Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "jjcorley0000" <jjc@s...> wrote:
> 
>     BTW, stopped at GC today hoping they'd have the III kit setup 
so 
> I could hear it...
> 
>     It already sold.  :(
> 
>     I also stopped in at Drumbalaya on the weekend and fell in love 
> with the sound of the ddrum.  Who cares about triple-zone wazoo's 
and 
> modeled knick-knacks yada yada; the ddrum just sounds AWESOME!  It 
so 
> blows away all the Roland modules when you A/B them right next to 
> each other.  It's sad ddrum doesn't get any floor space.  Roland 
> would have a hard time selling their stuff (particularly at their 
> prices) if people could hop from one kit to the other and really 
> listen to them back to back.
> 
>     *crossing my fingers for the new sounds of the Yamaha stuff*
> 
>     I hope that those borrowed Yamaha keyboard sounds really do the 
> trick, because it will be hard for me to pass up the ddrum...
> 
>     BTW, big thumbs up to the folks at drumbalaya!  These guys know 
> their stuff.  Scott was a great help and has bottomless patience.

Ditto ddrum and Drumbalaya. I own, and cherish, a ddrum module, and I 
wouldn't give it up for the world. I'm sure that Drumbalaya has 
informed you, however, that as it stands now, the ddrum kit has 
certain quirks that may or may not matter to you. For one thing, its 
MIDI functionality is limited. Once the module's ten inputs are 
filled, it cannot accommodate any more pads.  In other words, you 
can't expand the kit through the module with a trigger to MIDI 
device. Its memory is also seriously constrained in the face of 
Clavia's immense library; regular uploading/downloading to swap 
sounds is unavoidable, unless you've found a small number of them to 
satisfy you for the duration. If you load megakit sounds, you might 
not have room for more than two kits or so at a time. 

The module was intially geared toward the cast precision mylar pads, 
which carried a center-mount piezo on the bottom. This design allowed 
positional sensing with certain voices, but like all mylars, it was a 
little noisy. When Clavia updated the module's chip with mesh 
capability and issued their own mesh pads, Roland's patent on center-
mount bottom piezos--essential for positional sensing--prevented 
Clavia from triggering their meshes anywhere but on the side, thereby 
sacrificing one of its advantages. Some people get around the problem 
by simply placing meshes on the expensive cast precision pads, but it 
doesn't work for everyone, for a number of reasons. Pintech meshes 
are another option; they are the only meshes licensed to use Roland-
style triggering (my strategy).

On the cymbal front, Clavia's own are the only ones that get the most 
out of the module. I find them a little stiff. By using another 
company's cymbals, I get slightly anomalous response. For instance, 
my bell sounds are often located southeast of where the actual bell 
is. At this point, Clavia's excellent hi hat is sui generis. 
Apparently, Drumbalaya has an adaptor for Roland, but it does not 
work as well as Clavia's own controller.

You already have an idea of ddrum's considerable upside. Rumors of a 
ddrum5 have been circulating literally for years. It's on the way, 
and it will probably address the limitations outlined above. But no 
one knows when it will arrive. Clavia is a small company, and it 
marches to the beat of its own drummer (sorry). As much as I love my 
ddrum module, I can't get away with using it without help, and 
Yamaha's does what ddrum's doesn't, and does it well. I'm itching to 
get one of the new Yamahas.

Ed