Yamaha DTXpress III and IV

[Hope Drums]

Do any of you guys have experience with these modules? I'm not real happy with them! Pintech sent me both of them because I'm going to be writting down settings for them and doing some videos to show people how to set them up...I'm having two issues:

1-The kick drum is extremely sensitive, I have turned the gain all the way to 0 with no change and the Threshold all the way up with no change.

2-When using the snare in the snare jack (especially on the IV) you have to wack the crap out of the rim to get a sound and I haven't found a setting that makes it function well at all! On the III I can move it over to a stereo jack like 9/10 and use head/rim like they are two different pads and it works great, but the IV is limited on inputs and don't have this option...

Any suggestions you guys could offer would be GREAT!!!!

Brian

[WildWes]

Brian,

I believe Jack has both of these modules and Pintech (kick, snare and toms).

I have the DTXtreme II module and find the AX14 rim is very difficult to trigger with the rim rubber in place. However, I have no issues with the sensitivity of my 10" Pintech kicks.

[CaTaPulT]

Hi Brian.
What are you using for a snare?
I've used the AX14 snare with both the DTXpress III and IV. This snare is truly a royal pain in the ass.
I've given up trying to get the rim to work, yes, on the IV, it's even less reliable than on the III or the DTXtreme IIs.
As for the main pad, a lot of it has to do with the mesh head itself, some module tweaking of course and even a drummer's playing style, hard hitter or not.
So here's what I have learned from trying to get this damned AX14 to work properly on Yamaha modules.
First off, the mesh head..... whether you like the head loose or fairly tight, tune it acoustically, meaning evenly all around the 12 lugs, unplug the snare and loosen all lugs, tighten them to finger tight, then start tightening the mesh head 1/2 turns at a time in a crisscross pattern, when getting close to the desired tightness of the mesh head, start tapping about 1 to 2 inches on inside of mesh head across from each lug, making fine adjustments till the mesh head sounds very close to the same all around, this way you have uniform tightness of the mesh head and less chances of getting dead spots on certain areas of the mesh head. The Pintech mesh head seem to be a pain on this snare, it seems to really highlight the hot spot right in the middle where the foam is, I'm currently using a Roland 2 ply mesh head and this hot spot is has been reduced somewhat.
For both the DTXpress III and IV, it's a matter of finding the right settings for your playing style, on the III, use RHP as pad type, then it's a matter of finding the happy medium between the velocity settings and the rejection settings, if using EZtune on the III, try turning that down till no sound is heard, then turn it up a little till you hear sounds, use the EzTune dial instead of the module gain control. The III seem much hotter than the IV. Test for miss triggering and double triggering by doing a light and fast double stroke roll and keep doing this all over the surface of the mesh head, once you've established that it's not miss triggering, then keep doing the same but increase the velocity at which you strike the mesh head, see if it's double triggering. Also, single hits, all over the surface, fast fairly hard hits making sure your stick bounces off the head with no stick lingering on the mesh head, this will be a good test for double triggering. After messing with this AX14 snare for a year and a half, I'm convinced part of it's problem is it's size, 14 inch might be too large for a thin mesh head and any mesh head. In example, a Pintech Concertcast 10 inch pad works so much better and easier to tweak that either the 12 inch CC or the AX14.
As for the DTXpress IV, my snare is setup this way.......
Go to the trigger menu (shift + drumkit buttons)
1st screen: STD DYNA
2nd screen: Type = BP
3rd screen: Gain = 55 Mvl = 30
4th screen: VelCurve = Norm
5th screen: RejTime = 2
6th screen: RejLvlAll = 3
7th screen: RejLvl = 2 Frm = 1
Brian, also try some various snare sounds in the module, some are louder than others, also make sure you up the voice volume in the voice menu to your desired settings, the DTXpress IV can do 2 voice layering, you might want to mess with this as well.
I find the DTXpress IV handles the AX14 snare better than any previous Yamaha module, except for the rim of course, I could never get the rim to fire reliably on any Yamaha module, had it working not too bad on the DTXtreme IIs till I got the DTXpress IV, on the IV, I gave up, I'm using a side pad for my crosstick sound. I never did try my concertcast pads rims (they are all dual zone) since I use them for toms and I never used my toms rims even when I used the Yamaha 3 zone pads.
As for the kick drum, I have a CKV-12, I had that working ok I guess but got so fed up of the rediculous amount of bounce that I tried even putting a Roland head on that too, and it didn't help much, so I shelved the CKV-12 and went back to my 2 x Yamaha KP-65 kick pads. WildWes has both a 10 and 12 inch CKV kick pads and agrees with me, the 12 inch's bounce is bordering stupid, the 10 inch in his opinion is great! I don't know since I have a 12 inch.
Also, the ZB (dual zone) hihat I had bought is nothing but a pain in the butt with Yamaha modules so there again, I'm back to the Yamaha RHH130 hihat, and the ZB3 cymbal I bought is a joke, very unpredictable as to how loud it will trigger and you have to pretty much nail it right over the controler box on the underside. So I guess what I'm saying here is the only Pintech stuff I have that I really like are the 4 ConcertCast toms, 2 x 10 inch and 2 x 12 inch, the rest I'm pretty much sorry I ever bought.
Sorry, not trying to rain on your employer, but for what this stuff cost me, I'm pretty disappointed.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[TAKnipe]

I am addressing this to Jack, Wes & Brian,

One of the reasons I have been on the RHP kick lately is because they (Yammie) figured it out on the pad gain pots. My best guess is that to use mesh heads we are going to have to use that design if we ever want to get close with the mesh. A friend of mine who also owns the 2s is working as we speak to replicate both pots. Now that being said I want mine mounted internally but they could be put into a project box that attaches to the mesh head drum you are using. From what my friend told me these will be only cents to replicate.

When they are finished I will post the diy instructions to build these. The goal is to have a responsive head and rim on all Yamaha drum modules.

What we need is to find the video Yamaha had put out with the guy instructing on how to change the heads over to mesh. That I need to see, if anyone can point me in the right direction. We will figure this out, I might have to actually midi the pads through the 2s to get 2 zones to work on the xtreme 3 sucks but its a reality.

[Hope Drums]

Sorry, not trying to rain on your employer.....

I guess when they send me a paycheck, I'll call them my employer! ;D I would certainly take no offense to your critical comments, my dedication is to drumming and is not or never will be to any particular company!

I actually am using a hybrid snare that I built that is very similar to the PD120. I used a 12" Taye steel snare added the Pintech AcousTech brace, 27mm piezo for head 35 for rim, Roland cone and 2 ply Alien Skin head and I have the EZ Tune knobs installed. I'm pretty pleased with it as far as the head goes, very sensitive, good dynamics, but this stupid rim is working my nerves!

I'm also not a fan of the 10" or 12" kick drums, too wobbly and I don't recommend them to my customers! I'm using the 8" and it is very sturdy and I don't have the rebound problems that people have with the 10 or 12. I was really surprised when I turned the gain to "0" that it didn't make a difference!!

[WildWes]

Jack,

I've since removed the 12" kick and went back to the two 10" kicks. I tried a pad and felt beater, but could not stop the double-triggering. Of course that came in handy for Bonham triplets - hahahaha

Tom,

Not sure what you mean by "pad gain pots".

Brian,

I never really use the rim triggers on any of my double-zone Pintechs as I prefer them to react like real drums - one hit, one sound. I replaced my two 12" Pintechs with Ron's (Rogue) 14" AX14's and use them as my floor toms (single-zone). I've also gotten my two 10" kicks to be very stable when playing.

[Hope Drums]

I hear ya about the toms! I'm the same way! I don't like dual zone toms at all! Not only because of the one tom one sound though, but most modules aren't capable of doing piezo/piezi rims!

[CaTaPulT]

Hi Brian... sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought you had taken a job with Pintech.
You mentioning that your DIY snare was based on a Roland's guts brought up the possible problem.
I believe the Roland drums are wired reverse than Yamaha's. This might be the reason you are having such a hard time?
I just heard something to that effect on the forums, I've never tried a Roland drum since I don't have one.
I hope you are well.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<