Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

emf wrote:

>Personally, I find it hard to believe that when challenged to put up 
>or shut up, we've all decided to shut up. As Brian LaRue jokingly 
>remarked today in reaction to the resounding indifference shown thus 
>far to his call for ideas, "Everyone must be completely happy about 
>everyhing that e-drum companies produce." I humbly submit instead 
>that although we're happy that e-drum manufacturers are making 
>products, we aren't necessarily content with all of their choices or 
>with all of their methods of implementing them. No one's promising 
>that Pintech is going to make whatever we want. But if a particular 
>suggestion happens to strike a chord with consumers, as well as with 
>Brian and his team, it could very well see the light of day. You 
>don't have to be a technician to come up with a viable idea. You only 
>have to be able to take stock of those moments behind the kit when 
>something does not seem to be as easy, as accurate, or as imaginative 
>as it could be (not to mention as inexpensive as it could be). 
>
>The machine-gun effect has recently come under fire on this board, 
>and for good reason. How hard would it be to create a module that 
>reduces it without costing (or offering) as much as the Roland TD-20? 
>Are module ergonomics as good as they could be? Personally, I find 
>the DTXpress module a little hard to operate. The discontinued 
>DTXv2.0 and DTXtreme were a lot easier. Granted, they were more 
>expensive, but what would we sacrifice inside the module to get a 
>better display to read and program (the DTXpress text editor will 
>alleviate some of the problem, but not everybody always, if ever, has 
>a PC nearby). While we're on that subject, what about leaving out 
>some of the user songs and other extras on a module to create more 
>memory for samples? What about a new trigger-to-MIDI interface with 
>more inputs than the TMC-6, at a cost below that of a second new 
>module or a set of features more current than an older module?
>
>I'll let Brian make the offer again personally, which he said that 
>he'd like to do, but I hope that we can generate some discussion on 
>the board about this subject, because people actually do have a lot 
>of ideas, complaints, and suggestions. Let's put them in one place.
>
>Ed
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I agree that we (I) tend to passively accept what we get once we buy 
into a system. I have long been convinced that there must be a market 
for products that address the ergonomic needs of the mass of aging 
boomers as we begin our gradual and dignified decline. I find it 
interesting how many of us are older people returning to the love of our 
youth (drums in this case- the other love of my youth is kind of old). 
In addition to despising the KP60 and hating the HH60 (see earlier 
posts), I have disdain for the DTX module. The interface is pathetic, 
especially the size and closeness of the buttons. For those of us who 
are constantly grasping  for our reading glasses to see close things, 
then  removing them to see the  rest of the band, this is more than 
annoying. I suspect the cheapest part of the module is the case. I 
accept that for small dollars I am getting a small display, but 
goshdarnit, it would be nice to be able to make analog tweaks while 
playing without starting one of the built-in songs. OK- that only 
happened once; it totally disrupted the baptism that was taking place.
My bad for thinking that because I have a tiny budget for music that I 
must tolerate these problems. Yamaha's bad for not catering to their 
market when they brought out the new DTX. I have no interest in the new 
module because the panel has not improved. So Brian- skip the cymbals 
and just give me a clip-on magnifier for the unit.