Thoughts on practice pad "kits"?

Yopps

Senior Member
What are your thoughts on practice pad kits like the DW Smart Practice or the Gibralter pad kits? I need something to practice on at home when I'm away from my normal kit and I was thinking about an e-kit but those ae just out of my price range. Normally I just practice on a pad w/stand and a futz pedal but how much more of an advantage would one of those pad kits be over that basic set up? Is it absolutely essential to have one if you only have access to your kit (it's in a freinds garage space for band rehearsal) once or twice a week (1 hour-90 minutes each session) and want to keep in shape/practice/improve or is the pad and stand good enough? Is it realistic for me to think that what ever I practice on 1 pad will just carry over on multiple drums or do I actually need muliple surfaces to get an "authentic" practice session in and not be confined to hand techniques and rudiments?
 
I'd definetly get a bass drum pad and 2-4 small movable pads as toms and cymbals. Movement around the kit is a big part of drumset technique.

The only thing you'd miss that is on an e-kit is a working hi-hat, but if you have a regular hi-hat stand, dampening isn't a big deal. I basically taped 3 old socks to mine.
 
I had the DW one and liked it. It's smaller and more convenient I think than other pad sets. If you need a hi-hat, get a cheap stand and equally cheaper hi-hat cymbals (I found these Pearl hats on eBay for $20 once) and put the Vic Firth cymbal mutes pads on it.

Nothing will feel like a real kit, but the idea is to be able to sit down at something and play it for a while. Thinking about this, if you bought the DW one at $150, you're only another $200 away from buying a Sonor Safari kit and putting mesh heads on it if you want to have a closer-to-real drum feel to play. I did that too - and t hen quickly jettisoned the idea when I realized that I live in a house and can pretty much play my drums at anytime. So maybe you can just get the Safari kit and practice on a real kit?
 
I've tried various ones and they all let me down. The way to go is to buy an old out of date electronic kit used for cheap and then don't bother to plug it in.

This is exactly what I currently do.

I bought an e-kit a few years ago out of necessity. It also allowed me to occasionally jam with my wife on piano (also electric).

Now that we have moved into a larger place, I have my acoustic kit set back up downstairs with my unplugged e-kit in the garage. Using the e-kit as a practice pad kit is the only way to play when the wife is home. There's nothing to stop the sound from the acoustic kit from going upstairs.

I have, however, added my own cymbals and hi-hat stand to the e-kit. I just put mutes on the cymbals.
 
I have a DW practice pad kit and I like it, a lot.
However, I added a cheap hi-hat stand and an old cymbal stand for a crash, with Pintech practice cymbals on them. Then I replaced the DW practice pad that is supposed to be a ride with another Pintech practice cymbal.
Most of us probably have some of the extra hardware laying around un-used; but if I had to buy it all, the cost would be something like:

DW kit (used) - $100
Hi-hat stand (used) - $50
Cymbal stand (used) - $20
4 Pintech practice cymbals (new) - $70
Kick pedal (used) - $35
 
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