New TD30 owner - thanks for all the 'hotspots' information!

[HonestlyNot]

I recently upgraded my old 'Frankenstein' Yamaha electronic kit to a brand new TD30 KSE, and immediately ran into the ear-melting hotspot issue (particularly on the PD128S snare drum).

All the information contained on these forums has helped me to resolve this issue, and perhaps more importantly understand what was going on, so many thanks for that.

FWIW, the two things that really helped me are:

o drum head tension
o (trigger) sensitivity settings

These two help to prevent the trigger signal from going into the red in the first place, whereas I found that the other suggestions (velocity curve, compression etc.) help to mediate the problem after the trigger signal has gone into the red but don't really prevent this from happening. I found a sensitivity setting of 3-4 worked very well. I also dropped the threshold to 0 (with no false triggering).

[jpsquared482]

Nice! It amazes me how much head tension is overlooked. That's the first place to start, when you think about it. You don't want the head to deflect deeply into that trigger when you hit dead on center. Tighter heads evens out the strike force from edge to center.

[OneWatt]

Nice! It amazes me how much head tension is overlooked. That's the first place to start, when you think about it. You don't want the head to deflect deeply into that trigger when you hit dead on center. Tighter heads evens out the strike force from edge to center.

Well put. To take it one step further, without sufficient tension you cannot get a decent rebound ... and rebound is the key to both playing technique and, over the long run, reducing the risk of wrist/hand/arm tendon problems.

On an acoustic kit, over-tightening the heads affects the pitch/tone of the drums. Happily, on a mesh head vdrum, the tension has no effect on the pitch or tone of the sound produced by the module. So when it comes to mesh head tension, go for it!

... which raises a question that comes to mind...

Has anyone on this forum ever DAMAGED a mesh head by over-tightening? If so, can you recall what brand of mesh head you tore/broke?

[allanjohn]

Has anyone on this forum ever DAMAGED a mesh head by over-tightening? If so, can you recall what brand of mesh head you tore/broke?

No, but a Pearl Muffle Head started separating from its hoop while I was cranking. More tellingly, while "overtightening" a Hart head, I did manage to split the lug.

[OneWatt]

No, but a Pearl Muffle Head started separating from its hoop while I was cranking. More tellingly, while "overtightening" a Hart head, I did manage to split the lug.

Woah, that's kind of unexpected ... the mesh head was tougher than the lug. Yikes.

[HonestlyNot]

Nice to see my post made it, the forum reported a database error so I wasn't sure if it worked or not.

I think mesh heads are cross-ply aren't they? So, tough as old boots...apparently more so than lugs!

[avrin1]

Hi!

I have a question, do you also have the problem where the hihat has also a "hotspot" and a "coldspot"?
its like half of the hihat is barely or not triggering and the other half is fine.

Also, how do i successfully perform a "cross-stick" or a "rim click" hit?! the snare switches between rimshot and a cross-stick almost randomly!