Yamaha DTXpress Drum Kit Reviews 
4 / 5 based on 1 reviewsMom's Music $1300.00
I love the HUGE amount of sounds available from such a compact module. Every type of snare, kick, tom, cymbal, hihat, percussion, etc. that you could want is available in the DTXpress. In addition to the vast amount of percussion sounds, there is also a collection of GM effects and voices.
Another great feature is the 90 built-in songs that you can play along and learn. You can learn hard complex drum beats by muting one drum part at a time while the song is playing, and play the part yourself.
There is also a two track sequencer built in, so you can record your drum tracks with a keyboard, guitar, bass, etc. right on board via MIDI.
There is 48 preset drumkits, and kits 49-80 are for user editing. That means, you can have EIGHTY DIFFERENT KITS at your fingertips for ANY style of playing.
Change sounds, volume, reverb and effects, pan, gain, velocity, and decay of each individual sound.
AND, as if that wasnt enough, along with this fantastic module, there is a highly accurate and responsive trigger system. This includes five TP60 drum pads, (snare, toms, hi-hat) two PCY60 cymbal pads (crash, ride) one hi-hat control pedal (for getting closed, open, half-open and heel splash from your hihat) and a kick pedal. (you can also assign the hi-hat pedal to be another kick, for a double-bass setup)
In my style of playing, I like to have two crashes and a ride, so for awhile I used one tom pad as a ride, and both cymbal pads as crashes. This worked well, because the extra firmness of the tom pad felt good for the the ride. The only problem with that (and it wasnt really a problem) is I only had two toms. Eventually, I MADE and extra snare pad myself, and that got me back to three toms, ride, two crashes. (I found a cool web-site that teaches how to make your own electronic drum pads ;)
So, now I use this set every sunday for church, and rock n roll on it for our band practice too. It is great for recording, and because of it's compact size we can take it anywhere in anything. The whole set fit in the back seat of our extended cab pickup.
One thing was the fact that it did not come with double trigger pads, only single. The module is perfectly capable of handling dual trigger pads (snare, rimshot etc), but I guess they included single trigger only to save on costs. I plan to upgrade to dual trigger pads eventually.
I think the only other complaint I have had is the rack system. The rack that the kit mounts on is not the highest quality, and I've had to make a few (just slight) adjustments to prevent shaking and such when I am playing. Also, be sure you keep the bolts that are in the "T" connectors well lubricated, or they will freeze up and not work. I have had a few of them have that problem, and a couple replaced.
I would rate the construction quality a 4 out of 5. Like I said, the only problems were the rack system. I think most of the "unstable" problem would be solved if Yamaha included an extra cross-brace to hold it together. (They do that on their bigger DTX kits)
The bottom line is this is an excellent kit for any player: beginner, intermediate, and professional. The price has gone down since I bought it; I've seen them for 800.00 now.
If your looking for a GREAT electronic kit for not too much money, this is defanitly your BEST buy.
Jared rated this unit
on
2001-06-29.
