"Sound Off" drum silencers

[White_Rabbit]

For all those who have used these or a similar sound dampening system:

What are your opinions on these drum silencer pads, do they really do their job? Also, what sort of rebound/response/feel do they provide, is it adequate enough to feel natural while playing?

 

[mikeh]

While they cut down the sound significantly, there is still the thud of the stick hitting the drum (if you don't turn off the snare strainer, the sound of the snare drum can still be fairly loud). If there are people in the same or next room it can still drive them crazy - but it can work well enough to let you practise in someplace like an apartment building.

The feel is not horrid, but it does not feel like you are hitting a drum head (actually since the stick response is a little slower than hitting a drum head, you can actually improve your stick technique (in the same way they playing on a pillow has been used for decades).

The feel of the cymbals (if you use the pads designed to sit on cymbals) is much different - although again, you can use this to your advantage.

I'm not a big fan of them, but if you need to practise in an apartment (or whatever) it;s better than not practising.

 

[A Reel Person]

They're great!

For all those who have used these or a similar sound dampening system:

What are your opinions on these drum silencer pads, do they really do their job? Also, what sort of rebound/response/feel do they provide, is it adequate enough to feel natural while playing?

They're great; Good/natural; Yes.

Next question?

 

[TamaSabian]

I have a complete set of drum silencers. If I have no choice I use them, most of the time I wait until the house is almost empty to start playing, the feel is totally different that´s why I prefer not use them. But as I said if I have no choice and I want to practice late at night I place them over the kit. Shhhhhhh!!!!.


TS

 

[msmales555]

Happy with them

I bought a whole set a while back and I'm very happy with them. They definitely reduce the sound enough so that you could play your drums in an apartment, but you do have to be careful with the cymbals as every now and then the pad will shift a little and you might get a "clang" sound from hitting the cymbal itself. As previously mentioned, the snare wires are still quite audible when activated. You can turn them off but then the snare loses its character and feels/sounds just like the padded toms. The drums definitely lose a lot of rebound and you arent goign to find yourself doing buzz rolls around the kit, but the drums are still very playable. For the most part I play rock music and I would say that these pads work great for practicing that type of music, but I would not recommend these pads to jazz drummers or anyone else that would want to use brushes or play extremely quiet and subtle drums parts.

Despite any setbacks that result from using the pads, I still love playing my drums even with them on. Using these pads would certainly beat not playing your drums at all. However, when I use them I do listen to music while wearing a set of isolation headphones. I have found that despite minor changes in the feel of my drums, as long as I'm listening to music with some headphones on I can sometimes forget that I'm even usign the pads.

 

[HoweDrum]

I'm happy with Sound-Off pads; I'm lucky that I live in a house, but I imagine they would be okay in an apartment (as long as you throw the snare off, and don't miss the cymbal pads and hit the cymbal). HOWEVER, it's hard to muffle the bass drum enough; bass drums are big and boomy and unless you really stuff them with something, it's impossible to make them quiet enough. If your resonant head has a hole in it or is absent, then you can probably put enough in the drum to muffle it enough but I haven't tried that since I usually use an intat resonant head.

SO...for the bass drum, when the kids are sleeping etc., I substitute one of those practice bass drum pads for the bass drum, such as this:

http://www.music123.com/Promark-Bass-Drum-Practice-Pad-i109812.music

Mine is an old Remo from an old Remo practice pad set. yeah, you have to switch out your bass drum, but it's worth it to get some practicing in.

As for feel, it's deader than real drums, but this is a good thing unless you want to practice quiet, intricate stick bouncing and other similar techniques. Because of their quietness and sluggish feel, I can actually build my strength quite a bit playing on a set with Sound-Off pads.