DTX Artist Profile / Kenny Aronoff

Kenny Aronoff

Kenny Aronoff is one of the world's most influential and in-demand drummers. The list of artists he's worked with reads like a who's who of the music industry, and includes John Mellencamp, The Smashing Pumpkins, Bob Seger, John Fogerty, Melissa Etheridge, Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Alanis Morissette, The Rolling Stones… we could go on and on.

With a style of playing that combines power and finesse, Kenny was named the #1 Pop/Rock Drummer and the #1 Studio Drummer for five consecutive years by the readers of Modern Drummer Magazine, and in addition has played on over 30 GRAMMY-nominated recordings.

DTX Hybrid

Recently I sat in with my friends’ band and brought my DTX-MULTI 12 to use with triggers on my Oak Custom kit and to play some percussion voices and hand claps on the side. I built my own user kit from scratch and stored it; there would be no need for me to change kits, with the twelve pads and five trigger inputs my kit and miscellaneous percussion was covered for all three sets - or so I thought.

In the second set the band decided to play a song that wasn’t on the setlist that needed some timbales, which were not programmed on my user kit, so I switched to preset kit 28:Cuban Stick. The band was into jamming and added another new one that needed synth toms, so I switched to preset 17:EleTomSet!.

During the break the bass player (who uses in-ear monitors) commented that for those tunes my kick and snare voices changed, in fact all the sounds changed. The reason that happened is because those presets have their own kit voices pre-assigned to the external trigger inputs. That could have been a disaster because the audience is hearing those kick and snare samples more than I am behind the kit. But because I was familiar with the preset voice assignments for the external inputs I was somewhat prepared for this. If you look at the data list for the preset kits of the DTX-MULTI 12 you will notice that most kits have a set of snare voices assigned to pad 13 (external), kick voices to 14/15, and cymbal or hi-hat voices assigned to 16/17. So for those tunes I had appropriate voices on my kick and snare, and I just laid off my acoustic toms.

With the DTX-MULTI 12 you can reate your own setups or plan ahead and use input 13 for snare pads/triggers, 14 or 15 for your external kick, and 16 and 17 for hi-hat, cymbals or percussion.

DTX700 - Up Close

The new DTX700 drum trigger module is the centerpeice to the DTX700 Series of electronic drum kits. While the DTX700 comes equipped with many of the standard features you have come to expect from a DTX module - high quality Yamaha acoustic drum voices, wide variety of preset kits, great play-along songs, plus groove check and rhythm gate. But there is a lot about the DTX700 that is very new, including features we think drummers are really going to appreciate. Let's take a closer look.

BUILT FOR COMFORT...
Because the 700 series features all DTX-PAD configurations they are comfortable for drummers to play, and we wanted to make the new DTX700 module comfortable for drummers to program. Many of the new features are "under the hood", but just by looking at the front panel of the DTX700, those with a keen eye will notice this is the first DTX module to feature a dot-matrix display, along with three function buttons underneath. This is an advanced display that can draw sophisticated images, and the function buttons' "function" is shown above each button in the display, making basic operations very intuitive.

Other Artist News

I Love My Son! Check out the new commercial video with child prodigy, Cole Marcus and his dad, Jerry.

I Love My Son! Commercial

Bob Terry and Tom Griffin attended the recent Percussive Arts Society International Conference (PASIC) in Indianapolis with the DTX line-up of kits.

Yamaha booth at PASIC

The Beginners Guide to Electronic Drums is a just-released book written by our own Bob Terry. The new release was launched at PASIC by the Hal Leonard Corporation. This beginner's guide to electronic drumming features Yamaha DTX Electronic Drums.

The Beginners Guide To Electronic Drums

John Mahon, percussionist for Elton John, was featured in the August edition of DigitalDrummer Magazine where he talks about the DTX set-up he's using for Elton and Leon Russell. Mahon will be busy for the next 3 years performing with Sir Elton at Caesar's Palace.
Marvin McQuitty has just completed a new track entitled, PSALM 30. Check it out on iTunes. Marvin is the best Gospel drummer in the world! Sick grooves!
Matt Sorum (Rock Star!) has just launched his new band, Diamond Baby, where he is using a bunch of DTX electronics.
Gorden Campbell has been out touring with George Duke across Africa and most of Europe.
Ray Luzier with KORN has a new CD and several new videos out. Ray is incorporating more and more of his DTX electronic percussion on the new tracks. (Caution: some of this material is NOT rated as PG!)
Alan White of YES is out on tour in Europe.
Check out Tony Escapa's rig. Tony is using a DTX-MULTI 12 and an XP100T to lay down some Latin grooves while out on tour with Ricky Martin.

Tony Escapa

The great groovin' Steve Jordan recently called up and requested a DTX950K for his studio and a DTX560K as his warm up kit.
Mike Johnston (mikeslessons.com) has been busy lately with his online teaching course, drum camps and clinics. We caught up with Mike doing a clinic at the Sam Ash store in Hollywood. Mike was performing to some custom made loops that he had loaded into his DTX-MULTI 12.

Mike Johnston

Richie Bravo, Latin percussion artist extraordinaire, has been a busy man lately while out on tour with Juanez. Here is a shot from the Jay Leno show of Richie with his DTX-MULTI 12.

Richie Bravo

The beautiful and talented Shauneybaby (Pussy Cat Dolls and Natalia Kills) has been touring Europe and is on some dates with Sting and Vinnie Colaiuta in LA.
A big shout-out and congratulations going out to DTX artist, Jimmy Keegan who is now the drummer for Spock's Beard.
A big congratulation goes out to our good friend and artist, Chris Hesse of Hoobastank and his beautiful wife, Amy. Chris is now the proud father of twins!
Donnell Spencer Jr. has been touring Asia with pop stars Jane Zhang and Jolin Tsai. Here Donnell shows off his DTX-MULTI 12.

Donnell Spencer Jr.

Newly signed artist, Nick Mason, has been busy in the studio and with Street Drum Corps. Here’s a shot of Nick with his Yamaha Rebel tour kit and DTX gear.

Nick Mason