Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "Keith" <keith@k...> wrote:
> --- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, Desco <desco@m...> wrote:
> > Hey Keith we talk about this stuff all the time in the DIYedrums
> group... I 
> > came here to check you guys out, maybe you should check us out some
> time. :)
> 
> I will have to do that.  Presumably you have seen the "magic box"
> circuits here?
> 
> > 
> > You're not a bad drummer, mesh head drums are VERY easy to play
> on... Too 
> > easy, as a matter of fact. 
> 
> It certainly seemed easy, although I only got a couple of minutes to
> try it and then it was resting on my knee as it wouldn't fit in my
> snare stand.

One final wrinkle. As the DIY guys know, a mesh snare is much less 
complicated than a rubber stereo pad--just a piezo or two, some 
wiring, a jack, a shell, some foam, and a head. Obviously, refinements 
are possible, but the Roland patent still basically rules, so much so 
that even seemingly independent Hart (as well as other companies) has 
had to pay the piper. Pintech is a direct licensee of Roland, meaning 
that for a fee, Roland allows Pintech to manufacture and sell mesh-
head drums with bottom-center-mounted piezos. 

Many people find the Roland mesh heads, and, by extension, the 
Pintechs, too bouncy relative to mylar and calfskin. Hart used to make 
a two-ply woven head (I still have them on my kit) that was both 
durable and more realistic in response, but rumor has it that Roland 
found a way to remove them from the market. Hart now has a single-ply 
that apparently comes close to the old two-ply, but I haven't tried 
it. When Pintech tried to manufacture a two-ply head a while back, 
Roland quickly put an end to it (they still have a few around the 
office; they jokingly refer to them as "the contraband"). Yamaha also 
had plans for a mesh design, even taking out patents for it, but in 
the end, it couldn't get around Roland.

The Hart heads may be the ones to search out if the Roland-type meshes 
don't do the trick.

Ed