Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- "isidorelechat" wrote:
> I have been out of the drums world for ten years ...

I am much in the same position as you, except (sigh) 14 years closer 
to the tomb. I too have gone for the DTXpressII and upgrading it as 
far as it will go.

> Snare: I would add a Roland PD-80R

Not the only choice, of course. Pintech do a well-regarded dual-zone 
mesh snare.

> Hi-Hat pad: I would use the orginal dtxpress 3 zones snare pad

You'll only get one of the two rim triggers... and the rim triggers 
are either side of the midline so arranging the pad so the working 
rim trigger's usable might be tricky. I put a TP-80S on the hat and 
am still using the TP-65S snare.

> 4th tom: I woud use the original hi-hat pad

Done that, on 9. Just remember to set up the trigger type, and the 
default voice is a cowbell on every kit so you'll have to change that.

> Extra cymbal: I would probably buy another yamaha one

I was planning to get another stereo (Yamaha or Pintech), move the 
single zone PCY65 to 10 and the new stereo on 6 or 7 to give me two 
stereos and a mono. But ... there are many unused rim trigger inputs 
on the DTXpressII brain, so my latest cunning plan is to use three 
stereos... two on 6/7, one with the peizo through 10 and the rim 
on "kickR" by splitting it into input 1. See what I mean? I've rigged 
up a test and it seems to work. And it would be interesting to see if 
there are any triggers on the market that are just FSRs, as these 
could work happily split into the other rim inputs for bells and so 
on.

My final experiment is with the Yamaha DD-55 toy (the one with seven 
little pads in a silver box, that you see all over eBay). I got one 
of these when I was trying to figure out if my desire to get back 
into drumming was just advanced senile dementia or real. I'm planning 
to see if it would be possible to dismantle this and mount it on the 
kit, and MIDI it into the DTXpressII brain. I know it will work 
electrically.

This is more *much* fun than Meccano...

Stewart