Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

RE: DTXpress III Special

Reference: 
http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail/
0,6373,CNTID%253D28269%2526CTID%253D214800,00.html

I have recently rekindled an old flame with drumming, and due to noise levels must 
consider electronic drums instead of acoustic.  After watching demo videos of Roland V12 
and the DTXpress III Special, there's  strong reason why I am considering Roland instead of 
Yamaha.  

I'm concerned about trigger sensitivity and other features of the kit (hidden wiring, sound 
features like snare buzz etc).  I discovered (accidentally) the yamaha-europe site that had 
a demo video by J. Snoek ( http://www.yamaha-europe.com/yamaha_europe/
english_master/service/040_downloads/20_downloads_multimedia/
70_download_movies/index.php)

This demo seemed so cheesy that if I had to watch the Roland video again for inspiration. 
Why? First impressions. Mine was “what a cheesy sound” and “I hope this isn’t the video 
they’re using to try and sway people towards their products”.  Featuring the cheesiest/
chincy-sounding electronic drum sounds from 1983 would not have been my first choice 
of demo instruments. I was just floored to see this kit featured with unimpressive kit 
sounds (e.g. the 80’s Casio keyboard drum sounds).  But I was thinking, that’s ok, he’s 
going to demo the tracking next: barely.  After watching the video, you get the idea that 
one must attack vigorously the pads in order to get the triggers to sense a hit has been 
made.  Even when the drummer was playing “jazz”, he’s attacking the ride cymbal. My 
impression: "man, if that’s how hard you have to hit it to get it to respond, forget it." 

I thought I had discovered a good thing and thought I would save money by not going with 
Roland, but after this video I'm having severe doubts.  



Questions:
Can you add snare buzz to the toms? 
I've listened to the member samples, and unfortunately cannot say this helps clarify the 
concerns I have.   The voices seem to be "cut short" that is, for example, the wash/ring of 
the cymbal crashes don't sound quite right--same with the snare sounds.   Are there any 
jazz drummers who can post and example of this kit?

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas" <kveldalf@h...> wrote:

> RE: DTXpress III Special
>
> I have recently rekindled an old flame with drumming, and due to 
noise levels must 
> consider electronic drums instead of acoustic.  After watching demo 
videos of Roland V12 
> and the DTXpress III Special, there's  strong reason why I am 
considering Roland instead of 
> Yamaha.  
> Questions:
> Can you add snare buzz to the toms? 
> I've listened to the member samples, and unfortunately cannot say 
this helps clarify the 
> concerns I have.   The voices seem to be "cut short" that is, for 
example, the wash/ring of 
> the cymbal crashes don't sound quite right--same with the snare 
sounds.   Are there any 
> jazz drummers who can post and example of this kit?

Thomas,

You sound like a man who's made up his mind, and I'd be very 
surprised if anyone on this board felt obligated to change it. 
There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't buy a Roland kit. In 
fact, your reasons for being so inclined are the usual ones: Roland 
certainly scores high points on presentation. Yamaha e-drums don't 
have the support of the company that you might imagine, though the 
situation is apparently is about to get better. Roland's commerial 
dominance obscures other worthy players in this litte game. The 
reasons are complicated.

I'm not quite sure which Roland kit you mean to reference, but 
judging from your remark about snare buzz, I'd suspect that it's the 
TD-20, which is really an unfair comparison with the much-less 
expensive DTXpress Special, as good as it is. The DTXPSP should go 
head to head with the Roland TD-6 kits and possibly TD-8s, and the 
new DTXtemeIIS with the TD-8s, though many people (like me) also 
regard it as a good, cost-effective alternative to the TD-20. 

Most of the differences kits at similar price points come down to 
subjective impressions of sounds and feel. There are no slam dunks of 
the kind that you mention, such as having to hit the Yamahas too hard 
or the cymbals/snare not having enough sustain. It is incredibly 
difficult to rely on computer samples to evaluate e-drums. It's hard 
enough finding a kit at your local GC or drum shop to audition, let 
alone one that hasn't been beaten into submission by the conquering 
hordes. It's regrettable, but unavoidable at this point, that unless 
you have the wherewithal to check out e-drums firsthand, somewhere 
along the line you're going to have to trust the information on 
websites, stores, magazines, etc. The fact that Roland owns the 
market is no indication of what a Yamaha product, or any other, can 
do, but you'll have to solve that problem to your own satisfaction. 
To my mind, snare buzzes are a nice gimmick but not much to hang your 
hat on in the long view. Price, feature sets, playability, sounds, 
versatility, et al. are the variables that will matter most. 
Personally, I'm a big fan of Yamaha as an e-drum company, but I am 
also a Clavia ddrum owner. Researching ddrum is much harder than 
researching Yamaha. 


Here's a web address where you can find a sound video of the DTXpress 
SP: http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM04/Index/. Go down the page 
until you hit Yamaha's videos from Winter NAMM. It's probably better 
than the one you saw from Yamaha Europe, though it still doesn't 
measure up to Roland's. We've been expecting a high-quality DTXtreme 
IIS video by Tony Verderosa for some time. We'll see. Anyway, I hope 
that you view my post as an invitation to ask whatever questions you 
might have.

Ed

Fantastic response. You've given me a few more things to consider. 

Thanks again.

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "emf" <liberatusvirus@y...> wrote:

> 
> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas" <kveldalf@h...> wrote:
> 
> > RE: DTXpress III Special
> >
> > I have recently rekindled an old flame with drumming, and due to 
> noise levels must 
> > consider electronic drums instead of acoustic.  After watching demo 
> videos of Roland V12 
> > and the DTXpress III Special, there's  strong reason why I am 
> considering Roland instead of 
> > Yamaha.  
> > Questions:
> > Can you add snare buzz to the toms? 
> > I've listened to the member samples, and unfortunately cannot say 
> this helps clarify the 
> > concerns I have.   The voices seem to be "cut short" that is, for 
> example, the wash/ring of 
> > the cymbal crashes don't sound quite right--same with the snare 
> sounds.   Are there any 
> > jazz drummers who can post and example of this kit?
> 
> Thomas,
> 
> You sound like a man who's made up his mind, and I'd be very 
> surprised if anyone on this board felt obligated to change it. 
> There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't buy a Roland kit. In 
> fact, your reasons for being so inclined are the usual ones: Roland 
> certainly scores high points on presentation. Yamaha e-drums don't 
> have the support of the company that you might imagine, though the 
> situation is apparently is about to get better. Roland's commerial 
> dominance obscures other worthy players in this litte game. The 
> reasons are complicated.
> 
> I'm not quite sure which Roland kit you mean to reference, but 
> judging from your remark about snare buzz, I'd suspect that it's the 
> TD-20, which is really an unfair comparison with the much-less 
> expensive DTXpress Special, as good as it is. The DTXPSP should go 
> head to head with the Roland TD-6 kits and possibly TD-8s, and the 
> new DTXtemeIIS with the TD-8s, though many people (like me) also 
> regard it as a good, cost-effective alternative to the TD-20. 
> 
> Most of the differences kits at similar price points come down to 
> subjective impressions of sounds and feel. There are no slam dunks of 
> the kind that you mention, such as having to hit the Yamahas too hard 
> or the cymbals/snare not having enough sustain. It is incredibly 
> difficult to rely on computer samples to evaluate e-drums. It's hard 
> enough finding a kit at your local GC or drum shop to audition, let 
> alone one that hasn't been beaten into submission by the conquering 
> hordes. It's regrettable, but unavoidable at this point, that unless 
> you have the wherewithal to check out e-drums firsthand, somewhere 
> along the line you're going to have to trust the information on 
> websites, stores, magazines, etc. The fact that Roland owns the 
> market is no indication of what a Yamaha product, or any other, can 
> do, but you'll have to solve that problem to your own satisfaction. 
> To my mind, snare buzzes are a nice gimmick but not much to hang your 
> hat on in the long view. Price, feature sets, playability, sounds, 
> versatility, et al. are the variables that will matter most. 
> Personally, I'm a big fan of Yamaha as an e-drum company, but I am 
> also a Clavia ddrum owner. Researching ddrum is much harder than 
> researching Yamaha. 
> 
> 
> Here's a web address where you can find a sound video of the DTXpress 
> SP: http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM04/Index/. Go down the page 
> until you hit Yamaha's videos from Winter NAMM. It's probably better 
> than the one you saw from Yamaha Europe, though it still doesn't 
> measure up to Roland's. We've been expecting a high-quality DTXtreme 
> IIS video by Tony Verderosa for some time. We'll see. Anyway, I hope 
> that you view my post as an invitation to ask whatever questions you 
> might have.
> 
> Ed

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "emf" <liberatusvirus@y...> wrote:
 We've been expecting a high-quality DTXtreme 
> IIS video by Tony Verderosa for some time. 

The latest word is that Tony won't be doing a demo. Yamaha Japan has 
agreed to finance a "Tutorial" video of the Dtxtreme IIS that will 
be in DVD format. The initial thought is to go from front cover to 
back cover of the IIS manual. But as with many projects the initial 
goals can sometimes be "biting off more than you can chew". So the 
exact content is still up in the air. 

It will be done in conjunction with KEYFAX which has apparently 
already been involved in the past with several other Yamaha video 
tutorials. KEYFAX are the folks running the Dtxperience website.

OGD

I was really impressed with my DTXpress, its a phenominal bit of kit 
for the money! With some tweeking you can get good realistic kits. I 
have used Rolands kits in the studio which are also very good, but I 
am not a big fan of mesh heads although some people love them. I have 
a very large acoustic kit, but I find myself using my DTXpress more 
and more at gigs and in the studio.

Whats so good about it? 

I find pad sensitivity excellent for quiet or loud playing, build 
quality is remarkable for the price. It has a very small "footprint" 
on stage and in the studio, and folds up to such a compact size.

Actual drums sounds are excellent, my only dissapointment as with all 
the Edrums I have tried is cymbals/hihats but that is of course a 
sampling length problem (if you hit a real crash cymbal it rings for 
a very long time, and a dozen samples of that length alone would fill 
the modules rom!)so they shorten the samples. Thats not to say the 
cymbals arnt good, they are very usable and I have no problem with 
them, because long cymbal decays are naturally lost in the "mix" live 
or recording.

Comparing the DTXpress or Special kit to the Roland TD-20 which is 
Rolands top of the range kit is unfair, here in the UK I can buy 
approximately five DTXpress or four specials kits for the price of 
one TD-20!

Snare buzz! lol Its a big plus for me not having it!