Manny A. from University Place, WA USA
Quality:
From the frame, to the pads and cymbals. I consider this product to be top notch, specially for the price that you are going to pay for it. I feel that this is a kit that my son will play with for many years to come.
Ease of Use:
This is how easy it is to use. My 8-year old son figured out how to select different drum kits immediately. The same with selecting different pre-recorded songs to play with. I've never seen anyone find the rock song 1 as fast as he did and he was off. As far as the manual? I don't know, I haven't had the chance, nor the need to read it.
Sound:
The sound coming out of the module, to me, is amazing, especially when paired with a noise canceling headset. You can definitely hear the detail of the sound coming out. The pre-recorded songs that were included makes it fun and easy to get started. There are 50 drum kits available, though I've only played with about 5 or six of them so far.
Value:
I was surprised to learn that what I got was an upgraded set. HH was an RHH-135 not the 130 I was expecting, and all three cymbals are three-zones, although only two are able to be hooked up as such. This is due to the lack of input from the module, I believe.
Durability:
Once you get this setup and all the clamps tightened, the frame proved to be very stable. The braces on the arms are great at stabilizing the upper part of the kit.
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Date submitted:
03/13/2010
Erik from Long Island, NY
erik7104@live.com
Subject:
Worth every penny
Quality:
Sharp looking instrument... semi-pro to pro quality. Consistent sound quality; would have full confidence in instrument to play gigs with. Hooked up to a home theater or PA system and this kit jams. Close your eyes and play away, you may just forget you're sitting behind an electric kit. This kit is also expandable by using additional hosa y-adapters.
Ease of Use:
Much like an acoustic set; you will feel right at home. One of the only complaints I have is the hi-hat. It plays a little different than a standard set would and needs more power to close (its electric duh...) however with a good days worth of practice you will find your sweet spot. Breaks down and sets up in minutes for easy travel to gigs or jam sessions. Much more portable than acoustic drums. All pads come off and pack up nicely and stand folds in on itself and can lay nearly flat. The pre-labeled snake cable included really makes setting up faster and guess free. The only item you will need to purchase is a Hosa y-adapter item #HOS ypp117. This kit comes with a cable to run from your splash to the kick drum. The kick has an input for a single zone drum/cymbal thus not allowing you to utilize the included three zone cymbal. The hosa adapters retail for about $7 so it's not the end of the world. The crash and ride both have three zone abilities and work perfect.
Sound:
Sound quality would most certainly give a standard acoustic set a run for it's money. Before making my purchase I spent some time and did my research comparing it to like Roland kits in this price range. I am not disappointed with my choice.
Value:
Overall the dtxpress special is way under priced compared to others in it's range. Best bang for your buck.
Durability:
I waited about a month to give my review and since I tend to be a heavy hitter when I get into a groove I felt it was appropriate to wait a little bit. This kit has stood up to my heavy hitting showing NO signs of wear at the moment. Yamaha has made a quality product here and should last you throughout the years. If you do not own a quality pair of headphones PLEASE buy them if you plan on playing with headphones. I own a pair of SONY noise canceling headphones and have no issues with low sound or hearing my self tapping on pads as other reviewers have pointed out. If you have this problem PLEASE invest in some better headphones before blaming the drum brain. Just remember the brain allows you to change the volume of each drum seperatly and also allows you to edit the delay if you find the cymbals unnaturally cut out too soon. Customization is the way to go, pre-sets are nice but once you make your own kits you might not use pre-sets all that much.
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Date submitted:
03/02/2010
Rick from Utah
Subject:
Great Kit for the price
Quality:
I’ve been playing drums for a long time now so I have tried many different kits. The set is made to take a beating. I played on it every day since I have received it and love it.
Features:
It's got great Features and all is good. I will point out the negatives tho. The hi-hat you really have to push pedal hard to get it to close and the stand for it is hard to use with a double pedal I think I will get a different stand for hi-hat down the road. The brain is great and has lots of cool stuff to play with and play along with also.
Sound:
Okay to start with Cymbals they are great but still don’t sound or feel like the real deal, expected from not being real cymbals. The Module is great and has lots of cool sounds and stuff to play with and tune on your kit just takes some time to play around with. the toms are good and have a good feel have to tune the 3rd tom down some so it don’t sound like a bass drum so much but it’s still cool on some songs that way. Hi-hat I would say is the hardest part having to really put some foot power on pedal to get it to close kind of sucks sometimes but sounds good overall. I still love my acoustic set buy far but sound and practice on this and not bother anyone is awesome. I recommend getting an amp for the kit there not much volume on module.
Overall:
Love the set and sound. It’s great also because the kit feels like more a real setup having hi-hat and extra cymbal and a double kick pedal to play on without up grading bass drum. There allot you can do on set when ya not able to play on an acoustic set or even want to jam in a gig with them. With an amp they jam. When I plug headphones in to amp it works great on sound., with headset plugged into module alone I don’t get enough volume.
Value:
Great value compared to other kits out there. I think rolends still are great but for the price this kit rocks.
Appearance:
Nothing too much here looks like elec kit and just gray and black would have been cool to have different colors tho.
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Date submitted:
6/11/2009
Verne from Athens, Georgia, United States
Subject:
Very pleased with purchase
Quality:
All the pads and sound module far surpass what I would expect for an e-kit at this price range. The only part I felt seemed cheaper than expected was the stand. I have owned less expensive Alesis kits in the past and they included much heavier and durable mounting frames than this kit. It is hollow and thin, and to top it off, the red section can be easily scratched with a fingernail (clipped my nails real quick at this discovery).
Features:
To me the best features have to be the trigger module and the cymbals/hihat. Once you customize the kit to your play style it feels very natural to me when compared to an acoustic kit. The amount of trigger and sound customizations far exceeds my expectations.
Sound:
The various preprogrammed kits sound great, but to me, customizing and saving your own custom kit is where it is at with any e-kit and this one does a superb job at that. I use the Yamaha RH5MA headphones with the kit now, and plan to buy an amp later, and the volume to the headphones seems a little low. I solved this with a small headphone amp I have. Without the added amp I tend to hear myself striking the pads along with the sound (I don't play very hard either). You will also likely want to adjust the sensitivity of the pads. I am not a heavy hitter and the triggers were not registering half my hits until I bumped it up.
Overall:
Overall I am very pleased with this kit. The sounds and customization options are far above what I initially expected for this kit. Yamaha packaged it very well since UPS always seems to beat the living crap out of every package I ever recieve from them, but nothing inside was damaged. In fact the box when empty still weighs a considerable amount due to all the packaging material. Each component of the kit comes with its own set of instructions which I found convenient for easily referencing for specific information. The kit was really easy to set up in about 1.5 hours to my liking and off I went. I use a Duallist bass drum pedal and even though the bass drum pad is small it easily accomodates a dual pedal (and sounds great). Another feature I like is the fact that they pre-label the wires which makes breaking down and reassembling the kit much easier.
Value:
Overall I feel that I got this kit for a steal when coupled with the instant rebate offer that was available when I purchased it. I recieved the updated version of the kit with the higher quality cymbals (same as the DTXtreme kit), but even without the instant rebates this kit was the best value I could find when comparing it through research and in shops to the Simmons, Alesis, and Roland kits for under $2000.
Appearance:
Other than the mounting frame, I only have one minor gripe, and that is the appearance of the wires. Yamaha includes about 5 velcro ties to hold the wires together and the pad wires all come pre-bound save for one wire, but you will likely want to go out and buy some more wire ties to make the kit look a little "neater" if you care about that thing.
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Date submitted:
May 9, 2009