
example, the wash/ring of 
> the cymbal crashes don't sound quite right--same with the snare 
sounds.   Are there any 
> jazz drummers who can post and example of this kit?

Thomas,

You sound like a man who's made up his mind, and I'd be very 
surprised if anyone on this board felt obligated to change it. 
There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't buy a Roland kit. In 
fact, your reasons for being so inclined are the usual ones: Roland 
certainly scores high points on presentation. Yamaha e-drums don't 
have the support of the company that you might imagine, though the 
situation is apparently is about to get better. Roland's commerial 
dominance obscures other worthy players in this litte game. The 
reasons are complicated.

I'm not quite sure which Roland kit you mean to reference, but 
judging from your remark about snare buzz, I'd suspect that it's the 
TD-20, which is really an unfair comparison with the much-less 
expensive DTXpress Special, as good as it is. The DTXPSP should go 
head to head with the Roland TD-6 kits and possibly TD-8s, and the 
new DTXtemeIIS with the TD-8s, though many people (like me) also 
regard it as a good, cost-effective alternative to the TD-20. 

Most of the differences kits at similar price points come down to 
subjective impressions of sounds and feel. There are no slam dunks of 
the kind that you mention, such as having to hit the Yamahas too hard 
or the cymbals/snare not having enough sustain. It is incredibly 
difficult to rely on computer samples to evaluate e-drums. It's hard 
enough finding a kit at your local GC or drum shop to audition, let 
alone one that hasn't been beaten into submission by the conquering 
hordes. It's regrettable, but unavoidable at this point, that unless 
you have the wherewithal to check out e-drums firsthand, somewhere 
along the line you're going to have to trust the information on 
websites, stores, magazines, etc. The fact that Roland owns the 
market is no indication of what a Yamaha product, or any other, can 
do, but you'll have to solve that problem to your own satisfaction. 
To my mind, snare buzzes are a nice gimmick but not much to hang your 
hat on in the long view. Price, feature sets, playability, sounds, 
versatility, et al. are the variables that will matter most. 
Personally, I'm a big fan of Yamaha as an e-drum company, but I am 
also a Clavia ddrum owner. Researching ddrum is much harder than 
researching Yamaha. 


Here's a web address where you can find a sound video of the DTXpress 
SP: http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM04/Index/. Go down the page 
until you hit Yamaha's videos from Winter NAMM. It's probably better 
than the one you saw from Yamaha Europe, though it still doesn't 
measure up to Roland's. We've been expecting a high-quality DTXtreme 
IIS video by Tony Verderosa for some time. We'll see. Anyway, I hope 
that you view my post as an invitation to ask whatever questions you 
might have.

Ed