Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "robert_cathy" <robert_cathy@y...> 
wrote:
> Has anyone heard of this problem, sometimes but not always when I 
am 
> hitting a snare, cymbal or highhat, the bass drum doesn't trigger a 
> sound even thought it is being hit? It is a intermitten problem 
that 
> I have to listen closely to hear. My daughter is trying to learn 
and 
> that how I found it. Any ideas? Any solutions?

Hi Robert,

Dropouts aren't terribly unusual. But, as Will's post indicates, the 
kick pad isn't usually the victim--at least for interactive reasons. 
When a pad on the rack gets hit, the rack can transmit vibrations to 
one or more of the other ones, causing a sympathetic reaction. This 
phenomenon is called crosstalk, and Yamaha has "rejection" settings 
to minimize it in the trigger menu. Rejection's remedy for a pad 
firing unintentionally as a result of events on other pads is to mute 
it unless it is hit with a certain minimum force (the rejection 
number). "Specific rejection" protects a pad from hits on a certain 
other pad, normally close to it, in the same manner. "Self-rejection" 
guards against a pad reacting to itself (double-triggers), usually 
because gain is too high. If a drummer fails to strike a pad with 
enough force to circumvent the muting enabled by any of these 
rejection parameters during another offending event, it won't make 
any noise. Many dropouts are caused by rejection settings that are 
too high. By all means, if the kick drum input carries high rejection 
numbers, reduce them to the point where the offending artifacts 
disappear. 

That said, however, the fact that the kick pad isn't on the rack 
reduces the chances that rejection as a means to defeat crosstalk is 
the culprit. A high self-rejection is still a possibility, though you 
would have known if you'd set it, right? One other possibility is 
that your gain and/or minimum velocity settings aren't optimal. If 
gain is too low and min.vel. too high, you could get false 
triggering. It might not happen when you play the kick by itself, but 
in the heat of battle when your attention is divided, the kick might 
not be getting the same impact. Try changing the gain and min. vel. 
settings as indicated. 

A last resort might be that the something has come loose inside the 
kick tower. Sometimes resoldering everything can improve response, 
even if you don't actually see a loose connection somewhere. 

I hope these suggestions help. Please let us know. If worst comes to 
worst, are you still under warranty? I should add that if you're 
using the KP60 kick pad, I'd be far less surprised by your problem 
than if you were using the the KP65.

Ed