E-drums: Taming the bass drum

  • Thread starter Thread starter Earache
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Earache

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I bought a set of electronic drums a few months back and can't say enough about the benifits. One of the key benifits is the sound level compared to acoustics. However, even with headphones I can still annoy the crap out of anyone in the next room when I tear into a good double bass drum pattern.

Does anyone have any suggestions for taming down the sound of the beaters on the bass drum pad?
 
Not a mesh head just a rubber pad, same as the toms. The noise comes from the slap of the beaters on the pad. Single foot patterns are tolerable but my lack of finesse (or talent) make double bass playing quite loud.
 
As with studio monitors, you need to decouple the kit from the rest of the room, or in this case, the rest of the house. Meaning something needs to absorb the shock and vibration of the pedal before it carries through to the next room. Most likely, the floor is transmitting the “thud” sound to the walls which intensifies it and makes it sound louder. Try putting a thick rug on the floor, (or maybe two or three), then plywood on top of that for stability, then another rug on top of that. The idea is to stop it from getting to the floor. I'll bet it will make a big difference.

Also, try using softer mallets (beaters) if you haven’t already.

Good luck
 
I agree with the last suggestion... try using felt beaters.
 
You may want to consider practicing your bass drum using the "heel down" approach, if you aren't already doing that. You don't really need the power from the "heel up" technique for e-drums - just make the bass drum louder on your module settings.

Also, go to your local hardware or A/C supply house and pick up some Neoprene vibration isolation pads to put under the pedals. That will work much better than carpet.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks all,
I do have a carpet under the kit and I'm not getting a lot of noise from the cage itself. The neoprene is a good suggestion because I'm on a mission to remove all rugs/carpets from my house. I haven't had any success with the heal down approach except for 3 or 4 note bursts but I'll definitely look into felt beaters, I'm a guitar player so I'm mostly ignorant of these things.
 
I've heard of people putting their kits on top of a 'sand box', quite litereally a wood box (built soundly) filled with sand. The idea i guess is that the sand absorbs much of the transfered sound. I have never seen such a thing, just heard a story about it.

Daav
 
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