USER BACKGROUND
I am a semi-pro player, who gigs regularly with a 5 piece Rock/Americana band at small to medium size venues - pubs, clubs, wine bars etc.
I currently gig with a Roland TD25 kit, so am familiar with the benefits and limitations of e-kits as a species. The Roland is a modest improvement over an acoustic kit in terms of stage footprint and physical volume of 'stuff', but it doesn't really offer any significant reduction, either in the number of cases I have to lug around, or in savings on set-up and strike time.
I decided I really wanted to see if I could pare the gear payload right down to a 'one trip from the car' package. Let's be honest, that is every gigging musicians' dream after all!?
PORTABILITY & STAGE FOOTPRINT
No doubt, in terms of portability and physical footprint 'on stage', Yamaha's DD75 does achieve these goals. The whole gig rig I use comprises 3 cases: A Gator mixer case which holds the DD75; A small wheeled Protection Racket case to hold the Yamaha kick and hi-hat pedals, drum stool, snare drum stand, sticks and cabling; A single Mackie Thump which is primarily a personal monitor, but which can also deliver to Front of House at smaller venues. Voila!! 3 cases in total, single trip goal achieved - van now for sale on Ebay!
FUNCTIONALITY & PERFORMANCE
In terms of the functionality and performance of the DD75 unit itself, I would say to Yamaha that there is a market out there for a 'Pro' version of this 'kit', which would allow more experienced drummers to better replicate the sound and feel of a 'real' kit.
Specifically:
1. SIZE: I think making the unit physically larger - even by 200mm in width and length - would make the act of playing far more pleasurable and less constricted, without compromising compactness. Sure, it's great discipline to play on such a compact unit, but it can feel a little like 'typing' a groove, rather than playing one.
2. VOICE LIBRARY: The inbuilt voice library contain way too many 'novelty' sounds that no serious drummer will ever use. This unit needs a greater range of 'real kit' samples, it is especially weak in the range of crash cymbals and snares.
3. USER CUSTOM KITS: The process of building 'User Custom Kits' is a little clunky, involving a 'save as' method, from a selected pre-programmed kit. Far better to allow users to start with a blank 'User template' and select individual voices for each pad. Also, the facility to duplicate one User Kit to another User location would help speed up the construction of a library of user kits, since many kit elements would be the same across that library.
4. MIXING PAD LEVELS: There is no facility to mix the levels of individual Pads - for me this is a big downside. The whole idea of e-drums is to enable a player to create a kit sound that is 'mixed down', with all voices at the correct relative level, but the DD75 does not cater for this. The result is that you end up with a kit mix in which crash cymbals are typically way too loud and hi-hat way too quiet.
5. OVERALL KIT EFFCTS: The DD75 does offer a good selection of kit effects (Room, Hall, Plate etc.) but does not allow the user to permanently save a specific effect to a User Kit. It returns to default effect each time the Kit is exited or the unit is powered off - a simple but valuable fix I?d have thought.
6. HI-HAT: The Hi-hat function only recognises fully open and fully closed sounds, regardless of which type of pedal you use. I appreciate the hi-hat is a hugely complicated thing to model and reproduce, but I would at least like to see a ?half-open? position recognised, to give the player that lovely hi-hat ?sizzle?.
7. PEDALS VS ?BUTTONS?: I would like to see a Pro version which bundles up the Yamaha Kick and Hi-Hat pedals (KU100 & HH65) which are currently only offered as extra cost options. I don?t know many serious players who would take a second look at the ?buttons? currently supplied with the Kit. My buttons are still in their bags... in the box... in the attic!
TO SUMMARISE
The DD75 is very impressive in many ways, and goes a long way to easing the drummer?s payload burden, as well as speeding up set-up and strike times. But I think there are many serious drummers out there looking for a downsizing alternative who would reach deeper into their pockets for a pro-version which offered the full user functionality of higher end e-kits.
Yamaha - if you build it, they will come?.
