Members Drummer44 Posted January 5, 2017 Members Share Posted January 5, 2017 Harking back to this old thread: http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/...lla-19/239773- I've been experimenting, from time to time, with a Yamaha DTX-Multi 12 and various configuration options... with some promise. On-board voices are certainly good enough, IMO. Tactile feel will have to submit to individual critique. Playing surfaces are relatively small, compared to traditional acoustics or even most e-drum pads. OTOH, not counting amplification, I could move this set-up with about 3 trips from practice room to truck... so load-out/load-in/load-out/load-in can be significantly easier/faster than with my (large-ish, rack-based) acoustic kit (about 12 trips, minimum). At first, I assigned cymbal voices to a few pads, and tried using the built-in hi-hat functions. That part was a bit underwhelming; the foot pedal worked OK and the individual HH voices were fine... but the overall outcome didn't satiscy my own perception of what a hi-hat oughta sound like... and I ride the hi-hat a lot. I've since bagged all the onboard hi-hat voices and functions, and instead added a separate REAL hi-hat to the mix. Simply moved hi-hat from acoustic kit to this set-up. Works MUCH better. Ditto, some of the onboard cymbal voices were OK enough... but I didn't much care for the feel of a pad dedicated as a ride cymbal. OK, bagged that, and I added a REAL ride cymbal to the mix. Much better feel, for me. And then, since I could, I also added a REAL crash, even though I've also kept one of the onboard crash voices assigned to a pad. (Ditto, the real cymbals moved from acoustic kit.) That gives me two easy crash voices, and no particular extra cost. (I have two sets of acoustic cymbals, one being a mixture of older K. Zildjian Constantinople and A. Zildjian & Cie Vintage... and the other being a set of Zildjian's new Low Volume cymbals. The latter are becoming the usual go-to set here in our music room, and the former are better for larger venues.) Most everything fits onto the single Yamaha stand designed for the DTX-Multi 12. Cobbled together with a triple tom holder, a couple cymbal rods/holders, and a beer can (er... soda can) holder, mostly done. With the multipad and cymbals removed, that whole stand thing can be transported as one; no set-up or adjustments ever needed. I added a stick bag to the hi-hat stand, and that too can be moved as one, with pedals and top and bottom cymbals removed... or not. The multipad transports in its own (SKB, I think) luggage. Not much more to deal with; pedals, cables, throne, cymbal bag, stick bag... I've been using onboard pads for snare voices. An acquaintance uses a similar set-up for some of his gigs, but he uses a 10" XP100SD external trigger pad for his snare... larger playing surface, if nothing else, but I think also likely a more accommodating stick response. And then it also brings three voices -- pad and two rims -- to the mix all at once, which would free up onboard pads. I might gravitate toward that, too, although that would add pad and snare stand to the transport problem. Here in our music room, I play all that through the PA. Using this multipad set-up in other venues would still require some sort of solution to amplification. We don't gig much (I even actively resist; not usually worth my time) but in some cases we'd be transporting our own PA components -- as a separate issue -- anyway. It happens our own PA system components were selected specifically with small- to medium-sized rooms, and transport, in mind, so at least it's not onerous if we have to do our charity thing again. -D44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Drummer44 Posted January 6, 2017 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2017 More thoughts... The Multi comes with about 50 pre-defined kits. None of those have been immediately usable as-is for my purposes, due mostly to the kind of music we mess around with, with my own -- relatively rudimentary -- style. (If you could call it style; mostly I'm just a decent timekeeper; don't go out of my way to mimic Krupa/Rich/Peart chops and so forth). The pre-defined kits are pretty good at suggesting ideas and combinations, worth a look.... and it's not difficult to modify those. Or one can make up some new user-defined kits using one of the pre-defined kits as basic source. It's relatively easy to define user kits, once you get the hang of it... guided by constant reading and re-reading of the manual. I've got 4 user-defined kits relatively well fleshed out. Two of those are to simulate full drum kits, Layout is standardized for both, but the snare/toms/kick on one is voiced deeper and "boomier" as would be appropriate for louder venues (within my tolerance level) or for larger venues. The S/T/K on the second are slightly higher in pitch, and drier... like a cocktail set-up. My other two user-defined kits (so far) are focused on a broader range of (mostly hand) percussion instruments. One of the latter is voiced as an adjunct to a drummer using a full kit, as when somebody here sits in on my acoustic drums... so I can switch to percussion augmentation. It could become quite normal to set up a user-defined kit for a specific gig, as when hired to be the main drummer, or the persussionist, at a specific venue, with specific acoustics, with specific other instruments/seats, and for a specific style of music. (Thinking of Loreena McKennitt's typical mixture of "world music" as an example.) Visuals suck, compared to a full kit with drummer (Phil Collins?) working behind a row of rack toms and kick(s).,, or percussionist (Luis Conte?) hanging behind a set of congas and what-not. I'm thinking a simple curtain hanging in front of the set-up -- perhaps some real estate for band logos, if that applied -- would take care of that. Haven't explored that further, but it can't be too hard to cobble together something that could attach directly the the main stand. -D44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Drummer44 Posted February 15, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 15, 2017 At attempt to upload pics... [ATTACH=CONFIG]n31921128[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n31921129[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n31921130[/ATTACH] -D44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Drummer44 Posted February 15, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 15, 2017 Pics are with "quiet" cymbals mounted.... without any related cabling attached.... and without the "curtain" I could use to slightly mask the electronic-hood-ness of the system. Or highlight a band name. Whatever. The center stand, with DTX and cymbals dismounted, is very lightweight, easy to move as one piece. A litle ungainly, if all the cymbal holders are left in place, but then again, leaving them preserves all the adjustments. The hat stand, even with hats mounted and the pedal attached, is also lightweight and easily moved as one piece. Note important features -- like beverage holder. -D44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dendy Jarrett Posted February 18, 2017 Members Share Posted February 18, 2017 I am considering a similar thing with the new Roli Blocks and an iPad Pro.All electronic, all packs up in a back pack. I will be doing a review from a percussionists perspective on the Roli Blocks coming soon. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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