Beware Pintechs' new Hyperhat

[BLACKFLY]

I just wanted to give the group and any prospective e-drums purchasers some feedback on the new Pintech Hyperhat hi-hat controller.

I ended up with this item because my original kept F**ckin' up even after sending it back for repairs. I was told that it was "new and improved". Boy, was that load of.....

The mechanism is a chunk of soft rubber that contacts the trigger. However, the contact occurs at the top of the motion not the bottom (Like a normal hi-hat does) and is not adjustable. It is not height adjustable, nor does it have spring tension adjustments.

It has a switch whereby you can use it either as a control (pitch and variable open sounds) or as simply a switch. When using the "control" option you get almost no "chick" sound, however it does work quite well at controlling the variable open sounds. In switch mode, as I said before, the "chick" sound happens at the top of the motion, resulting in the hi-hat sounding earlier than intended and throwing all timing off.

Also, when using the jazz technique of rocking the hi-hat foot back and forth, the pedal produces uncontrollable heel-splashes ALL THE TIME!

Finally, the feel is all wrong. you never get to bottom out, (unless your leg weighs 200lbs)because the rubber chunk does not allow the pedal to reach the full bottom motion. Resulting in a mushy bouncy feeling

I was so frustated at having to deal with Pintech and the thought of shipping this piece of crap down south (with all the expense and down time, not to mention that there is no guarantee that the problems are solvable) that I ran out and bought a Roland FD7, and LOW AND BEHOLD it works beautifully for both jazz and rock styles.....no problems (what a relief!).

I want to say that I am satisfied with my Pintech pads, but the Hyperhat..........

I know there are a few staunch Pintech defenders out there ( and believe me I would like to be one of them considering how much money I've spent on the Kit) but If you're considering buying a set Pintech e-drums, I would recommend not including the Hyperhat and just get a Roland or something else instead.

This was a consumer report by your friendly BLACKFLY

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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal labotomy

[This message has been edited by BLACKFLY (edited March 27, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by BLACKFLY (edited May 28, 2002).]

[Toekneedrum]

Damn! I just ordered one this past weekend from Midwest Percussion. I'll let ya know if I experience the same problems. I've had no problems with Pintech's other stuff.

[Toekneedrum]

The Hyperhat arrived this past weekend and I've had some time to play around with it. I haven't had any problems. At home I use an Alesis DM5 so I only get the open/closed/foot sounds. No problem. I took it to Church and hooked it up to the Roland TD6 and the variable control worked just fine. The only negative criticism I would have is the "feel". I'm not real hot on the "rubber chunk" (to quote BLACKFLY). It just doesn't feel "mechanical" when my foot presses down...feels "mushy". Other than that slight criticism I find the pedal to be more than adequate and worth the $119.95 I payed for it from Midwest Percussion.

[clymore]

Isn't it almost identical to the Hart HH controller. I play on a Hart set with a DMPro at Church and it looks to be the same. My home set is all Pintech Tour Elite pads (which I love) but I have an FD-7.

[Toekneedrum]

Clymore, the Pintech pedal is very similar in look to the Hart. I think the Pintech uses the same type of spring mechanism as the Hart but it is encased in the squishy rubber housing. BTW I use the DM5 with Spacemuffins at home and the Hart Studio-A with TD6 at Church.

[digitsone]

Originally posted by BLACKFLY:
I want to say that I am satisfied with my Pintech pads, but the Hyperhat..........

i absolutely agree - i HATED my hyperhat and sold it immediately. this is one place where pintech really falls short.

[klp]

I might be stating the obvious here but here goes:

I had the same problem with my Hyperhat--the chick sound came at the top of the "travel" not the bottom. I called Pintech and here was what they suggested:

That little foam rubber dealy underneath the pedal is held in place by a piece of velcro. You can adjust the high hat travel by moving the foam rubber "spring" forwards or backwards. Once you get under there you'll see what I mean. Push it back a little and the chick sound will come closer to the bottom of the travel.

I made the adjustment and the feel improved considerably. I still don't have the same control over the pedal as I would an acoustic but it is much better than before. Accurate response from the pedal is still a bit of an issue. It is hard to play fast quarter notes with the left foot ala Tony Williams but I can live with it for now.

BTW the support I got on the phone and by email was fantastic--very quick and friendly!

[BLACKFLY]

Yeah, I played around with the positioning of the rubber chunk and found A LITTLE relief, (even flippig it upside-down, sideways, reverse...anyway I could think)but nothing satisfactory.

Believe me , I'm a real cheap-ass and wouldn't go out to buy another ANYTHING (ok, maybe another beer) unless I felt it was absolutely needed, but in this case my sanity was at stake!



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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal labotomy

[jrcel]

IT would help if the module could "train" the pedal response like on a Drumkat.

[ezedrummer]

Electronic Hats must be hard to get right.
I recently got my Hart HH and I'm not at all impressed. VERY VERY LOUD. I have the sensitivity on my TD8 all the way up to 16 and the thing still miss triggers.
Maybe the answer is a trigger on a real HH.
It would be loud but at least it would sound musical.

[edm]

Since I have had the fortune to play with a number of E-drum hi-hats myself, I'll add my $0.02 (adjusted for inflation of course)...

Both the Hart and Pintech hi-hats seem quite similar and rather high-priced. The ones I've played with seem to perform ok, but it really is hard to beat the original Roland FD-7.

There _is_ one hi-hat that beats them all by a mile though and I hesitate to bring it up... The ddrum4 Cast hi-hat is awesome beyond belief IMHO. Somewhat unfortunately, it uses a magnetic mechanism to trigger that I don't think would be compatible with any other brain than the ddrum4 (I'm certainly going to check it out though as it would be totally awesome to be able to use this hi-hat with other brains).

Yamaha hi-hats pretty much go only with Yamaha brains, but can be adapted to a Roland brain with a splitter cable (do a search if you want the gory details as outlined in a previous Vdrums.com posting some time back).

Bottom line: If you can, stick with the hi-hat that was made for your drum module. Use "other" hi-hats ONLY after careful research because compatibility is limited and, as recounted here, performance may not live up to expectations in some situations.

Ed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drumbalaya! Specializing in electronic drum equipment.
Ed Morin [ mailto:[email protected] ]
Phone: 866-881-9313 / 425-881-9313 FAX: 425-881-6000 http://www.drumbalaya.com

[sepdrums]

The ddrum4 hat control uses a "hall effect" magnetic-type sensor. It will not work with any other module except for a ddrum4...

When a charged particle such as an electron travels through a magnetic field, it experiences a force. What this means, is that if you run a wire between the poles of a magnet, and then switch the current on, the wire will move out of the magnetic field. Now imagine that wire not being able to move. If you measure the current running through the wire you can calculate a value similar to resistance, just as you would normally for a resistor (V=IRh where V = Voltage, I = Current, Rh = Hall Coefficent, measured in Ohms just like resistance). Also, as you increase the magnetic field, more and more electrons cram up against the one side of the wire, making the voltage (and hence this new value) larger. This is the Hall Effect. It makes for a nice straight line graph and is exactly what the ddrum module is reading... Obviously the module is sending a out a small current to make this happen...I highly doubt it is equal in voltage to what Roland-type modules are doing....however correct me if I am wrong..

Resistors of both film and wire construction are used by Hart, Pintech, Roland, and Yamaha....some of which have designed superior mechanical means of changing the resistance....

As far as the Hyper Hat is concerned - it has come a long way since day one. However I have to agree with Ed - I am a huge fan of the ddrum setup...much more respect to their design and their "out-of-box" thinking to use a different method...less moving parts = less problems. Magnetic fields vs. linkages, sponges, etc. - win.

But what do I know...I am not an electrical engineer - so flame me.

Erik

[This message has been edited by sepdrums (edited May 24, 2002).]

[BLACKFLY]

Anyone want to buy a VERY slightly used Hyper-hat? CHEAP!! (actually I'm serious)