Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "gordonbakos420" <g.bakos@i...> 
wrote:
> I just started reading the messages from this group  and had to 
join.
> I've had my dtxpressII for about 9 mos and am starting to regain my
> skills of long ago.  I used to play in a H.S. band in the 70's and
> haven't touched a drum set since.  Now I can play in my own private
> (virtual) world, even in my apartment, ( I insisted on a ground 
floor
> so I wouldn't have neighborly issues) and I love it.
> I hear a lot of crabbin about the cymbal sounds and I don't
> understand... they sound fine in my headfones.  Is it hard to make
> them sound good thru a sound system?

Hi Gordon,

It's great, isn't it? E-drums are a godsend for drummers who live in 
a world with other people. I guess that makes all of us. I don't want 
to come down too hard on the cymbals, but I do think that they are a 
weak link in a generally impressive product. I agree that the 
DTXpress module has a few good ones, but a great many of the others 
sound too processed, not like cymbals found in nature, if you know 
what I mean. The problem is partly that in the digital world, each 
stroke is an entirely new event; the natural sustain with its 
overtones and undertones is missing. The decay feature in the Voice 
menu helps a little, but the cycling is almost audible and the cutoff 
too abrupt. The crossfading option is a good idea in this system, but 
the DTXpress doesn't offer enough layering of voices, either 
simultaneously or by velocity. Resolution is another factor, and that 
won't improve completely until the bit and sampling rate get higher. 
It all starts, however, with the original samples. Yamaha makes 
acoustic drums, not cymbals. I don't know where they got their cymbal 
sounds. Some of the more expensive modules do a better job of 
approximating what cymbals do under various conditions. The ddrum 
module, for example, which works on an entirely different principle--
creating all its sounds by extensive multisampling rather digitally 
modeling sound waves or altering samples with effects--is 
breathtaking in its realism. It's also a whole lot easier to use, 
because the voices already have the natural elements and environments 
embedded in them; the user doesn't have a set of parameters to 
manipulate to simulate them. 

That said, some of the DTXPress crashes with the right amount of 
decay sound great, especially the ones numbered within C1-10. The 
Chinas are pretty good, too, and I like one of the rides a lot 
(Ridelite A, or something). In a band context or a practice context 
with music, they sound better than when totally naked. Hey, but most 
drummers look better fully clothed than totally exposed, too. So how 
can we complain? The incredible thing about the DTXpress is that it 
is as good as it is at such a low price. 

Sorry, I'm running off at the mouth. Welcome to the fold. Just so 
that you don't misunderstand me, my feeling about the DTXpress cymbal 
voices is a little like a Zen experience. When I first started using 
them, they blew me away. After a while I started noticing their 
deficiencies and became slightly disenchanted. Now I appreciate them 
for what they are, which ain't that bad.

Ed