Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Darren,

I'm loitering on the board this morning so I'll tackle this 
question. First of all, there are a bunch of products that I'd never 
trust as adequately evaluated on a store's showroom floor. TVs would 
qualify; so would audio speakers; and I'll add electronic drums to 
the list. I don't know how you were listening to the DTX, whether 
through an amp or phones, but the quality of the reproduction is 
crucial. Ask anyone with experience the difference between hearing 
the DTX through bad phones and good/through good amps and bad, and 
you'll get the idea. 

Also, the DTXpress has too many voice and triggering options to 
deserve a simple blanket rejection in terms of sound quality. I've 
been a drummer in one capacity or another since 1964, and I can tell 
you that there are sounds on the DTX, regardless of how they are 
tweaked, that don't do much for me, but there are also a lot of them 
that impressed me beyond my wildest dreams when I first got 
acquainted with them. Are there general things that I would change 
about the sounds from the module? Yes, first of all, I would opt for 
a higher bit rate than 16--18 or 20 like the Alesis would be nice. 
And, personally, I might eliminate some of the songs, the groove 
check, the trippy kits, etc., in favor of a few more high quality 
voices, the ability to import samples, a little more sound stacking, 
another input or two, a more friendly user interface, etc. But these 
are essentially refinements to a product that I heartily endorse.

God only knows what condition the DTX on the showroom floor was, how 
many people were fiddling with it before you got there, and how they 
messed up the settings. Given the environment, especially, you 
cannot expect to have plumbed the depths of what the DTX can do. It 
is a pretty sensitive instrument, with numerous parameters that 
significantly influence the sounds produced. The learning curve 
certainly exceeds the time that you've spent with it by a long shot, 
but it's time well spent and time that flies. 

But I do feel your pain. How can you find out what the DTX, or any 
other electronic drum system, is like without buying it and taking 
it home? I suppose that if you could stay with it in the store for a 
day or so, you'd start to get the hang of it. But you'd have to 
borrow a good keyboard amp, to say the least, and/or a decent set of 
phones (not to mention reversing the programming damage undoubtedly 
done to it in its current situation). The other thing you might do 
is listen to some of the sound files on this board, and maybe on the 
DTX one as well, for indications of how the Yamahas sound in action. 

So far as the ddrum system is concerned, you can check out the 
website at http://www.ddrum.com/ddrum/index.htm, which has a bunch 
of sample MP3s. On a level playing field, you may very well prefer 
what you hear from ddrum. But keep in mind the matters of price, 
ddrum's limitations, in additions to benefits, as an analog device, 
and its incompatibility with some of the technologies favored by 
Yamaha, Roland, Hart, Pintech, et al. 

The TD-6 is a fine module. It might offer more of the particulars 
that someone may want. If so, more power to them. Personally, I 
don't think it's worth the extra money for my needs (I think that 
Roland equipment is overpriced, anyway, but that's another issue), 
and sound quality, which is what we're mainly talking about here, is 
not necessarily one its advantages. At any rate, it doesn't come 
down to a dismissal of either one as "rubbish." 

I'm sure that whatever you end up buying, you'll have researched it 
to your satisfaction and will be happy with it. But don't sell the 
xpress short on the basis of what you heard at the store.

Ed 


--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, darren <darren.hussey@v...> wrote:
> hello everyone,
> 
> you may remember last week i posted with some questions regarding 
the
> dtexpress which concerned me (thanks to everyone who replied!) 
which was
> excellent, it answered all my technical worries enough for me to 
drive to
> the store (60 miles) and actually try one.
> 
> ... I have a problem - it sounded rubbish in  my humble opinion! 
sounded
> like the drums on my sw1000xg soundcard, which is exactly what i'm 
trying to
> get away from. Now there were no helpful assistants to aid me, and 
i didnt
> have long to spend fiddling around with the buttons, but tell me 
people - do
> you have to dig through all the parameters and stuff to get good 
sounds?
> should i persevere? to me the presets on the td6 sounded better.
> 
> Please dont misunderstand me here, i'm not attacking the dtxpress 
at all, in
> fact my heart was so set on it that i was thoroughly downbeat when 
i walked
> out of the store empty handed. Am I expecting too much? has anyone 
heard the
> ddrums?
> 
> I dont want to upset anybody man, i really really wanted one of 
these things
> but at the end of the day i can't live with that quality of sound 
that i
> heard in the store - whats going on?
> 
> d