Yamaha DD50 Digital Drum Machine

This is an update to an earlier review that I wrote, back when I bought this. I've now had it for nearly two years, and after not touching it for some time, have actually been getting a lot of use out of it. I'm not going to change my ratings, but since some folks have run into problems with their DD50s, I felt like posting an update because I've now been playing it daily and it's still working just fine.

Setting the DD50 on an amp stand and just buying a small stool to sit on, I've been able to get comfortable playing for extended periods of time. As I mentioned in my original review, I'm using this to come up with drum tracks for my songs, not programming anything. The small middle pad still seems silly to me, as a large pad would make more sense, but I've grown accustomed to it. Although I've been planning to get a Y-cable so that I can use the pedals for both double-kick and hi-hat, I've just stuck to double-kick for now. I use the small center pad for the snare, which isn't so bad with a bit of practice.

I've never bothered to use any of the MIDI features, or anything else for that matter. I'm just playing it as I would play regular drums...but at low apartment-friendly volumes.

The kick, snare and tom sounds are adequate for what I want to do, which is have a basic recording of drum ideas for songs I've written on guitar. Expressiveness is fine on the pads and pedals. The downside is that the available cymbal sounds are extremely lacking. They should have eliminated the "cute" effects and added more useful drum sounds. Then again, this is probably aimed towards kids. Since I don't expect the cymbals to sound good coming through a PC soundcard anyway, I just concentrate on the kick, snare and toms, and can always record a track for just the cymbals. Using both pedals for kick drums has worked great, especially with slightly different sounds assigned to each.

So far, so good...but I'm not using it outside of my home. It's just for basic recording use. I haven't had any issues with the pads, but if I'm playing at low volumes and find myself hitting it too hard, hitting a tom pad hard will get a light cymbal response too.

No idea.

After nearly two years, the DD50 remains useful to me. My band's drummer gives me a hard time about it, but he concedes that he can't play drums in his apartment either. I can actually sit down at a real kit now, and do a respectable job with both kick pedals, thanks to practicing on the Yamaha. It has served its purpose, and hopefully will continue to do so.

some sounds are good but there are also some sounds that are really awfull, especially when you use the machine's speakers

I've had problems with the power switch of the machine. two little springs inside the switch make contact with "pads"on the print.
I've replaced the springs by using a little piece of alu-foil and some tape. Now the machine won't switch off itself anymore because of any tremors.
(sorry for my bad english, I'm dutch)

It is a nice toy. I think you could play a gig with it, exept for the reliability.

digital drum pro DD-50

only problem with this product pad too small

not to bad for a toy

very very bad service no answers dont no the product cant explaine fonction ect

for a first experiance it s a good (pratiic or to lurn the basic like a
explains before pad are a litlle bit too small but for the value i could said it s a litlle bit more
then a toy
Sorry for my english am french

Largely a plug and play device. It can be a standalone drum emulator but I got it primarily for MIDI input to a computer. So much better than mousing in drum beats or, especially for a non-keyboardist, punching in MIDI notes from a keyboard. Pretty limited in sound choice and no individual pad volume/velocity adjustments, just some choice of overall velocity response. The supplied pedals are wimpy but bear the price point in mind.
I bought a cheapo snare stand to mount the unit and velcroed the foot pedals to a hunk of particle board. Not bad.

Most of the features are apparent from the front panel. No line out- use the phone output, works O.K. Limited MIDI implementation but enough for my immediate needs.

A beginner could also learn a lot from the preset songs and patterns.

It also responds to GM files, not just drums, but no-one with a "serious" synth module is going to line up to buy one of these for the sound.

The built-in sounds are fair. Usable but not great. Some tails drop off prematurely and benefit from the included reverb. More and larger pads would be nice, too. Yeah, I know about Vdrums, etc. ($$$$$)
Amazing for the bucks.

So far so good. It was a music store demo/refurb or something. All functions are currently intact. Don't drop it.

This is part of Yamaha's Portasound series instruments- don't look for
professional level support.

It has quickly become a necessity, really helps build drum tracks. A real drummer could probably do a lot more with it, although the tiny pads and pedals might drive him nuts.....(Who'd notice???)

For what I needed, this thing was fairly easy to use. Bascially, all I wanted was a midi controller for sequencing purposes.

Read other's reviews on what features there are. A MIDI through would have been nice. Maybe a more versatile volume control.

I don't really care how it sounds. That's not why I bought it. As far as expresiveness goes, I haven't had a change to experiment with that. My first impression is that it has a fairly narrow expressive range. The pedals are kind quarky to get used to and not exact. I'd suggest using a real bass drum trigger unit and/or hi-hat unit.

I've been reading all over the internet.. here, ebay, elsewhere, where you can get so many hours out of the damn thing before it decides to crap out. I bought mine as a blem from Musician's Friend and it was DOA. I thought it was a bad power jack, but no... it's a lose something inside. I tore it open and could see where it had been "refurbished". Anyway, I can get it work for about 2 bars at a time before it dies. A quick thump will jump start it again for another 2 bars. Unless you can find one for damn cheap (under $100) I highly suggest staying away from this unit. Musician's Friend is replacing mine, and if I have any more probs., I'm just going to get my money back.

I bought mine refurbished from Musician's Friend. They're paying to have it shipped back to them and another reburbished one sent to me. Haven't dealt with Yamaha yet, don't plan on it either. I'm wondering if the new DD55 has better design and construction. Like I said, this problem is pretty common.

The idea is a good one, but the end result is a piece of poop. For the money they're asking the DD50 is a bad buy.

a monkey could play this set

I like the reverb settings (3) and the overall sound is great

this machine is a kick in the head for struggling singer/songwriter.. I havent finished paying for it.... six months, and already it has to go in the crapper cause only 90 day warranty. I would reccomend not wasting your money on this piece of crap!! just read the review by the guy who says he's on his third one.

I would definitely look for something similar... It beats having to program a drum machine, but I would not buy unless it has an extended warranty of some sort.when I purchased it, unfortunately warranty was the last thing on my mind, and the salesperson did not mention it. I am extremely dissapointed.

easy to understand and you'll get used to the weird arrangement...

pretty well covered already but for about $200, i'm amazed at the features....

Here's what made me write this- if you're like me, you want to be able to record drum beats to play along with but you don't have deaf neighbors- you also don't have a million dollars to properly mike a good sounding drum set- this thing solves it all. Sure, it's not exactly like the real thing but it's the best thing out there if you're on a budget and prefer playing music instead of scrolling through menus and pushing little buttons. It is amazingly responsive (the foot pedals are just cheap plastic but they work like a dream) and the sounds are decent- (a lot thicker that my crappy microphones on my crappy "real" drum set)- plus, you can run it through a distortion box to get more oomph. Trust me, i just went through the horrible process of buying little machines to be my drummer- this is the best and MOST FUN of any of them even at twice the price.

Seems crappy but 90 day warranty parts and labor makes me feel better...

none yet

There's a new "better" version DD55 due out in June and I plan to upgrade....

This is my THIRD DD-50 in about 7 years. It being my third, you'd think I'd get a bit frustrated that after about 450 hours of play the units DIE. Nah - for a mere $199 I'll keep rebuying the unit. Simply put, I can gig with this kit (set-up in less than 3 minutes) anywhere. I've made my own y-adapter and have an additional kick pedal so I have double-bass capability without losing the highhat.

This has been covered rather well above.

The sound is incredible when you compare it to the proce paid - period.

Ahh--- this is where I have issues with this unit. Once again - this is my THIRD one I've purchased in 7 years. After about 450 hours of play, the unit simply dies - it all starts with the power reseting intermittently - then blank - no power-up. I'm used to it now and just go out and buy a new one - since I'm in love with this unit for it's portability.

I wish it had more sturdy 'guts' so it would last beyond 450 playing hours - but I love it regardless.

Assigning patches to the different pads is a cinch, and the settings are persistent. Unfortunately, there is only one persistent "user kit" that you can assign these patches to. And if you want to do anything tricky, like assigning pads to different MIDI channels, you have to do it over every time you turn on the machine.

I only use this as a MIDI controller, so I could really care less what else it can do. But as a MIDI controller, it does everything that I want it to.

Seems pretty sturdy. I haven't beat the hell out of it yet, though, so time will tell.

The manual that came with the unit was a photocopy of what looked to be a real manual. However, I can't find the manual on their web site. We'll see.

I feel like I definitely got my money's worth, but if I had to do it over again, I would upgrade. But hey, I'd do that with any piece of equipment that I broke or lost.

As a guitarist first and foremost, with no drum OR drum machine experience at all, I was concerned about ease of use.
Because I plan to really "play" this rather than program it or use the MIDI features, my score here (and below) is to
the playability.

I give the DD50 a score of 8 for ease of use. It's really idiot-proof if you have any understanding of how to play drums.
I found the angle annoying and had to buy a stand, which improved it greatly. The layout seems a little troublesome to me,
having a small pad in the middle (where I would put the snare in a real kit), but I suppose that makes it suitable for right-
or left-handed players.

Keeping in mind the $250 price tag, the features are quite good. There are 4 large pads and 3 small, plus two pedals. 28 drum kits, with
75 available sounds. There is one user-defined kit. Three levels of reverb, two speakers, MIDI in/out and a 600-note sequencer. Mine came
with the "Yamaha Survival Kit" which included some cheap headphones and an AC "wall wart".

Because I probably will not use the MIDI functions, this is just a basic electronic drum kit to me. No features are lacking in this regard,
although having to buy a stand (I used a guitar amp stand) was required since there is no way to adjust the machine's height or angle. I play
fairly technical metal with a good bit of double kick and tom rolls, so the sequencer's 600-note capacity would probably fall short. However,
I realistically am only using this for demo purposes, and wanted something small and cheap rather than an actual kit. Besides, it has volume control!

I have had no problems with pad sensitivity at all after a month of use. I immediately set it up for double kick use, which
means no hi-hat pedal control. I may try using a Y-cable to let me share one input between two pedals (kick) and freeing up the
other input for hi-hat. The sounds are quite good, especially for a rock/metal player. I found the selection of toms to be very
good, contrary to other reviews, and adjusting the reverb accordingly makes a world of difference. The cymbal selection is a bit
lacking, but sufficient. Several years ago I owned the 4-pad Yamaha drum machine, and even it had very good sound, which the DD50
expands upon. The pedals are very sensitive, but this is a good thing if you play death metal and need those kick bursts!

A diehard drummer might find some of the sounds unconvincing, but I impressed so far. I guess the proof will be how my drum tracks
sound on tape under the guitars and bass. For my purposes, I rate the sound and expressiveness a 9, because an entry-level machine
cannot sound as good as the real thing.

My old Yamaha "toy" drum machine held up for a long time, until someone decided to see how hard they could hit it and
popped off a pad...and broke the thing trying to put it back in. Used as intended, I don't see any glaring flaws. I've
only had it a month though, so no comment.

I have briefly tried a few other drum machines, but all required programming. I want to be able to play drums enough to get by in a pinch, writing my own material.
I already play guitar and bass, so why stop now? I love the DD50, because it lets me play in the comfort of my own home, in a portable and affordable package. Learning
to play has been easy so far, and I'm doing much better than my poor attempts on friends' full kits in the past. If you are trying to find fault in the DD50, you certainly
can, but for me it is a very useful tool. I strongly recommend it, and would certainly get another if something happened to this one.