I have been buying Yamaha products for many years, guitars, recording equipment and drum machines and have a lot of confidence in the brand.
I have been playing drums for many years and wanted something that wouldn’t take up too much room or make too much noise.
I had tried the Yam DTX402K kit in a shop and was impressed by the sound quality, the size and the price, but settled on the more expensive, (but not by much) DTX452K because it had an additional tom, came with the KP65 kick pedal, the more sophisticated HH65 hi-hat and the TP70S snare pad (watch the video for the DTX452K on the Thomann site to hear what the hi-hat and snare can do.)
Very easy to set up as it comes semi assembled - 2 racks with the toms already attached. It’s simply a matter of sliding one rack onto the other. Positioning of the drums is achieved by sliding along the rack to the desired position and tilting the head to the desired angle. This means you cannot achieve the subtle positioning that you could with ball and socket fixings and I have had to adapt my playing for fast, long fills.
The way I’ve got my kit set up, the dimensions are 50cm depth x 120cm width x 115cm height (to top of crash cymbal) not including pedals (depends how long your legs are)
The whole kit is very stable with no wobble or creep and the pedals, supplied with small, plastic tipped screw feet, stay put.
The KP65 kick pedal is very robust and has a small volume knob on the back, which I have found very useful when recording as it allows for a degree of sound separation. The pedal also has a spare input for an extra pad which is a real bonus. Once you’ve assembled the kit, there are no spare inputs on the DTX402 sound module, therefore any extras have to go through this one spare kick input.
I am used to having more than one cymbal and so bought the PCY95AT. It went into the pedal with no problems and found that the sound changed according to the drum kit selected, so for each kit, I have 2 different sounding cymbals. (I wish I’d ordered it at the same time as the kit and saved on the transport cost and the waiting for delivery)
For example, selecting ‘Metal’ the cymbal supplied is, as you would expect, metallic, whereas the PCY95AT emits a satisfying crash. When the ‘Latin’ kit is selected, it emits a guiro.
The supplied ride cymbal, as well as a bell sound, has 2 distinct areas, a rubberised half, and a bare metal half and each area emits a quieter or brighter tone, depending on the kit being used. This is particularly noticeable on the Latin kit with impressive two tone cow bell.
Some cymbals , such as ‘Metal’ have only one tone.
The supplied crash cymbal has a choke area - a small raised section, which when grasped, chokes the sound as effectively as a metal one. One drawback is this cymbal tends to rotate as I play - no doubt due to the direction of my sticking - coming in from the right after a fill. The hi-hat has a pin or ‘stopper’ welded on the arm to stop it rotating and the PCY95AT comes supplied with a detachable stopper, so I changed it over to the cymbal that came with the kit to stop it rotating. I’ve looked on-line and can’t find stoppers being sold separately. If you buy this kit, it would definitely be worth asking Thomann to include extra stoppers. I live in the UK and the transport would probably be more than the cost of the stopper(s)
The HH65 hi-hat has many features. It plays well as a traditional open/closed hi hat, with good sensitivity/dynamics and in different kits, has different attributes. In ‘Latin’ mode, it emits a shaker sound when struck, whilst simultaneously operating the foot pedal, gives a clave sound.
In ‘Metal’ mode, the hi-hat cymbal has no clutch - open/closed feature when struck, but the pedal operates a second kick drum sound, which isn’t as strong as the kick pedal itself, but it doesn’t worry me too much. If you were a metal drummer though, you would probably find it inadequate, although the internal ‘song’ for metal has impressive double pedal sounds.
All the kit parameters, hi-hat clutch, open/close velocity, drum tone, pad sensitivity/velocity/volume, etc, can be changed to taste in the module menu which is easy to access, consisting of push button access, selecting a number from 1-10 for function, and changing the parameters using tempo (+) and (-)
The snare has 3 zones - the centre with the snare, and the 2 rims giving rim shot and cross stick. I find the rim shot difficult to hit accurately as the zone is the closest to me and sticking is difficult.
These 2 rim zones can be switched for left handed players.
With some kits, ‘Hip Hop’ for example, 2 snare sounds are available depending on whether you strike near the edge or the centre, plus the 2 rims sounds, giving 4 sounds in all.
It is possible to customise your own kit, taking drum sounds from other kits to make your own.
The sound module has plenty to keep you busy. You can play along with any of the 10 internal songs either in ‘play’ or ‘training’ mode, where drums sound as you play or are silenced when you miss the beat. You can change the degree of difficulty - quoting from the handbook; ‘adjust the sensitivity to your timing accuracy in striking the pads and making sound. The narrower the range, the higher the difficulty level’
The 10 internal songs are pretty basic and repetitive, but I find that makes me more inventive in devising patterns and fills that fit in.
There are 9 training programmes which aim to increase your time keeping, striking accurately, speed and dynamics and the 10th programme allows you to record and playback your performance. Sheet music is downloadable from the Yamaha site to play along to a score.
Connection to a computer is simple, either through the USB port or using the line/headphone out and I’ve used the kit already in my recordings which gives a more realistic sound and energy after years of programming drum machines.
I’d like to hear what it sounds like in a rehearsal room - it’s light enough to transport easily.
I’m very pleased with the kit. It fulfils what I wanted - to keep drumming and improving, and as the other reviewers have said, for the money, unbeatable.
