Darren,
I'm loitering on the board this morning so I'll tackle this
question. First of all, there are a bunch of products that I'd never
trust as adequately evaluated on a store's showroom floor. TVs would
qualify; so would audio speakers; and I'll add electronic drums to
the list. I don't know how you were listening to the DTX, whether
through an amp or phones, but the quality of the reproduction is
crucial. Ask anyone with experience the difference between hearing
the DTX through bad phones and good/through good amps and bad, and
you'll get the idea.
Also, the DTXpress has too many voice and triggering options to
deserve a simple blanket rejection in terms of sound quality. I've
been a drummer in one capacity or another since 1964, and I can tell
you that there are sounds on the DTX, regardless of how they are
tweaked, that don't do much for me, but there are also a lot of them
that impressed me beyond my wildest dreams when I first got
acquainted with them. Are there general things that I would change
about the sounds from the module? Yes, first of all, I would opt for
a higher bit rate than 16--18 or 20 like the Alesis would be nice.
And, personally, I might eliminate some of the songs, the groove
check, the trippy kits, etc., in favor of a few more high quality
voices, the ability to import samples, a little more sound stacking,
another input or two, a more friendly user interface, etc. But these
are essentially refinements to a product that I heartily endorse.
God only knows what condition the DTX on the showroom floor was, how
many people were fiddling with it before you got there, and how they
messed up the settings. Given the environment, especially, you
cannot expect to have plumbed the depths of what the DTX can do. It
is a pretty sensitive instrument, with numerous parameters that
significantly influence the sounds produced. The learning curve
certainly exceeds the time that you've spent with it by a long shot,
but it's time well spent and time that flies.
But I do feel your pain. How can you find out what the DTX, or any
other electronic drum system, is like without buying it and taking
it home? I suppose that if you could stay with it in the store for a
day or so, you'd start to get the hang of it. But you'd have to
borrow a good keyboard amp, to say the least, and/or a decent set of
phones (not to mention reversing the programming damage undoubtedly
done to it in its current situation). The other thing you might do
is listen to some of the sound files on this board, and maybe on the
DTX one as well, for indications of how the Yamahas sound in action.
So far as the ddrum system is concerned, you can check out the
website at http://www.ddrum.com/ddrum/index.htm, which has a bunch
of sample MP3s. On a level playing field, you may very well prefer
what you hear from ddrum. But keep in mind the matters of price,
ddrum's limitations, in additions to benefits, as an analog device,
and its incompatibility with some of the technologies favored by
Yamaha, Roland, Hart, Pintech, et al.
The TD-6 is a fine module. It might offer more of the particulars
that someone may want. If so, more power to them. Personally, I
don't think it's worth the extra money for my needs (I think that
Roland equipment is overpriced, anyway, but that's another issue),
and sound quality, which is what we're mainly talking about here, is
not necessarily one its advantages. At any rate, it doesn't come
down to a dismissal of either one as "rubbish."
I'm sure that whatever you end up buying, you'll have researched it
to your satisfaction and will be happy with it. But don't sell the
xpress short on the basis of what you heard at the store.
Ed
--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, darren <darren.hussey@v...> wrote:
> hello everyone,
>
> you may remember last week i posted with some questions regarding
the
> dtexpress which concerned me (thanks to everyone who replied!)
which was
> excellent, it answered all my technical worries enough for me to
drive to
> the store (60 miles) and actually try one.
>
> ... I have a problem - it sounded rubbish in my humble opinion!
sounded
> like the drums on my sw1000xg soundcard, which is exactly what i'm
trying to
> get away from. Now there were no helpful assistants to aid me, and
i didnt
> have long to spend fiddling around with the buttons, but tell me
people - do
> you have to dig through all the parameters and stuff to get good
sounds?
> should i persevere? to me the presets on the td6 sounded better.
>
> Please dont misunderstand me here, i'm not attacking the dtxpress
at all, in
> fact my heart was so set on it that i was thoroughly downbeat when
i walked
> out of the store empty handed. Am I expecting too much? has anyone
heard the
> ddrums?
>
> I dont want to upset anybody man, i really really wanted one of
these things
> but at the end of the day i can't live with that quality of sound
that i
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> heard in the store - whats going on?
>
> d
