Plexiglass - but a little different.

How about we just put the singer in the fish tank. Then the mic won't get any bleed at all! Yeah, put the obnoxious guy in the box and see how he likes it.

At a church I used to play out, the "aquarium" was made up of removable panels. Because I'm a drummer, I'm always on time, so I would take off a couple of panels and put them in front of the guitar amps from time to time. The guitar players never saw it coming because, as eternity has taught us all, they always run late.
 
I think it's cool that the small plexiglass shields can be mounted to cymbal stands, but aside from having to lug around more hardware, the disadvantage is that you'll have all those extra stands cluttering up the drum riser.
 
I play in a full plexiglass cage at church with acoustic panels across the top, similar to CB's pic. You are not lying when you say air flow is an issue and a fan is a requirement! We have been talking about going for a more open sound so this week we removed the top from the box but kept the panels all the way around except for the back door. We had rehearsal last night. We did a few takes of the same song at different volume levels to experiment with the sound and let the engineers dial it in for the room. Here's how it went:

Take #1 - Traditional Grip, no rim shots, relaxed playing, lite touch on the cymbals
- This went pretty well. No complaints from the singers regarding volume level, however, the sound crew then wanted the full Monty to see what the ultimate volume threshold could be so...

Take #2 - Matched Grip, rim shots on snare, multiple cymbals hit together at full volume
- This brought out the predictable and familiar shrieks of horror from the vocalists who said they couldn't hear themselves, but this is at stage level with a whole crew of singers who have "0" experience playing with a live band. From the sound booth perspective however, this was the sound that they liked best in the room. Very full sound and everything was present in the mix without the drums being overpowering.

Take #3 - Back to Traditional Grip, center hits on snare at forte but no rim shots, normal cymbal hits
- This is probably where it will stay, for now. The singers could deal with it and I still get to dig in and play at a decent level to activate the drums and make them sound rockin'. We will continue to tweak.

So, I wouldn't say that using shields automatically means that the drummer is unable to or unwilling to control their own volume through proper technique and playing. Also, an "appropriate volume level" is a very subjective thing to try to define, even among drummers. It depends on the room, the ensemble, the style of music, the mic setup and the listener's preference. In the scenario above, the appropriate volume for the room that sounded the best from the sound booth's perspective was Take #2, however, that exact same take was the worst from the singers perspectives.
 
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I see Manhasset stands is selling one of these now, model #2000. It works like an over-sized music stand (22" x 26") with a small ledge.
 
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