DTXtreme / Tony Verderosa clinics

[mcconaghy]

I saw the Tony Verderosa clinic last night, and since I haven't slept yet, and it's 7:30 in the morning, here's a short rundown.
Tony Verderosa/V-FX/The V-Man - whatever you want to call him, he's a nice guy, and a great clinician who manages to talk TO the crowd, not AT the crowd, as I've seen many other drummers do. Tony uses these clinics to explain his concept of electronic drums as a composition tool and demostrates how he records and composes songs on the DTXtreme.
Talking of which, I head the DTXtreme over a PA last night, no outboard effects, and as Tony said, apart from 3 sounds he had loaded in himself he was using untweeked preset sounds all night. Man, it's not half bad, actually! The drum sounds were powerful, had nice depth and clarity, a far cry from the extremely (no pun intended) dull and lifeless sounds I had heard over headphones a few hours earlier in NYC. Not a bad machine, and I caught myself thinking about maybe getting the brain.
I'll be back later with a more detailed report, I've got to catch some sleep first.

Stu

[cgrieves]

Just found out today that our local music shop has one on display. As the drum guy is a long time friend, I may go and have a play.

[Spides]

Rhythm magazine in the UK have given it a rave review, and they believe the pads feel more realistic than the V Drums. Whoever said that Yahama will discontinue making the DTX is talking rubbish, Yahama aren't stupid. I think they have made a kit that will cause a real threat to Roland....

[mcconaghy]

Originally posted by Spides:
Rhythm magazine in the UK have given it a rave review, and they believe the pads feel more realistic than the V Drums. Whoever said that Yahama will discontinue making the DTX is talking rubbish, Yahama aren't stupid. I think they have made a kit that will cause a real threat to Roland....

It's definitely a force Roland should be reckoning with. The sequencer features alone that Verderosa demonstrated yesterday showed that Yamaha has put quite a bit of thought into the DTXtreme, as well as the fact that all tom pads are dual trigger, and you can layer up to 9 sounds on each pad. Sadly it doesn't reflect in their brochures.
Tony passed a pad round, which was fitted with a mesh head, and the feel was very nice, a bit more solid than the PD-100/120s.
Yamaha may not take over the e-drum market with the DTXtreme, but they've put a good competitor out there, which will give Roland a run for their money. I'm curious to see what Roland will come up with as a responding product.
Maybe the site administrators should start thinking about registering DTXtreme.com...

[jrcel]

That's great news, I sent Tony Verderosa an email a couple of weeks ago listing some of the things written about the Xtreme module. He told me it sounds like propaganda, so I'm still looking at the DTXtreme as the answer to my needs. The interface section is almost as powerfull as the Drumkat, plus all the other stuff, looks like I have the winner at least for me. The engeneers at Yamaha Japan were nice enough to send me a catalogue of DTXtreme kits and stuff, I noticed there are two headphone settings, one is just normal headphone mode, the other gives you a special setting to make your cans sound like you're listening through speakers. I thought you'd like to know for demoing.

[This message has been edited by jrcel (edited March 22, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by jrcel (edited March 22, 2001).]

[mcconaghy]

Originally posted by jrcel:
That's great news, I sent Tony Verderosa an email a couple of weeks ago listing some of the things written about the Xtreme module. He told me it sounds like propaganda, so I'm still looking at the DTXtreme as the answer to my needs. The interface section is almost as powerfull as the Drumkat, plus all the other stuff, looks like I have the winner at least for me. The engeneers at Yamaha Japan were nice enough to send me a catalogue of DTXtreme kits and stuff, I noticed there are two headphone settings, one is just normal headphone mode, the other gives you a special setting to make your cans sound like you're listening through speakers. I thought you'd like to know for demoing.

I noticed that function in the brochure, something called the Localizer, giving you a broader panoramic stereo image. I'm going to give that a try next time I'm at Sam Ash, preferrably with manual in hand.

Stu