Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Farkus Gwenadon" 
<my_email_00@y...> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Farkus Gwenadon" 
<my_email_00@y...> wrote:
--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Farkus Gwenadon" <my_email_00@y...> 
> So can I set up my ride cymbal to play a 
> light "pinging" sound if I play it lightly, and a "splash" sound 
> when I smack it harder?

Yes, theoretically that's what it means. And Yamaha gives you 
different choices for the velocity points at which the sounds change. 
But it takes some practice to implement the theory in the heat of 
battle. People have come up with various ways to use the function. 
Mine was to crossfade between the same voice at two pitches, two 
frequency cuts, and two levels of decay, to simulate the variegated 
effect of striking an acoustic drum/cymbal. You can also stack two 
voices simulataneously to get the best of two worlds--say, to import 
some punch into a fat tom or some shimmer into a tight cymbal. A few 
members of this board have particularly inventive schemes.

> I'd love to know, as this is the main thing keeping me from 
> purchasing one of these kits :)

If I may ask, why is this particular feature the definitive selling 
point for you? Some very good, and popular, modules don't have 
crossfading at all, and others allow stacking/alternating as much as 
six voices/nine notes. Those that don't include it often have other 
methods of minimizing the machine-gun effect or varying sonic 
properties--positional sensing, multisampling, a randomizing codex, 
etc. I would venture to say that crossfading/stacking is not even the 
DTXpress' strong suit. I, for one, didn't always use it. Some of the 
other, less fussy set-up parameters, in combination with the inherent 
properties of the pads themselves, are sufficient to get convincing 
results from the already good samples in the module. Mine may be a 
minority view, however, since, as I said, I've read some impressive 
uses of the function from other members of this board. 

Ed