Quiet playing

Alright folks, heres the riddle. My friend and i have a really cool duet in our winter percussion show, but it has to be quiet so we dont stomp on the pit.
currently we use these mallets (tenor drums)
mt3a http://www.vicfirth.com/products/corpsmaster_tenor.php
the problem is they have no bounce, and the second notes in sweeps (scrapes, whatever you call em) is quieter. We're both working as hard as we can to keep clarity but its not working well, any techniques that might help? Perhaps a stick or mallet?

hardimon rubber tip sticks+playing out of the drum= quiet

i have a set of hardimon rubber tips (we use the normal ones for everything else) and i was going to try them tomorrow. I think it might still be too loud though.

Tried blasticks? Recently I saw a thread with a broomy looking set of sticks- cant find it though. Just like a small section of a corn broom but wound tightly and cut short at the tips

Havent tried blacksticks but we tried tala wands (birch) and those made them sound horrible because of how tight the heads are tuned. Same kind of multi rod concept i think

This is what I'd suggest as an option. I think this is what TooLate was referring to too. They look a little unorthodox, but it might work.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-percussion/pro-mark-broomsticks/442752000000000

Thats it- looks like you could still throw them around a bit to keep the speed and dynamic feel but keep the volume down. Probably have to hit pretty hard to even make a noise really.