Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

If you have Cakewalk 6.x or higher (or any other MIDI sequencer that supports SoundFonts) and a SoundBlaster AWE32 or higher soundcard, you can come pretty close to replicating the TR-808 and many other great, vintage analogue kits (remember the LINN drum machine...), plus you can expand the DTXpress voice and kit list exponentially.  Its the closest thing to uploading your own sound samples (which you can also do, in a way, with this set up).

Here is what I did:

1. Go to HammerSound and download some drum SoundFonts.  Here is the link to the drum SoundFont section:

http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/cgi/thammer//soundlink.pl?action=view_category&category=Drumkits+and+percussive+kits

2. Make sure your DTXpress' MIDI connections are working.

3. Fire up Cakewalk and patch in one of the drum kit SoundFonts you downloaded.

4. Pick a Cakewalk track and set it to channel 10, and map it to the SoundFont.

5. Set the track to RECORD (note: you don't actually have to start recording), and highlight the track.  The DTXpress pads should now be trigging the instruments from the SoundFont!

6. If you stay in Cakewalk, you can record your patterns as MIDI sequences.  Or you can start your digital audio app, hit record, switch back to Cakewalk and start playing the kit (to capture as digital audio vs. MIDI sequence, which is what I prefer, too).  

I've had great success with this.  I found a Pearl kit SoundFont somewhere on the net and its just incredible using the DTX and getting a great Pearl sound.  

The response from the kit is also excellent.  Rarely can I discern any delay between hitting the pad and hearing the SoundFont instrument on the PC.  And you can also use Creative's Vienna software to create your own SoundFonts from new or existing samples.  

So if you are a home recording enthusiast, this is great way to expand your DTXpress almost limitlessly and at very little cost.  I bet you can get both a SoundBlaster AWE card and a workable version of Cakewalk for less than a $100; SoundFonts are free.  I just picked up a SBLive card for $99 and can load up to a 32MB SoundFont file on my 64MB RAM system.  I also use Cakewalk Home Studio 7.0.    

There are drawbacks, to be sure.  I would imagine that this loop would be pretty useless for live performances (unless you plan on bringing your PC to the gig :^)  Also, I often have to change the GM instrument assignment on the DTX brain to get things to work properly (i.e., sometimes you'll hit the snare and hear a tom-tom, so you have to change the snare instrument number on the brain, else edit the SoundFont and change the instrument number on the snare to the correct value).  Not a show stopper, but a nuisance. 

I'm curious, is anyone else using this kind of setup and if so, what are some of the better drum SoundFonts you've found?

Anyway, hope this helps.

Kind Regards,
 
Joe Stallings
(First time poster, but long time ONElist subscriber!)