Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

I took a bit of a jaunt today to my closest GC to make a pitch for 
the DTXpress SP and DTXtreme IIS. The guy who ran the drum section 
heard me out politely and even agreed that the decision to stock the 
Xpress STD instead of the other kits might not have been the best 
idea. Not surprisingly, he justified the relative scarcity of Yamaha 
(and Pintech) on the floor by the many Roland kits on display and was 
happy to report that the TD-20 would be arriving soon. He may not 
have got my point. I have no illusions.

At any rate, the STD was on the floor against the wall where the e-
kits usually are. I would have tested the new sounds if the place had 
not been in such unbearably noisy chaos. People were pounding on the 
acoustic drums that occupied the middle of the room--the wrong 
people, I might add. If I were king, I'd have crammed a bunch of 
acoustic kits into one of the smaller side rooms, kept the doors 
shut, and let the hordes beat on each others' eardrums until the cows 
came home. I would also have placed mesh heads on all of the acoustic 
drums that remained in the area where people do business and discuss 
equipment. The e-drummers could keep playing through headphones in 
the main area to their hearts' content (I don't doubt that McConaghy 
has good reasons why my royal prerogratives might not work). 

As it was, I hightailed it out of there and went to the keyboard 
section to listen to some of the Motif percussion sounds. I can't say 
that my ability to navigate the Yamahas did anything like justice to 
the drum sounds, but some of them were quite rich to my ears. 

Ed