Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

On the 21st, I posted a question to the group about the Visu-lite 
high hat. I was a little puzzled that nobody here had anything to 
say about it, while the V-drum discussion group devotes a lot of 
attention to it. I just had a talk with Tom Pickard, who designed 
the Visu-lite products and runs the company. He said that his high-
hats were based primarily on the Roland modules and, to some extent, 
the Alessis ones. He's never had to consider Yamaha users because 
they haven't expressed much interest. He suspects that the polarity 
of his high hats as currently made may not be compatible with Yamaha 
modules, but he isn't sure. He'd need to get hold of the DTXPU 
and/or DTXTU to find out. I told him about this group of more than 
500 members who might like to have the Visu-lite high hats as an 
option for their kits. He said that he'd contact me with any 
information that he gets as soon as possible. I, for one, am excited 
by the prospect of the Visu-lite 1300 RHC-100 being available to use 
with a Yamaha module.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Visu-lite high hat, it 
is the only one at this time that operates with two e-cymbals that 
open and close on an actual high hat stand. In other words, you play 
it just like you would an acoustic high hat. I won't go into the 
electronic details, but it is an ingenious design. There's a switch-
type assembly for open/close modules and a variable controller for 
modules that can sense open, close, and at least something in 
between. From what I can tell at this point, the DTXPU would qualify 
for the more versatile one, whereas the Alessis DM5 would need the 
simple switch. You can check them out at Visu-lite's website and 
find out what users think at the V-drum forum.

Here's hoping Tom's phone and email start flooding with Yamaha 
people, and we get the chance to use the high hat too.