Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

hello all,

this is the perfect topic to introduce myself.  but first, I just 
received this response from yamaha about dopmi's (& my) questions on 
this issue:

To access GM sounds on pads, do the following:
1) Press [VOICE] button and strike a pad.
2) Page down to displayMIDI channel number (on lower left of screen, 
it 
will read ''Ch=10'').
3) Change MIDI channel to 11 for example.
4) Page down until you see ''KIT PC''.
5) Cursor to channel number and make it say ''Ch11= on''
6) Cursor to ''PC='' and change the value . You will hear GM sound at 
this point.

If you have further questions, please call our Tech Support line at 
714-522-9000. 

anyhoo, while trying to find the answer to this & many other 
questions, I found this excellent group & have read about 1000 of the 
messages!  I started from the beginning but stopped once it became 
mostly a loop of the same questions.

as for me, I've been playing drums for about 20 years, starting on 
acoustic, to roto-tom, to hybrid, to all electronic.  I currently 
have a main kit which consists of a pintech ergo kik, 7 yamaha tp60 
pads, & an old Roland 4 zone triangle pad (forgot the model number).  
I use a KAT midiKITI pro to convert it to midi, which then routes to 
an emax sampler for drums, followed by another emax II for keyboard 
voice triggering & additional percussion.

i've also got a practice kit which i'm using to "get smart" on the 
dtxpress, which i plan to use in a separate electronica project.  as 
such, I'm not as concerned with realistic drum sounds as many of you 
on this board.  that kit consists of an s&s stealth trigger bass, 
dauz snare, hart multipad 6 & one of the aforementioned roland 
triangles. 

ok, on to my dtxpress experience.  I ordered one from 
musiciansfriend.com cuz they were selling off the orange version for 
$299.  well, they screwed up & sent me one that was defective (i 
think it was previously returned, but they say that's unlikely).  i 
got to work with it for a week before sending it back, & I'm 
currently awaiting my replacement.  I got everything figured out 
pretty well except for the above "accessing the GM" sounds problem.  
For the kind of music i'm doing, this thing kicks ass.  sure, i'd do 
some things differently, but all around its great.

gotta run, but i'll post some tips tomorrow that i haven't seen 
mentioned yet.

toby

--- In DTXpress@y..., "dopmi" <mapod@w...> wrote:
> hi , i tried like you said but i'am just able to change one pad for 
> one pad , the manual don't really help about the use of the GM 
> Keyboard voices... , anybody here can explain to me how to use that 
> please ? 
> thank's