The RMD Project

Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Since I am mainly a drummer I decided to start here with my toy reviews. I purchased the DTXpress several months ago when I decided to do more recording. My basement is a little crowded and the acoustics aren’t the best for using multiple microphones and a standard drum kit. The DTXpress seemed to be the perfect answer.

I didn’t get the joy of opening the box and putting all the pieces together because the guys at the Buffalo Drum Outlet did that for me. They even carried it across the road and installed it in my basement/dungeon. I will say, if it came in a box as small as my last drum kit, I’m glad I didn’t have to put it together.

The rack is sturdy, but I modified the cymbal placement and the right side worried me having the floor tom pad and a cymbal on it, so I purchased and added an extra brace. I’ve hauled this around to a couple gigs and it’s pretty easy to move. Loosen a few screws and it folds up to nothing. We’ve tossed it into the trunk of a Ford Taurus easy enough.

The DTXpress drum module is really nice. It sounds incredible for the price. Many of the stock preset kits sound amazing, but you can create your own from a huge bank of percussive instruments. What I liked the most about the DTXpress was the multi-zone pads on what is a pretty inexpensive kit. The snare and hi-hat are both 2 zone pads. This means you can assign different sounds to the rim and center pad.  The included cymbals are 3 zone pads. You can actually hit the bell and it sounds like it should. What sold this kit to me was I hit a crash and instinctively caught it… and the damn thing muffled right away.

It does take some getting used to. The pads play fast. The cymbals can be a bit sensitive at times. But over all I love it and after a little adjustment period it can do what a full up acoustic kit can… minus like 5 microphones.

For recording you have three options. Mono and Stereo outs are available, just plug those into your DAW and go. You can adjust the volume and pan for each pad on the drum module. The last option is MIDI out. Instead of recording analog drum out you can record MIDI messages then run it through another MIDI device to make the drum sounds. This is a good option if you want to be able to edit the drumming in your DAW. The one drawback to this is the DTXpress doesn’t have a MIDI in, so you will need another MIDI source for drum sounds. I use my Alesis NanoSynth or a drum plug in when I use this method.

As far as the pads go and drumming feel… It’s different than an acoustic kit for sure. I can’t say it’s a bad different… I can play the snare way faster on this than an acoustic. It’s just one of those things you have to get used to. I’ve also noticed some pad crosstalk if you are really pounding on them. that goes away once you get used to hitting pads rather than drums.

My overall rating on the DTXpress IV would be 4 out of 5 with discounts for lack of MIDI in and a higher than usual learning curve for an instrument you basically beat the hell out of with a pair of sticks.

If you want to hear what it sounds like recorded, this is a tune a buddy (Bret Tucker) and I did spur of the moment. I literally just hit RECORD and said “Play something, I’ll keep up”. Bret says it’s called “Papa’s New Shoes”.

http://www.rmdproject.com/music/papas_new_shoes9.MP3

I forgot to mention that Bret was here on his way through Buffalo and he had to play my son’s $99 OLP Ernie Ball rip off.