Sneak Peak at the DTXtreme III

[OverLord]

Here's a scan of the ad that accidentally got printed in Drum! Magazine. It's 9Meg.
http://www.michaelrender.com/Pictures/XtremeIII.png

[CaTaPulT]

Thank you Michael.
I'm seriously drooling here, that is one sweet kit, many changes to it, the module, the rack, the cymbals, the kick, the hihat.
The only thing that remains from the IIs is the snare and 4 toms (TP-120sd and TP-100) the rest looks like it's all new.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[TAKnipe]

I cant wait to hear it and to try it out. Looks completely awesome and I bet it plays awesome also. Pintech here I come. ;D

[evil1rox]

I am so friggin... oh wait.. I'm not at vdrums... I can use the "f" word

I'm so flippin happy I didn't buy a dtx2 now! I am fairly confident I'll have a new yammie dtx3 when they are released! ;)

E1R

[OverLord]

Little things like a hex rack seem minor till you think of the innovation. What a great idea. I really want to play this beast. I also want sampling. If I could assign my fart noises to the kit, I wouldn't need my SPD-S.

How do you guys like Yamaha pads? I don't have much experience.

[TAKnipe]

I actually like the rubber at times. I have a set of these pads but I think I am going Pintech for the xtreme3. I love the rim switches on the pads, great fun and they are so handy for percussion sets.

I think the hex rack looks awesome, I actually love the red and silver rack. Never had a problem and I thought they were really strong and functional.

I hope they are going to use the SD cards so we can catch a break on the price for a change, smart cards are almost out.

[CaTaPulT]

Hi Michael.
The Yamaha rubber pads are VERY responsive, my reason for going with the Pintech mesh head drums is that they are easier on the hands, my kit has both the rubber and mesh head pads.
I also like the bigger size of the mesh head pads. But otherwise, having 3 zone per pad (that's 15 zones between the snare and 4 toms) is a great thing to have and can save people a mess of money by not having to buy extra pads to add sounds.
The "Optional" 512 megs of memory for the new module is a Computer 512 meg DIMM, so you get one from your local computer store and then you have 512 megs of sampling capabilities as compared to 8 megs built into the DTXtreme IIs. As Tom mentioned, there's is no SmartMedia card slot, no SD card slot either, I've heard the new way of getting your sample files to the new module is using those VERY inexpensive USB drives, you can get a 1 gig for something like $10 now days? That is simply ingenious since USB will be around for a long time to come! :)
There is so much new on this new kit, I've noticed it all from the picture you posted, the only thing that is from the DTXtreme IIs are the snare (tp120sd) and 4 tom pads (tp100), that's it, the rest is all brand new in design.
I am looking forward to seeing the PDF manual for this module, see what it can do, how the sounds work, and how well it will handle 3rd party triggers.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[BobbyMck2]

Well gentlemen, now the DTXtreme III has officially been released, what do we all think ? At least here there is no peer pressure and we can be honest and frank.

[kevincool87]

I just had a skim through of the manual and here are things from where I see it:

Pros

3 zone cymbals.
on/off settings for snare allowing you 6 voices of choice on one snare pad.
better sampling capability(gain for aux and all that).
better looking cymbals and kick pads.
better(new) onboard voice samples.
new looking module with bigger screens... (which really just looks like Roland's though).
new hi-hat... has pressure sensing? (Which VH-11 and 12 already has...)

Cons

256 PC-100/133 168-pin? Good thing some stores still sell them(at around $20 or less!).
You have to have the USB stick always if you intend to use your own samples.. Not a big deal though.
etc.

But the verdict is I'm not buying it for my own personal reasons... It's just not good enough for me. I'm pretty sure it's good enough for others to go for it though. It rather made up my decision to go with TD-20 instead, with TDW-2 soon to be seen in the horizon. Unlike others I think TDW-2 will bring significantly new and better stuff than before.

Anyway just my 2c/rant.

Would love to hear everyone's takes and decisions on this.. :)

[BobbyMck2]

I'd love to say, I'm going to order one ASAP. But I'm not. I'll be sticking with the IIs for the foreseeable future. If the kit was developing it's own income therefore paying for it's self by either gigging or selling recorded music, I probably would order one. But the way it is my kit is for home use and used for recording for pleasure in my small home studio. Maybe Yamaha shot themselves in the foot with the IIs, offering too much to start with and no where really to go. I think the new module is great and will do well in the market, but for me there's not enough change from the IIs to warrant me spending my hard earned cash on it. Which is a pity

[CaTaPulT]

I have to agree with Bobby on this one.
The kit is fantastic, the new improvements to the rack, hihat, kick, cymbals are excellent on paper, don't really know until one sits behind the kit and give it a try.
The module part of the kit is impressive for someone buying a amateur to pro kit for the first time or upgrading from a older kit like DTXpress I, II, III, maybe even IV.
But for someone who already has a DTXtreme IIs, the differences aren't worth the premium price the new module will demand, my guess is the module alone will be worth anywhere between $1500.00 to $1800.00 Canadian, the DTXtreme IIs was $1420.00 locally when I bought my second DTXtreme IIs but I bought a C-stock to save some coin.
I've not really looked over the manual enough to see all the good and bad, but here are what I noticed so far.
I don't care much for the idea of the new III still having only 64 notes poly, Alvis had wrote in the DTX forums that some Motif keyboards have 128 notes poly, what gives?
I don't like the lack of splittable ports at the back, only one port can be split, there are 4 extra ports that support 3 zone pads each, but will they sense a switch and or piezo trigger?
I like the audio in port out front better than at the back.
Something I read that I do like however, a feature to lock a trigger when editing it, so when you hit the pad you want to edit, you can lock it, play around the kit to test and the trigger you are working on stays on the screen and not the last pad hit, this is sweet.
I do very much like the display, yes very Roland like but nice all the same.
As far as 3rd party pads are concerned, it looks like they are using pretty much the same idea as the DTXpress IV, there are various feature for editing pad types and even making your own with it's own name, this is handy for triggers other than Yamaha.
As Kevin mentioned, why oh why did they go with the older style of memory DIMMs, that ****'s getting harder to find. And why 2 x 256, why not 1 x 512?
Using a USB stick to bring samples and files to the module is damned good in my opinion since USB won't be going away anytime soon so no SmartMedia card headaches.
I'm still in the process of building my kit right now, just got the wiring done, I just have to install the pads, plug them in, connect the power to the modules, setup my mixer, and fire up the beast to make sure everything works, then I get to reprogram all the triggers and user kits. I've been at wiring this beast for the last 12 hours.... I'm going to bed! HAHAHA
When I have time, I will look at the DTXtreme III's manual more indepth, for now, it's not a priority.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[WildWes]

Ditto with Bobby and Jack on this one. Although there's some nicer features on the III, I probably don't use 75 percent of what the II is capable of and it is only a hobby for me too. I would probably be better off with a DTXpress IV module for the improved drum sounds.

I still would like to try out the positional sensoring on the rolands to see what thats like.

[evil1rox]

I'm still running the Roland TD10exp...so this will be a nice step up for me.

Have to wait until it hits the GC's and SamAshs though so I can mess with it a little bit.. hopefully before the 13 yr old Kruppa wanna-bes beating the hell out of a Absolute Maple Custom or Starclassic drive me insane. :D

E

[fignewton]

First Post here.
Has anyone heard of or seen anything about a price on these?

[kevincool87]

PRICING IN THE UNITED STATES
DTXTREMEIII Special MSRP: $5299.99, MAP: $3999.99
DTXTREMEIII Standard MSRP: $4199.99 MAP: $3199.99

[CaTaPulT]

Hi Kevin.
I'm just curious as to where you got the pricing info.
As far as I could see (took a very quick look at the manual), the only difference between the standard and special kit is 1 TP-100 tom pad and one cymbal less, that's a big difference in price for just those two items, even bought seperately, those two items don't come anywhere's near $1100.00.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[kevincool87]

Here... http://www.dtxperience.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=8&Board=DTXtremeIII&Number=382890&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Hmm.. maybe because of the rack as well? It sure does look full of stainless steel stuff.
But it's the MAP price we should look at, and it's a difference of $800 there.

Cheers

[CaTaPulT]

Thanks Kevin.... sheeesh, I didn't even notice the new forum for the new kit! HAHAHA!
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<

[fignewton]

Well now i am ready to play with one.

I have been this excited since the Alesis I/O came out. :)