Quiet Practice Heads & Cymbals?

Mustion

Senior Member
So I live in NYC which means the only time I'm behind a drum kit is during band practice--not ideal. I have an old kit just sitting in my closet and I'm thinking of putting some mesh heads on it with some quiet cymbals for home practice. Seems there are two options for both (Remo/Evans and Zildjian/Sabian), anybody have experience with these and could suggest one over the other? The quieter the better--the point is to not piss off the neighbors. Thanks!
 
I don't know much about quiet cymbals but for the mesh heads I highly recommend Pintech Reaction heads (single-ply). With single-ply heads you don't get that metallic sound of multi-ply mesh heads, so you hear more of the drums' resonance. They're ultra quiet and play very well even at low tension giving you a more natural rebound. Their durability is surprising as well; I played the same heads almost every day for four years and they were still in great shape.
 
Not sure if it's quiet enough for an apartment setting, but I don't wake my family up when I'm practicing in the early morning hours..

I use Remo Silent Stroke / L80's. Their intent is not to be dead silent. They don't do that nor are they designed for that.

Some people complain about the feel of the heads. Experimenting with top and bottom tension makes an impact on both feel and sound.

Some people complain about the 'sound' of the cymbals. In my opinion, they are really designed to give a feel like you're playing a cymbal and not really 'sound' like very much.

To me, they are a winning combination. Others have tried and hate them. There are other options though as well.
 
I use Remo Silent Stroke / L80's. Their intent is not to be dead silent. They don't do that nor are they designed for that.

Since posting this I have decided to go that route as well. I don't expect total silence but volume level is a consideration and the L80s are definitely quieter than the Sabians having tried both at GC. Thanks for the help!
 
I have the L80 and Silent Stroke combo as well. The trick is to tune the top head for feel/responsiveness and the (regular) resonant head for the pitch that you want the drum to have. I have played in the garage with my wife directly upstairs taking a nap, so I can attest that they do work great for practicing quietly.

Some tips, though:

If you are in an upstairs apartment, there can be vibrations transmitted to your downstairs neighbors. People with electronic kits have this problem and its a similar deal with mesh heads and quiet cymbals. Any rythmic thumping or bumping (even quiet ones) will get annoying to some people in this situation.

I would recommend Silent Strokes on the toms and kick, and an RTOM Black Hole on the snare. The Black Hole has a rubber rim that you can use for rim shots and cross sticking. It's jarring when you are playing a quiet kit and then do cross sticking that is louder than the whole kit, or when you accidentally hit a rim shot and it's super noisy.
 
If you are in an upstairs apartment, there can be vibrations transmitted to your downstairs neighbors. People with electronic kits have this problem and its a similar deal with mesh heads and quiet cymbals. Any rythmic thumping or bumping (even quiet ones) will get annoying to some people in this situation.

Yeah, I figured this would be the case especially as I'm a heel-up sort of player. Stomp stomp. Luckily the room I will be set up in is right above the doorway so hopefully the vibrations mostly travel downward where there's nobody to bother...

Already ordered a set so too late for the RTOM on the snare. If the mesh head really sucks, I'll check that out...
 
Back
Top