Yamaha DD65

The Yamaha DD65 is perfect for what I use it for. As a hobby, I use looping software to create songs that I drum to. I have a small house and have been using similar drum sets for a long time for space/volume reasons. The set that I had for the past fifteen years finally died -- it was a pad-set that needed an external sound module -- and I wanted something that had sounds in it to minimize the amount of programming I had to do. As soon as I plugged this in, I was off and running. The pad set up is pretty natural for a drummer and the pads themselves have a bounce like a practice pad. The biggest issue is that the pedals that come with it are really just buttons and difficult to use, but I am sure I could have adjusted if I needed to. I do use the pedals if I travel with the drums since they are small and easy to transport. I have traditional electronic pedals from my old digital drum set that I primarily use. The built in speakers are not loud enough to cover the "tapping" of the sticks on the pads, so I don't use them. I have a small pair of powered studio speakers and headphones, both of which provide plenty of volume to show off the surprisingly good sound quality found inside the unit. I give the DD65 a fave star rating based on how well it meets my needs, what I use it for, and the fact that it is better than I would have expected at this price level.

I am in Australia, but because Yamaha here doesn't offer the dd65 I had my daughter (Flight attendant V Australia) pick one up from Sam Ash in Westminster LA. I have a dd55 but wanted to upgrade and was looking forward to getting the 8 pads rather than 7 and other advances that I assumed would be incorporated in a newer model. If I could bring this back and get a refund I would. The DD55 has the ability to adjust individual pad volume and this is absolutely critical to balancing the sound of a kit from place to place. For some insane reason they've dropped this feature on the DD65. That's just crazy and in my opinion makes them unusable for live performance. Also the sounds aren't as good as the DD55, particularly the hi hat. Also there is a problem with the hi hat control when using the midi function and a sound module. The pedal doesn't work!!

Regardless of the 8 pads and improved position of the hi hat pad there is nothing that will compensate for the lunacy of deleting the individual pad volume control.