Yamaha PCY155 and Roland TD-8

[Frank Tomlin]

Hello,

I'm thinking of buying a Yamaha PCY155 to use with my Roland TD-8. What pad setting should I use on the TD-8?

Thanks.

[Nathan Cartier]

The manual says to try PD7 first and if you aren't getting a stable volume (velocity) on that setting to try P1 and P2. 

No matter what you do, you will not be able to use all 3 zones of a 3 zone ride trigger with a TD-8 brain.  It will, presumably, only recognize the bow and bell trigger zones and not the edge trigger.

[Nathan Cartier]

The TD-8 is an older module which Roland stopped producing in 2005.  It does not have an input for a 3-way trigger, it's all dual-zone.  It was superseded by the TD-12 which was superseded by the current TD-30.  The TD-12 has a 3-way input for a ride. 

If you plug a 3 zone trigger into a dual zone input it's only going to receive a signal for two of the zones and the third will simply not trigger a sample in the brain. 

[Nathan Cartier]

I dug into this issue a bit more:

Don't use a Yamaha 3 zone ride trigger with a Roland module.  Yamaha uses a proprietary technology that allows them to transmit all 3 zones of the ride through a single TRS cable to their modules.  Roland does not.

A Roland module will have 2 possible configurations for the ride trigger input.  The higher end modules have separate inputs for the Ride trigger (Bow/Bell and Edge) requiring 2 separate cables running out from the module to the trigger.  On the TD-8 it has a single input for the Ride, and the trigger itself (a CY-12 R/C now discontinued) has two outputs.  One of the outputs is labeled [Edge/Bow] for crash use, and the other is labeled [Bow/Bell] for ride use. 
I would recommend using a Roland CY-13 instead of the Yamaha.  The CY-13 has the dual output Edge/Bow or Bow/Bell output which the TD-8 module was designed to understand.

This is probably way more information that you wanted, but if it helps you avoid a purchase that will leave you unsatisfied - more information is good, right?