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Finally! I found a shop with this little guy (havn't really been looking too hard, as I won't be in a position to purchase until January at the earliest).
But I was quite impressed with the new Yamaha entry level kit.
First, my limited experience with the old one was that it wasn't worth considering. I didn't like the sounds, I didn't like the HiHat action and the brain interface was just not usable when compared to the V-Club. The first two just may have been screwed up kits, but it was also influenced by the fact that Guitar Center always set up the kit (when they set it up) for 10 year old sized players.
Next, the things I was looking for:
1. HiHat pedal and sound. I found the DTXpress1 to either be open or closed, and you could not get it to do any normal HiHat things (stomp on it to get a clang sound, open it while playing to get a quick accent or swing sound out of it). Well, the new one works for all of these things. Not as sensitive as the Roland, but I suspect that can be adjusted in the settings.
2. THREE-ZONE pads using a single interface plug. The Snare works, and you can really get 3 sounds. The Pad, and 2 Rims. Really neat.
2.1 THREE ZONE Cymbals- sorry, the jurry is still out on this for me, but it looks like it should work. I plugged the snare pad into the ride input, but the 2 rim sounds came out the same. I could not get one to be the bell. I got the manual from the guy behind the counter, but did not have time enough to figure out how to assign sounds. The manual does indicate that inputs 2, 6 and 7 can take 3 zone pads, and a seperate sounds can be assigned to each zone.
***2.2 The manual mentions a 3 zone Cymbal pad designated "PCY-150" as the 3 zone Cymbal pad type you can choose. Anyone heard of this thing? Yamaha STILL has NOT updated their website, and I havn't seen it on any other web site selling Yamaha stuff either.
3. The sounds themselves. Pretty nice. Everything I heard in my 45 minutes or so was pretty nice. A lot of cartoony/electonic sounds and things I don't care too much about, but it appears there are plenty of accoustic style sounds available to play with, and the few I played with it sounded good.
Annoyances:
1. Single Zone Cymbals that come with the kit. This is really just stupid IMO. The kit ships with a Single and a Dual Zone cymbal pads (crash and ride respectively) and they take up the 3-zone inputs. Worse than that, it appears there are no 3 zone cymbal pads you can buy for the kit yet (although the manual mentions something about a "PCY-150"). So, what are we supposed to do, get a couple extra snare pads and toss the cymbal pads? I suppose we could plug them into the 9/10 input, but it does seem a waste.
2. No high end counter-part Brain or Pads. Maybe Yamaha is still working on this, or perhaps they're sitting on it until all their DTXTremes get sold. Or perhaps they have decided not to bother.
3. the Interface still sucks. But I guess I could ge used to it.
4. Who was the idiot Genius who assigned the default sounds to the Daul Zone Ride? You get the Ping of the Bow and the clanging crash of the edge. Excuse me, what drummer likes to crash his heavy 20-22 inch ride more than he likes his bell? On the upside, if it had a bell trigger I'd be happy to put a heavy crash sound on the rim of this thing.
5. The pie shaped cymbals kinda flop around when you hit them. I could get used to it, but it is annoying when I'm sitting there in the store.
6. The Pad mounts. This isn't so bad as the frame seems sturdy enough (and better than the V-club from my impression) but the way the pads mount is kind of weird. And they keep getting knocked loose when I played it at GC.
Conclusion:
If this thing had 3 zone cymbals it would be superior to the V-Club. (3x3= 9, + 6x2= 21 total potential triggers) for less than the price of a V-club. However, there appears (at present) to be now upgrade paths for the cymbals, and I'm not sure if there are easily attainable dual zone toms to be gotten. The V-club clearly has better upgrade paths (get a dual zone snare and you can keep the old one as an extra tom- same with the HiHat, and you still have room for one more pad)
I can wait until January to make a decision fortunetely. But for those that are buying now, it is sort of a toss up between the DTXpress2 and the V-Club. I sort of feel the DTXpress2 to a little more durable (at least the cymbals are), but the V-Club has it on the interface, and may have it on sounds. But the DTXpress, with propper support from Yamaha could be real competition for it. (now if only Yamaha would do the same in the mid to high range...)
Note: I edited this thing an hour after I posted it.
But I was quite impressed with the new Yamaha entry level kit.
First, my limited experience with the old one was that it wasn't worth considering. I didn't like the sounds, I didn't like the HiHat action and the brain interface was just not usable when compared to the V-Club. The first two just may have been screwed up kits, but it was also influenced by the fact that Guitar Center always set up the kit (when they set it up) for 10 year old sized players.
Next, the things I was looking for:
1. HiHat pedal and sound. I found the DTXpress1 to either be open or closed, and you could not get it to do any normal HiHat things (stomp on it to get a clang sound, open it while playing to get a quick accent or swing sound out of it). Well, the new one works for all of these things. Not as sensitive as the Roland, but I suspect that can be adjusted in the settings.
2. THREE-ZONE pads using a single interface plug. The Snare works, and you can really get 3 sounds. The Pad, and 2 Rims. Really neat.
2.1 THREE ZONE Cymbals- sorry, the jurry is still out on this for me, but it looks like it should work. I plugged the snare pad into the ride input, but the 2 rim sounds came out the same. I could not get one to be the bell. I got the manual from the guy behind the counter, but did not have time enough to figure out how to assign sounds. The manual does indicate that inputs 2, 6 and 7 can take 3 zone pads, and a seperate sounds can be assigned to each zone.
***2.2 The manual mentions a 3 zone Cymbal pad designated "PCY-150" as the 3 zone Cymbal pad type you can choose. Anyone heard of this thing? Yamaha STILL has NOT updated their website, and I havn't seen it on any other web site selling Yamaha stuff either.
3. The sounds themselves. Pretty nice. Everything I heard in my 45 minutes or so was pretty nice. A lot of cartoony/electonic sounds and things I don't care too much about, but it appears there are plenty of accoustic style sounds available to play with, and the few I played with it sounded good.
Annoyances:
1. Single Zone Cymbals that come with the kit. This is really just stupid IMO. The kit ships with a Single and a Dual Zone cymbal pads (crash and ride respectively) and they take up the 3-zone inputs. Worse than that, it appears there are no 3 zone cymbal pads you can buy for the kit yet (although the manual mentions something about a "PCY-150"). So, what are we supposed to do, get a couple extra snare pads and toss the cymbal pads? I suppose we could plug them into the 9/10 input, but it does seem a waste.
2. No high end counter-part Brain or Pads. Maybe Yamaha is still working on this, or perhaps they're sitting on it until all their DTXTremes get sold. Or perhaps they have decided not to bother.
3. the Interface still sucks. But I guess I could ge used to it.
4. Who was the idiot Genius who assigned the default sounds to the Daul Zone Ride? You get the Ping of the Bow and the clanging crash of the edge. Excuse me, what drummer likes to crash his heavy 20-22 inch ride more than he likes his bell? On the upside, if it had a bell trigger I'd be happy to put a heavy crash sound on the rim of this thing.
5. The pie shaped cymbals kinda flop around when you hit them. I could get used to it, but it is annoying when I'm sitting there in the store.
6. The Pad mounts. This isn't so bad as the frame seems sturdy enough (and better than the V-club from my impression) but the way the pads mount is kind of weird. And they keep getting knocked loose when I played it at GC.
Conclusion:
If this thing had 3 zone cymbals it would be superior to the V-Club. (3x3= 9, + 6x2= 21 total potential triggers) for less than the price of a V-club. However, there appears (at present) to be now upgrade paths for the cymbals, and I'm not sure if there are easily attainable dual zone toms to be gotten. The V-club clearly has better upgrade paths (get a dual zone snare and you can keep the old one as an extra tom- same with the HiHat, and you still have room for one more pad)
I can wait until January to make a decision fortunetely. But for those that are buying now, it is sort of a toss up between the DTXpress2 and the V-Club. I sort of feel the DTXpress2 to a little more durable (at least the cymbals are), but the V-Club has it on the interface, and may have it on sounds. But the DTXpress, with propper support from Yamaha could be real competition for it. (now if only Yamaha would do the same in the mid to high range...)
Note: I edited this thing an hour after I posted it.
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