Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Afternoon Ed,

Thanks for the usually rapid reply.

> I believe that the new snare is two switches and a piezo...
> The third sound on the Yamaha could be a bell or anything
> else that strikes your fancy.

Bell would certainly strike my fancy... my biggest gripe with e-
drums is lousy cymbal provision. But if the third trigger is a 
switch, presumably it will not be velocity-sensing but just on or 
off? And this would preclude the use of the PCY-10?

> If you like the idea of a hi hat on a regular acoustic
> stand, check out Visu-lite's new Yamaha compatible hi hat.

Highly tempting... but a key constraint is space. I have already 
stuggled this bill through the "over my cold, dead body" stage of 
the domestic finance subcommitte. It needs to keep to the 
collapsibility of the Yamaha stand. The whole thing needs to fit 
into a small music room which already houses my kids assortment of 
instruments (piano, two guitars, flute, clarinet, french horn) as 
well as the second TV and DVD, all in a space which would preclude 
cat-swinging.

This is my current cunning plan:

1. Swap out the hi-hat TP65 for a better dual-zone cymbal pad, 
either a Zenbal or Roland CY-12H.

2. Use the TP65 liberated above as a fourth tom on input 9/10.

3. Move the single zone PCY-65 from 7 (crash) to the other half of 
9/10.

4. Get another stereo cymbal (either Zenbal or Roland CY-6) as a 
crash (7).

5 (Eventually) swap out the pie slice PCY-65s for Zenbals or Roland 
CY-6s.

I can't believe I'm planning the upgrade of kit I don't yet have, 
but that does seem to be the standard MO in e-drum land!

Stewart