When I play drums in Rock Band, I hit them pretty hard. I really like to get into it, and get carried away at times playing some of the more difficult tracks. The loud repetitive tapping of me hitting notes like mad is not only annoying to others, but can cause them to follow my beat, even when it’s off.
That is exactly what PDP was hoping for when the marketed their Universal Drum Silencers. I am happy to report that they work exactly as advertised, and in fact, improved my drum set look and feel.
They have a light adhesive on the back of each pad that is strong enough to grip to the drum head, but light enough to easily peel off the top without leaving a mess on your drums. They can be removed and re-applied so if you get them on crooked, it’s a snap to fix. Once on, they look nice and really do cut down the tapping sound.
Most importantly, the silencers do not inhibit the responsiveness of the drums. If they worked well without them, they will work well with them. My red pad has a tendency to not register if you hit too far up on the drum. It still has that problem, but it hasn’t gotten worse. However, the silencers did improve one thing: the top of the red pad was slipping off, so I would have to occasionally tuck it under the rim. The drum silencers have completely fixed that problem by holding the drum head down.
If you love Rock Band but have roommates, thin walls, or family members that are easily annoyed, then you must pick up a set of PDP’s Universal Drum Silencers. They cut down a lot of the noise, but maintain the Rock Band look and performance.
April:
I generally either play the guitar or sing (or both) when we play Rock Band so while I cannot vouch for how well they work, I can vouch for what they do. Since we live in an apartment, our living room is small and therefore so is our performance area. We can’t turn the game volume up too loud as it will disturb our neighbors (doesn’t always stop us though) so one thing I always hear is Norm wailing away on the drums. I can’t tell you how much the silencers have muted the sound. You can still hear them, but it’s a lot quieter than before. The drumming tended to through my rhythm off and when you are playing the guitar and singing, this can be problematic and the silencers help mute the drumming so it is not so prominent.
The silencers smell like they are newly painted so be prepared for that. You won’t notice the smell too much after a few days. I also tend to not like adhesive add-ons but these really worked well. I even misaligned one of the pads and was very happy that it came off easily and really at no cost to the adhesive. The drum pads will be a permanent addition to your drum heads as I tried to remove one a week later and it pretty much tore the original drum head off. It’s definitely a great way to help protect your drum set as well as squeeze a tad bit more life from them.
The Drum Silencers are priced at $19.99 and are well worth the cost.
Review product was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.
I fully endorse this product as a drummer. Its worth the 20 dollar investment just so you don’t have to turn up the volume to drown out the tapping.