Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, rdamon@m... wrote:
> If I had an HH80, of course, I would take it apart and see how it 
works. 

I don't have one, but I did procure one for Tom Pickard. I've sent 
him a message asking whether it has discrete notches or complete 
variability.

 Even if a pedal has a reostat style sensor for sensing continuous 
input
> levels, it would still fall back on the module. How many positions 
can it
> translate into? The other question in my mind is, are there five 
distinct
> sounds in the module for the hihat or is just two (open/closed) 
that are
> being extrapolated with an algorithim. If there are five levels of 
sounds in the module for the high hihat, then
> having a variable pedal, would have no benefit. The pedal would 
output say
> 0-128, but the module would have to bracket the levels and assign 
them to
> one of the five sounds:
> 
> output of 0 = open
> output of 1-32 = closed 25%
> output of 33-64 = closed 50%
> output of 65-96 = 75% closed
> output of 97-128 = 100% closed


That's the question, whether Roland and Yamaha are ultimately doing 
the same thing, taking a few samples at best and propagating more 
from them, which seems like a limited and limiting approach. Again, 
assuming that the controller being used was up to it, more intensive 
sampling, as Jude is doing, would definitely help the situation. It 
will not, however, totally eliminate the problem that came up 
recently in another context: The accumulated sound from repeated 
strikes will have to be generated artifically in the digital realm.

> The real question then is what can the module interpet, five input 
levels or
> 128 input levels (or more)?  It seemed that the Roland pedal could 
output
> the 128 levels (I think) to the computer based software that Chris 
was
> using. 

Someone apparently at vdrums (the moderator, as I recall) tested and 
got 127 levels of open to closed, and I think that Jude verified it. 
Tom's answer and a question to Yamaha might get us further along.
 
> I said it in vdrums and I say it again here. If you can make a 
optical
> tracking mouse (which senses motion across a surface) that can 
translate an
> inch of movement across a mouse pad into 1024 position on a 
computer screen,
> and sell that mouse for under $30, then a hihat pedal based on that 
type of
> sensing technology could be cheaply incorporated into a hihat 
pedal. Can you
> imagine 1024 positions sensing on the pedal translating into 1024 
of sounds
> between open and close or 800 sounds from open to close and 224 
sounds
> between close and closed real tight? 

If ddrum can accomplish 1000 levels of gain, as opposed to Roland's 
288, then modules as we know them can accomplish more than they do 
now. The tracking laser or optical assmebly would need to be encased 
in something inordinately protective to translate into a percussive 
context. Does ddrum achieve this degree of detail because it is 
essentially an analog device? It is interesting to note, however, 
that its hi hat, though apparently good, still isn't a world beater.

Ed