Hi, my name is Tom Griffin.
I'm from Yamaha and today I'm at www.KraftMusic.com to talk about the DTX700 Series of electronic
drums.
For a great deal on your DTX700 Series drum kit, check out the bundles at www.KraftMusic.com.
They get you everything you need to get started with your new kit.
[playing demonstration]
DTX700 Series features the DTX700 Drum Trigger Module which is our newest addition to the
DTX lineup.
I'm sitting here in front of the DTX700K which is the first model in the 700 series.
With this model, you have an 8-inch three-zone DTX-PAD snare, you have 7-inch DTX-PAD single-zone
toms, two 13-inch cymbals for ride and crash, a 13-inch dual-zone hi-hat that comes with
the included hi-hat stand, a KP65 pad wide enough to accommodate a double-beater pedal,
and it features the steel pipe rack RS500.
Moving up from the DTX700K, the next model is the DTX750K which gives you a 10-inch three-zone
DTX-PAD snare with controller, 8-inch three-zone DTX-PAD toms, two crash cymbals, a 15-inch
ride cymbal, all chokeable, all on the RS700 steel pipe rack system which has ball joints
for all the toms and boom arms for all the cymbals.
The flagship of the DTX700 series is the DTX790K.
It's a five-piece kit featuring all top-of-the-line pads.
You get a 12-inch DTX-PAD snare, 10-inch DTX-PAD toms, all three-zone with a real time control
knob for tuning or for tightening the tension of the snare, two crash cymbals and a large
ride cymbal, all chokeable, and a big and beefy kick pad, the KP125W.
It's an outstanding kit that comes with the RS130 aluminum rack.
The cymbals of the DTX700 are very expressive.
Not only are they three-zone and chokeable, but you can also mute the cymbal.
Check this out.
[playing demonstration] Only Yamaha let's you do that.
Now, with the hi-hat, it's pressure-sensitive, so as I apply pressure with my foot, I can
pinch the hi-hats and really get those little nuances.
So, there's a lot of the in between sounds as I open it up.
[playing demonstration]
The DTX700 Series is all based around the new DTX700 Module.
I'm very excited to tell you about this because it really is a new breed of drum trigger module
from Yamaha.
Let's take a tour of the front panel.
Starting here, you have a Phones volume and a Master volume.
Right below it you have a group mixer for different drums so you can bring up the kick,
snare, your toms and cymbals and make easy edits to the sound.
Here are you modes which features Kit, Song and Click.
Within the Kit mode is Instrument, and I have my menu here.
And Shift will let me operate the remote control feature that I will talk about in a minute.
Or, I can mute any sound that's currently sounding.
Below that is a dedicated recorder section where I can record my drums freestyle or in-synch
with the built-in songs.
I have a metronome on and off button and the large plus and minus buttons let me change
kits with my sticks or with my fingers.
A Store button, an Exit button, and a new jog wheel that also functions as an enter
button.
The dot-matrix LCD is great because we can draw cool pictures and it has soft function
buttons that change depending on the mode you're in.
It's very easy to operate and one of the coolest feature of all -- it comes with a handy stick
holder.
[playing demonstration]
The DTX700 Drum Trigger Module features 1,268 drum percussion voices and comes with fifty
preset kits and there's ten user locations.
However, this is a new breed of DTX module.
All of the memory in here is overwritable by the user.
So, if you're a "heavy metal" guy and you don't want a hip-hop or jazz kit, you can
load this up with all rock kits.
Likewise, if you want all Latin-percussion kits, you can have sixty Latin-percussion
kits.
It's all backed-up on USB and you can initialize any factory kit at any time or copy any factory
kit to any location using the menu jobs.
It really is an exciting new departure for Yamaha.
Yamaha proudly features samples of its own drums in their drum trigger modules.
So, we've got Oak Custom here, Birch Custom Absolute, our Maple Custom Absolute and the
Beech Custom Absolute.
We also have two newly sampled kits, a Vintage '70s and a Vintage '50s kit, all with new
cymbals as well.
Let's give it a listen.
[playing demonstration]
With the dot-matrix display on the DTX700 and the soft-function buttons right underneath,
we've really made this very easy to operate and to edit to get very professional results,
so let me show you what that's all about.
Let's say I want to edit an instrument.
We'll there's a new Instrument button right below the kit.
I'm going to work off the preset Kit 1, DTX700 and press Instrument.
As I move around the kit, the display shows me what instrument is there and I can easily
change it with the dial or with the buttons.
I can also do things like change the tuning.
Okay?
So if I want to tune my tom up or down, it's very, very easy to do so.
We have a new feature called Muffling.
Muffling will actually muffle the sound or open it up without changing the pitch or the
quality of sound for that Oak Custom drum, or whatever drum you chose.
The DTX700 also let's you import sounds into the built-in 60MB of memory.
With the USB device connected, press Import and scroll to the sound you're looking for.
When you find it, simply press Execute and Enter.
It imports the sample and stores it into the Flash RAM.
Flash RAM means that the sounds won't disappear when I turn the power on and off.
So now I can hear my new sound and I can play with the tuning, the decay or any of the other
parameters.
Moving from Kit to Song, you have a couple of demo songs and then you have the songs
that are from the DTX900.
These are really nice songs.
They'll sound a little bit different because of the melodic sound set on the 700 Series,
but they give you a good way to practice with a virtual ensemble.
Mute the drums by pressing the Drum button and then hit Play.
[playing demonstration]
You can also record your performance in-synch with the song.
There's a dedicated recorder area right down here.
To get ready, select the song you want, hit Record, hit Play and then you're good to go.
[playing demonstration]
Hit Stop on the recorder and the song automatically stops.
Hit Play on the recorder and you can listen back to your performance.
Right below the Song mode, you have the Click mode.
Press it and you can change the tempo with the wheel or with the buttons.
You can even change the time signature.
Press Training and you'll see the Training modes.
You have Rhythm Gate, Groove Check and the Measure Break feature.
Groove Check works like a scale that measures if you're early, on-time, or late.
You can measure hits from all inputs with this screen.
It's very easy to see where you tend to place your groove.
Change the mode to Rhythm Gate and you get a range in the center.
As long as your strikes are close to the beat, you'll hear them.
If you're too early or too late you won't hear them.
Here's what that sounds like.
[playing demonstration] Ten minutes a day with Rhythm Gate and Groove Check can really
help you internalize the click and be a better time-keeper.
[playing demonstration]
The neat thing about instrument editing is that the parameters change depending on the
instrument that you're editing.
For example, you saw me muffle the tom and tune a tom.
But, what about a cymbal?
Hit the cymbal and you can adjust the size.
The next function button lets you change the sustain, so I can add more sustain, or I can
have less sustain.
If I'm on a snare drum, I have tuning, muffling... if I hold Shift, I can adjust my snares.
This tightens the virtual strands of the wires.
If I loosen them all the way, it's a throw-off.
Another thing is with the hi-hat.
When the hi-hat is open, how open is it?
Here, you've got a clutch height parameter, so I can open the hi-hat all of the way where
its nice sustain or I can close it so the cymbal is just hovering over the other one.
Very easy to dial-in just the right sounds for your hi-hat, snare, tom, cymbals -- every
instrument onboard.
You can even do it with custom samples.
[playing demonstration]
Another nice thing about the Instrument mode is something you can do with the kick and
hi-hat.
What if you want to play a double-bass pattern but you don't happen to have a double-beater
pedal?
Well, you can very casually simulate it by holding the Shift button and pressing Double-Bass.
Now, my left foot plays the bass drum, so I have double-bass.
Very easy.
Get back to single-bass, hold Shift, turn it off and now I have my hi-hat again.
[playing demonstration]
One of the variables that you get with electronic drums is the trigger setup.
This gives you user setups so that you can store different velocity curves, pad settings,
gain settings so that you can optimize the expression you get from the module with different
pads or triggers.
Right on the center of the kit screen is the Trigger button.
So here I happen to be playing on the DTX700K and I've set it for standard response which
gives me a wide dynamic range with really no possibility of cross-talk.
But if I want a little more expression, I can dial up the ultra-expressive setting.
I have to watch out for cross-talk but my very, very pianissimo strokes will all be
picked up.
If I'm a kind of "rock" guy and I really want to get loud and proud, I'll use the loud and
punchy, or the narrow setting.
By having these settings available, it really lets you tailor the performance of the pads
to your particular playing style.
You have the ability to customize your own and it's just very easy to get the performance
you want, whether you have 700, 750 or any customized kit you want.
[playing demonstration]
Once again, I'm Tom Griffin from Yamaha.
It's been my pleasure today to talk to you about the DTX700 Series.
If you have any questions, contact www.KraftMusic.com's product specialists and they'll be able to
help you out.
Thanks for watching.