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The DTXtreme III immediately renders everything else a bit dated in the aesthetics department

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A kit with high aims such as the DTXtreme III needs to be simple to set up, despite the level of complexity it offers from a sonic and functional viewpoint. And the kit proves to be just that. The almost over-engineered clamps and hex-rack make getting the thing together wonderfully painless and, aside from where memory locks are used on cymbal arms etc, it does away with drum key-operated fixings.

Wiring up is also a breeze thanks to a 'snake' of ¼" jack cables that keeps everything neat and clearly labelled to indicate what plugs in where. It needs to be clear, because the rear of the DTX brain discloses its high aspirations: there are MIDI in/outs, USB connections, digital S/PDIF outputs for recording, six individual jack outputs, 15 pad inputs and an Aux/Sampling input (yes indeed, you can sample with the new brain, although you do have to stump up extra memory in order to do so).

It's not short of ways of hooking up to the outside world, whether that involves PA systems, personal monitoring or digital recording set-ups.

Hands On

First off, it feels great to sit behind. This is not a kit for the most bijou bedrooms, but its size means it's easy to get comfortable with the DTX; good-sized pads and the generous dimensions of the rack avoid feeling cramped and reinforce the impression of a very serious kit indeed.

And as soon as headphones or monitors are connected, the DTX is quick to show off its prowess as far as its sonic arsenal is concerned. Several Yamaha acoustic drum kit classics are to be found lurking in the presets, and playing around with the Oak or Beech Custom kits reveals emulations of real depth and fine playability. Yes, the 'originals' are infinitely more responsive, but the DTX versions are gratifyingly good.

Rat-a-tat machine-gunning on snare and toms is kept to a very acceptable minimum and, with a little tailoring of technique, the brain and pads can deliver a remarkably convincing recreation of a 'proper' drum kit.

There are few disappointments in the sound of the DTXtreme III. There's a real sense that everything's got beefier and more '3D' than in previous Yamaha outings, with throaty percussion samples and crisp, weighty electronic snares and kicks pulling no punches. And the module is as straightforward to use as is possible for something so well developed and stuffed with ability. The dedicated sliders on the front panel mean that tweaking the mix of kick, snare, toms, cymbals and the like is possible to do 'on the fly', while the collection of buttons beneath the big screen allow fast access to deeper editing.

It's all quite intuitive, and getting to parameters like pad sensitivity and subsequently altering to taste rarely takes more than a handful of presses. The transport controls to the bottom left of the front panel are used for sequencing (the DTX has a two-track, 152,000-note sequencer built in) and play-along tracks, and this latter group of 44 songs is another ace up the DTX's sleeve.