What are you using for practice?

I own 6 kits. Most of them stay stacked up. One stays in my bags ready for gigs, one e kit stays hooked up. Its small and the cymbals triggers dont work half the time. I recently took down one of my old kits and set up to be a practice kit at home. I slapped some of those Sound Percussion drum mutes on them. They feel meh, and sound blah..haha

The e kit I dont like to use due to the reason stated above about the cymbals only work half the time.

What do you guys have set up for quiet time practice???

I use Roland V Drums to practice on, with my iphone input, so I can play to the songs on my music streaming app.

I use a Roland TD4 for kit practice and a Real Feel pad for hand technique. The downside with Roland is that after a week not playing the A-kit it takes some time to get used to them again.

My house backs up to an open park between neighborhoods and my neighbors don't seem to mind the noise. I practice on whatever drum kit I have set-up in the drum room. I do have a RealFeel pad on a snare stand in a corner to work on chop stuff. But I think the mental prep is just as important. I think about what I'd like to play and am constantly working things out in my head. When I get back to the drums, it's usually half-way figured out by then.

Big house with a basement.. and no wife or kids to kill my happiness.. i play a set of DW's as loud as i want til 4am

Roland TD-20 SX

Chris

Roland TD30K.
Works great.

I usually use these:


http://www.vicfirth.com/product/buynow/product.php?button=HB
and this:

http://www.amazon.com/SoundOff-Evans-Universal-Bass-Mute/dp/B001CG51XC

with an acoustic set.

I also have e-multi pads.

I don't really have too many noise restrictions, I just prefer it that way.
I do break out the sticks now and then and really bash away though.

93civEJ1 said:

The e kit I dont like to use due to the reason stated above about the cymbals only work half the time.

Click to expand...

Because the cymbals have triggering issues is not a reason to look for something different. Have you tried troubleshooting why the cymbals are having triggering issues? It could be as simple as a bad wire. Worst case scenario, you have a bad cymbal and you need to replace it. If you had a broken cymbal on an acoustic kit would you deem the whole thing as needing to be replaced, or would you just buy a new cymbal?

I have a converted acoustic with a 2-Box module and I am converting another acoustic kit to run my TD-30 module.

My Tama Granstar kit is setup in the basement of the house I rent from my sister. So it is cool and loud with non muffled birch Tama just keep the window closed at playing times.

A Beosystem 6000 1981stereo stands by to play along with. It has enough power to stand up to the drums.

DW Collectors Maple, with remo silent stroke heads (I don't have the option of playing loud at home)

Plus an Evans real feel pad for conditioning.

Silentstrokes and cymbal mutes. Would love a set of the low vol Zildjian cymbals......but here in Oz, I reckon I'd have to take out two mortgages to get 'em.

I pretty much always have a pad at my disposal too.

I setup some of the pads from a roland kit and usually don't even plug the damned thing in. It's more about practicing the movements at that point, and it helps.

I am lucky, I have a soundproof room and an extra room to store things.

I have my saturns setup and a partially setup Sleishman kit that students mostly use. I rotate through different snares, not much else changes.

My crush and tama kits are cased up and ready to go and my old sonor is retired until I figure out a fix for the perished parts from the bass drum hoop.

If I move somewhere less than ideal I'll probably do the sheets under drum heads trick and get some of those gen 16's. I like Roland td 20's (and up) but I still don't think there's an e kit that I'd be content with.

I use Remo Silent Strokes on my Ludwig Element Icon Birch kit (22/14/16/12 w/18 Yamaha Stage Custom floor, and a set of Zildjian Gen16's used acoustically. I'll soon have a 13/14/18 set of Zildjian LV80 cymbals that I'll combine with the Gen16's.

I've found that nylon tipped sticks feel the best (to me anyway) on the SS heads. I also use improvised mallets made from cymbal felts: The large ones for a quieter sound and hi-hat ones for more volume

I'm really enjoying this combination and I think it's the most reasonable way to have quiet practice with a real kit feel.

If I'd only known that before blowing $2500USD on my Yamaha electronic kit!!!!!!

I tried mesh heads but didn't like them. Way to much rebound for me.

Even though my plan of homes are set rather far apart and I installed block windows and extra insolation in the basement, I limit my playing hours from between 9:30am - 9:30pm. My neighbors closest to my basement drum room are retired and usually home all day and go to bed early. I have questioned if I ever disturb them but they are insistent that they can't hear me unless they are outside working in the yard.

As for my wife, she my biggest supporter and critic. She'll tell me what she likes and otherwise. Just the other day I came up stairs after playing one of my larger kits and my wife said I need to fix that drum that goes "Boing, Boing, Boing". I hadn't noticed with my headphones on.

I know I went a little off topic but the short answer is Mesh Heads didn't work for me.

What I did years ago is stuff my shells with quilters batting (my wife quilts) to about 2" below the batter head. This actually works out pretty well. Cuts the volume in half (or better).

I've also used excessive duct tape on clear batter heads. This will also reduce the volume. Just don't use your good heads. Gorilla Tape is the best. Peels off with no residue and is very durable.

Hope this was of some help.

I'm an old fashioned guy, I use a practice pad, that's it for quiet practice.

I've only got the one kit. I got it as a shell pack (8/10/12/14F/22K) and I added on the matching 16" floor tom. I also have a three snare drums. I'm able to split the shell pack to have a gigging kit and a practice kit.

I have the 10" rack tom, 14" floor tom, an old Slingerland snare, and a Gibraltar kick drum practice pad. The drums have Remo Silentstrokes on them and I currently set up my cymbals with cymbal mutes. This gives a pretty good approximation of a normal kit with a lot less volume. I would like to get a set of the Zildjian L80 low-volume cymbals to really make the cymbals feel more like playing actual cymbals.

The 12/16F/22K stay in bags ready for gigging. I've never really found a need for the 8" tom but it came with the shell pack.

I use a rubber Pro Mark disk, but not much.

I don't need to play too hard to practice stuff, movement is the key for me.

Sonor Safari kit using SS heads w/real resonants.
Bass drum stays acoustic w/blanket on reso and taped on microfiber towels on batter. The SS batter head was a bit too bouncy.
New Zildjian LV 14, 16, 18 cymbal set- love it! It works so well with the acoustic levels of the other drums.
I can pretty much bash away with this set up w/out disturbing the peace.