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Roland PDX-12

Started by Krillo, April 14, 2019, 05:37:44 PM

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Krillo

Does anyone on here have experience with the Roland PDX-12? I am looking for a snare pad which has rims that are not as hard as regular acoustic drum rims, since I play rimshots. I do own the Yamaha XP120SD but it actually doesn't trigger all that well with the 2box.


edtc

i m getting one this week , i ll try an will tell you ...

Krillo

Quote from: edtc on April 14, 2019, 07:15:06 PM
i m getting one this week , i ll try an will tell you ...

Great, thanks!

Krillo

Quote from: edtc on April 14, 2019, 07:15:06 PM
i m getting one this week , i ll try an will tell you ...

Are you ready to give us a review of the pad?

edtc

so the td17 i bought came later than i thought . I have if for 2 week  now and i can give my first impressions about the PDX12 ..

I used it mostly with the roland module , and yesterday i tried it with the Drumit5 .

The pad is large and feels solid enough . The head is 12" but the overall diameter is more like an 13/14" regular snare drum   .

The head is triggering well and as it s a side mounted piezo , there is no hotspoting . The sensor is the same than the PDX8 .

Noise level is low , on head and also for the rim , covered with a rubber coating .

I didnt tear it down , but it looks like there is a regular mesh head inside the pad , not the white plastic rim thing they have done on the latest PDX8 series  . (On those pdx8 , you cant use a regular meshhead replacement because the head is glued to this white donut ...  )


The pad isnt too hot for the Drumit5inputs , i used PP snare preset for head  , linear curve , gain 1 , threshold 48 and it feels ok . RIM gain 1 ,curve linear  thresh 38 . So not a lot of exotic tweaking ...

To have a nice HEAD/RIM separation , i set LXTR to HIGH for the head , and vHIGH for RIM . Mask time 3 for RIM , No mask time for HEAD .

The only downside for me is the rim triggering . It triggers well , but it s not even ... it s clearly hotspoting when you hit at 6'o'clock , where the sensor is .
The difference between 6'o'clock and 3'o'clock is 5 to 8 db . 

Also , if you dont set the threshold a bit high  and don't use the LXTR thing , the rim is triggered sometimes when you hit the head hard with a tight meshhead . It should be less sensitive with a lower tuning if you use it as a tom . But with LXTR it s ok .

I thing maybe i ll try to add another Rim  piezo  , somewhere at 3'o'clock to get more even triggering , but for the moment it s good enough to practice on .

So , this cheap Roland pad is quite cool for the money and is totally usable with a DRUMIT 5 .  This will make a brilliant tom , floor tom or side snare .

For a main snare , it s ok , but i  would prefer a converted snare with a side mounted trigger inside and piezos on the shell for RIM .


Krillo

Thanks for the review! The rim hotspot is a no-go for me.
Is the rim softer than a regular rim with rubbertrim? Or is it actually a metal rim with rubber on it?

thanks

edtc

#6
Quote from: Krillo on May 21, 2019, 07:13:56 AM
Thanks for the review! The rim hotspot is a no-go for me.
Is the rim softer than a regular rim with rubbertrim? Or is it actually a metal rim with rubber on it?

thanks

the pad is made of 2 plastic circles ... the rim is protruding from the hoop part and is covered with a rubber rim .

But there is other news...

Yesterday i removed the meshhead to have a look . I found that the rosette is screwed to the drum , an that there are 3 more sets of holes every Quarter of the pad ...
So i set the mount so the sensor is at 12'o'clock facing me . Like this it is a bit like a 2box pad .

The pad reacts the same for the head , and the rim hotspoting is gone :) ... 
Of course you have to raise the rim gain a bit to compensate . 
To be honest , there is still a difference depending on where you hit the rim , but just a little .

In fact it is a bit "coldspotting"now  ... You have a bit less signal when you hit 6'o'clock  than 3'o'clock , maybe 2 or 3 dbs , but it s not a problem IMO .

Krillo

So there is no regular mesh head that can be changed when worn out?

edtc

Quote from: Krillo on May 23, 2019, 08:43:58 AM
So there is no regular mesh head that can be changed when worn out?

No , it s a regular meshhead , you can use other brands if you want ...