Volume a problem? Not now!
Together, our Silent Sticks and Silent Beater cut acoustic drum set volume and reduce the ‘clack’ of playing e-drum pads by an astounding +/- 50%. Great for low-volume gigs, home practice, church performances, drum classes…. Anywhere volume creates problems, Silent Sticks and Silent Beater provide solutions.
To cut your volume, just change your sticks!
Want to reduce the volume of your drums and cymbals without adjusting how you play or getting into low-volume gear? Just change your sticks. With Silent Sticks you keep the feel – especially with the new larger-diameter shaft with anti-slip X-Grips – and the tone but cut the volume by +/- 50%. Our exclusive Dual-Twist Reflex Tip® is the magic. To cut your bass drum volume, add a Silent Beater.
_____________________________________
Stefan here from Adoro Drums... may I give you some advise regarding
How to get the best sound from your drums with silent sticks:
The sound of the sticks is determained by how you tune the drums. If your drums do not sound well with silent sticks, it is because the sticks are light, and for a good sound the drums have to be well tuned and sensible. Most drummers though tune the drums for a thicker, heavier stick. This is ok when you just want to practice less loud with silent sticks, but if you want to actually use them live, you can do some things to improve the sound a lot.
For a good drum sound when playing silent sticks, or any light stick, consider:
- tune the drums accurate. When whacking the drum loudly, it might sound good, but playing less loud gives away if the drum is in tune within itself.
- tune warm. This means tune the bottom head slightly higher than the batter, often useful: a quarter turn of the key higher than the batter. This will make the drum sound warmer, richer.
- use single ply heads. Thick double ply heads give you more attack, have less low end and also a smaller tuning range No, they do not sound deeper, but they appear lower in tune due to the extra muffling, and the extra mass they have makes them numb and require louder playing.
-this also means do not use excessive muffling (paper towels and tape). The additional mass will just make your drum less sensitive. Think again: when excessive muffling makes a good acoustic instrument better, it was not good in first place. Usually we muffle as desaster control. The better the drum, the less you need muffling. Anyhow, a small sticky for overtone control is totally ok, and muffling your snare is a completely different story...
- Best use the silent sticks when tuning. When the drum gives you a well defined tone when playing them softly, you nailed it. Then they will also sound great when playing louder, but not just when played loud.
If you can choose what size your drums are, prefer smaller diameter and shalower shells. With the diameter, also the volume and attack grows. The larger depth is making a drum appear louder, less sensitive, and having more attack and less tone too. Drums got bigger and deeper to make them louder in first place, so when you want to sound better when playing softer, less loud, go smaller, shallower. It is just common sense. And the shell thickness should also be considerably thinner, thick shells give you more punch and attack, which again makes a drum louder.
A good example of a drum set that can be played with a great sound at really low volume is the worship series by adoro. It has been specifically designed for this task: not to be played the loudest, but to have a full and rich sound when played with half force already. Sure they can be whacked, but you do not need to. This is also important when your room you play in does not sound so good - the room is a huge influence on your drum sound, and the lower your drum volume, the better they will sound in a bad sounding location. Here just dialing down 3-4 dB will already make a huge improvement on your drum sound.
Enjoy your drums, and discover how great your drums can sound without going deaf! :)