Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, john@j... wrote:
>> Is it at all possible to use the DTExpress to fire samples on a PC?
>> Does it work/is it a good idea? For studio presumably but not for
>> gigging surely.
>
> You can hook up the DTXpress to a PC via MIDI and trigger samples.
> You just need to match note numbers attend to other interface
> matters. If software samples flip your skirt more than the module's
> samples do, why not? But, assuming that in the process, you bypass
> the module's own sounds, you are wasting one of its primary
> functions. Starting from scratch, someone cost-conscious might buy a
> trigger to midi interface without its own sound generator to trigger
> external samples. But if you have a DTXpress module already, it will
> work. Some people do this sort of thing live, though a module that
> doubles as a sampler is far more convenient.

Well, one of the frustrations I have with the kit is the inability to
load my own samples. Listening to Real Gone, Tom Waits, there seem to
be the sounds of all manner of kitchen implements in there which are
unavailable to me through the DT Express. So, linking to a PC and
opening up a world of sampled drum sounds sounds interesting.

I'm wondering though, firstly, at a very basic level, if I recorded
the sound of me hitting a baking tray with a wooden spoon and set that
up as a sample, it would be a fairly unsubtle affair. I'd trigger,
presumably, the same sample, with the same dynamics every time. The
more subtle I wanted it, the more I'd need professional recording and
processing equipment and knowledge. And, there's the cost of the PC,
and the software, and the cables and so on. And then there's the PC's
unreliability when it comes to going out on the road.

Would it actually be simpler and cheaper to change the DTXpress brain
for something else that does allow you to import samples. Is there a
Yamaha upgrade path or would I be headed into Roland territory?

J