Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "moosetication" <moosetication@y...> 
wrote:
> --- Paul Bentley wrote:
> > > The single biggest issue, for me anyway, is that the brain only
> > > cares about the attack phase ...
> 
> > Is this a limitation of all brains irrespective of make, or
> > just the budget brains (DTXpress - TD-6)?
> --- Stewart wrote:
> So far as I know, it's all of them.

This is true; all modules basically work on this principle. That's 
why the machine-gun effect has been such a bugaboo with e-drums. 
However, there are techniques to alleviate it. If the module only 
recognizes each strike as a wholly new event with no inherent 
cumulative effect, the trick is to find an electronic way to vary 
these attacks in series. One simple method is to allow crossfading, 
which the Xpress does to some extent by allowing two velocities to 
dictate results. Imagine this technique being compounded by four, 
five, or six velocities, as it is in the more expensive modules; a 
savvy e-drum player could go a long way toward making sure that 
successive strikes do not sound the same. Another method is  
positional sensing. As it stands now, this strategy applies only to 
drums rather than cymbals, but it won't be long before designers find 
a way to implement it in e-cymbals, too, though it may mean that 
owners of a certain module may have to use the same company's cymbals 
to achieve it. 

When it comes to cymbal rolls, which require an acoustic build-up of 
overlapping sounds that seem to defy easy digital simulation, at this 
point we might appear to be out of luck. I was never able to get them 
with any e-cymbal, that is, until the Visu-lites, and, theoretically, 
I shouldn't be able to get it with them either, at least through an 
Xpress module. But I do--though apparently not with all voices. When 
decay and voice are right, I can roll on a Visu-lite cymbal, mainly a 
crash, with pretty accurate results. I've mentioned this fact before 
and would love to compare notes with other Visu-lite owners on the 
board. (By the way, rolling on drums is a slightly less delicate 
situation, because the necessary sustain isn't so long.)

Ed