Yamaha DD55 Pro

You can get the manual online at Yamaha.com. You can plug it in and play. Everything is easy to use, changing through the 34 kits is quick, so is listening and changing songs. MIDI control can get a little complicated, but once you set it, it's done!...even if you unplug it.

GigaSampler won't understand the MIDI output from this thing(I get MIDI information being sent, but it's not triggering sounds off my sampler, email me if you know what to do) You can change the MIDI channel and what notes each pad represents. I got this to work with a program called Rramm Drrumm. Try it out, you might like it, but the DD-55 works better and is more fun used by itself.
The DD-55 is incredibly fun! The polyphony is plenty enough. DD-55 has a built in reverb that is good I say, but you can turn it off if you need dry sounds. There are many songs you could learn from, they contain parts that you can turn off and on so a kid could learn from this, you have the backing instremental part, hats/cymbals, bass, and snare drum, all can be flipped on and off at the press of a button. It has a metronome click and you can also change the tempo of songs, tap-in or manually. The volume is quickly adjusted and the pads can be set to their own volume levels. And you can change the sensitivity of the pads with 3 different levels.

You get 20 great bass drum sounds. 40 snare drum sounds rim hits included, every color snare you've ever heard. There are plenty of tom-tom sets, but many of them sound electronic, they sound good at the hit but the tails of them sound electronic(there are 2-4 sets of toms that don't have that, I'm happy with it). It's characteristic though, and you don't hear it if your playing through, or in a mix, or with Yamaha's reverb turned on. You have a giantic reverb hall that you can turn on and off, it's a extreme reverb that sounds amazing if your playing thru the onboard speakers, it sounds BIG!
All the hits are in stereo, so you can just turn it on and have the drum set wrap around you, it's really good.
The pads are really amazing and respond in such a realistic way you can trick your mind into thinking you have real drums under your sticks. And the velocity sensitivity behaves in a fun and realistic manner, and it's very quick also, something that you miss if you use the DD-55 as a MIDI trigger. I used this rare freeware program called Rramm Drrumm that worked with the MIDI out, I could not get GigaSampler to work with the DD-55. MIDI out was disapointing, the sensitivity and velocity was not as good as using the DD-55 sounds. I give it a nine only because the tom-toms are lacking and you get minimal high-hat and cymbal rides/crashes.

This is a good piece of hardware. The 7 pads are sturdy and ment to take a beating. The foot pads look small and cheap, but when I got them and looked and felt them up close they where solid, and of good beating quality, just like the 7 drumming pads.

You can get the .PDF manual at the Yamaha Website if you buy it used. (buy it used!...I see Ebay has these for $125!!!) Yamaha makes AMAZING! quality products, they are the most respectable and trust worthy company in my opinion. And their manuals are very good.

I wish this thing had more and better tom-toms and cymbals, it could use them, I feel it's a little stripped down without them. Every thing is in stereo, so it's great to listen to. All the sounds are expressive and loud. If plug in headphones or into a mixer you will find there is some hiss, but a light pass with a de-hisser will get rid of it, it's not that bad. I don't know how to play drums, but it seems like a real drum kit with the included foot petals. I think it is overpriced at the retail $239, so get it on Ebay. I needed more sounds than the DD-35, and I got them! I see the DD-35 is a toy compared to the DD-55. I bought this because I wanted to use real sticks to play drums, not tap out something with my index fingers. And do yourself(or your child) a favor and buy real drum sticks to play it, I own a real snare and had some real sicks before I bought the DD-55. I played with the extra light weight sticks included, and tossed them aside as soon as they hit the pads. The included sticks mark up the pads too.

As said earlier, quite easy.

It let's me play the drums without being sued by the neighbours.
Maybe the pads were not designed for rolls, but I can't execute
a roll anyway. I find it very good for learning drumming + I will
likely use the dd55 on gig too as this is my only drum kit.
MIDI works nice for me also, I use the dd55 to play my midi files
on the computer.

The drum sounds sound really good to me.

I have been hitting it for about a year, and so far it worked well.

This instrument enabled me to play drums quietly at home
without spending all my parents money - for which I am grateful ! :)

Well this is pretty easy to play especially if u already know how to play...i wouldn't suggest this product to some one just tryin out or just learnin how to play

It has great features eva thing is there that i would ask 4 on a real set...

Well now this i had a lil bit of a problem w/ eva time that i tried to play the bass drum i would get a beat on the down stroke and the up stroke.....if ya'll out there have n e sugestions on where to find a great electric bass pedal let me know i need one....

I would say that this is pretty reliable except not knowin when ur gonna get an extra beat in there or what not....

ya it great...

I would say if ur thinkin about buyin one of these suckers...go 4 it...there ur best bet to a real drum set w/o breakin the bank...

This unit is certainly easy to use. The MIDI implementation is pretty straightforward if you have experience with MIDI sequencing and you use the appendix in the back of the manual. Just remember, channel 10 is your best friend on this thing.

First of all: this thing can't do fast rolls. Don't expect to get anything out of this thing faster than a medium speed double-stroke roll.

The polyphony didn't seem to give me any problems until I tried doing rolls on the open hi-hat. The only built in effect it has is reverb, which is decent. The foot triggers will be downright painful for any real drummer, but a novice won't notice the difference. I had some problems with the bass drum trigger "mis-triggering" (i.e. producing extra kicks that I wasn't planning on being there), but I mostly solve that problem by putting my heel on the rubber trigger pad and then tapping the rest of my foot, not unlike a real kicking motion.

The sounds seem realistic enough, and will do the job for a demo. The hi-hat is really problematic, since there are only two positions: open and completely closed, and thus there is no subtlety in this regard.

I don't know how reliable this thing could be, but compared to the Roland SPD trigger pads, I would think that this one would bite the dust relatively fast. It is pretty easy to smack the plastic case areas between the pads, and plastic can only take so much compared to rubber.

And I would never use this thing for a gig. It would only be good for sequencing demos.

I know nothing about Yamaha customer support. I bought this through Sweetwater, and I must say that they are an awesome company when it comes to customer satisfaction.

This in not a live performance tool at all, nor is it appropriate for professional use. It is a kid's toy, from what I can tell. (i.e. the demo video on Yamaha's web site features a little girl banging on the pads in an incoherent manner.) I sent it back, because I really didn't think it was worth the money, and I am going to spring for the new Roland SPD-S when I can afford it.

Supereasy te gebruiken !!
Presets klinken allemaal goed, van alles wat.
Handboek makkelijk te lezen.
Aansluiten en drummen maar !

Geluiden klinken realistisch. Hardstike goed. Enig minpuntje :
Plaats van hihat-pad is merkwaardig gekozen, midden op.
Zou aan de linkerkant moeten zitten !!
Footpedals mogen wel wat zwaarder uitgevoerd worden, het spul schuift alle kanten op.En je zou meer customkits moeten kunnen saven, in plaats van maar 1 en die ben je nog kwijt ook als je de power uitswitcht.

Beslist betrouwbaar. Doet het altijd.

Gelukkig nog geen gebruik van hoeven te maken

Prima instrument. Ik zou hem zo weer kopen.
Alleen een beetje sneu dat Yamaha niet standaard de stroomadapter bijlevert, kost naar verhouding dan wel erg veel.
De bijgeleverde sticks mogen ook wel wat robuuster uitgevoerd worden, want ik ben al een een nieuwe set toe.

First off, I'm not a drummer. Just a guitar player who wanted to spice up some original demos with some percussion. This thing is the answer for anyone who hates programming a drum machine. Also anyone who has limited space. I got this for Christmas, and I was banging out drum patterns on it that very night. And it's got a handy headphone jack for latenight recording sessions. I don't wake my wife and kids up. The manual is very easy to follow. I haven't gotten into any of the midi applications yet, but I hear it's fairly simple. I bet a real drummer could use just this unit to gig with. The pedals have a tendency to wander sometimes, but like an earlier reviewer suggested, I'll just put some rubber backing on the bottoms and they'll work fine.

Seven rubber pads that are raised up off of the unit. One bass pedal and one hi-hat pedal. It even comes with a pair of sticks. Two speakers that are in stereo. Built in reverbs that actually sound decent. Lots of different drums sounds and sets. The pads are touch sensitive Even a hand-drum set with bongos and congas etc. Like I said... I haven't hook this up to a computer yet, but I'm anxious to experiment with all the midi capabilities. I bought the optional stand for it too. I wish it had dedicated L-R outputs other than the headphone jack. But for this price...oh well

I was completely surprised by the sounds this thing puts out. The speakers aren't great by any means, but their all right. I use the headphone jack to output the sound to my multitrack. The drummer in our band has a set of Roland V-Drums that sound fantastic, but the sounds of this thing aren't too far off.

I've owned Yamaha equipment before and never had a problem.

I have alot of fun with this thing. For the price it's an excellent bargain. It works perfect for what I expect of it. Yamaha has a hit here.

Mate was it easy to use took some time to get the midi to go but hell is it good to use

mate good features fx pads peddels the works grate voice (zap woodblock scrach pad)styles Very Cool and songs are good for lerning wih (you can take the drums out of the songs and play along)

Very realistic sounds best ive herd come out of a small unit like this

dependible drum sticks are no use though brock within the first 5 mins

na

DA BOMB

For the price this thing is very easy to use & the sounds are great. I didn't need the manual. I've seen this unot for $160 at Sam's club with the AC adaptor.

The polyphony sold me on this over the Roland 6 pad set up. It does a good job of simulating a drum kit. It has on board reverb but I use external delay effects for fun. I claims that is has 7 pads but the bass drum pedal is actually an 8th trigger pad. The other pedal is an expression pedal for the high-hat. The pedals that come with this unit SUCK THE BIG ONE! I returned my first unit because the bass drum pedal went bad after a few weeks. My replacement went bad after a few weeks also. It trigered the bass drum on both the down & up strokes. This was really annoying! I replaced the bass drum pedal with the Pintech Ergokik Kick trigger. It was $35 & I use a cheap Ludwig bass drum pedal with it. Man what a difference! I replaced the high hat pedal with a Yamaha FC5 Sustain Pedal for $13. This works really well once you get used to it. I only wish I could edit & store some custom kits. You can only edit one kit & you can't save it.

The drums are great for the sub $200 price tag. I use it for quiet recording & jamming. I don't think actual drummers will like it but people who like to drum when they put down their main instruments will like it a lot. The built in speakers also BITE THE BIG ONE! Plug this think into a nice keyboard amp, PA, or some monitors & it wails.

It seems sturdy beyond the pedals. I'd only gig with it at low key situations. It would be fine.

For the money (Including the $50 for new triggers & pedals) it is a heck of a deal. If I could only store 10 or more kits it would be great.

ive had it for about an hour now and i know how to do almost everythig on it. Its so easy.

Same as the others. Only one user mode to create a custom set and cant be saved.

Sounds really good. I personally like number 4 for a normal set. Its kick ass. And there are so many sounds. The pads are ok with response...you cant really do fast rolls on it that well.

only had it for about an hour but seems good.

nope...only had it for an hour...

good machine. I bought it for my little home studio thing and to make song songs with out buying a real set. This is the closest thing to an acustic set(without actually buying an acustic) and it wont kill your wallet. Its not too expensive, its not crappy sound, it has 7 pads, (unlike some others with 4) and its FUN FUN FUN!!!

Pads response is good. Sounds are good. Theonly reason I returned the DD55 was its MIDI implementation. I got it for use in a small studio setup for percussion triggering, record onto sequencers, and playback drum sounds. The problem is that the DD55 receives an plays on all 16 MIDI channels. Even if you assign voices to other modules on the rig, the DD55 still plays its GM module voices. Tha is bad. There should be a way to turnoff MIDI channels.

Not good for studio work where there are several MIDI modules on a rig.