Rock Band Drum Silencers

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At first I got the drum pad silencers and held them up to the rock band drum pads and thought "this isn't going to work." Check out your RB drums. You'll notice a thin plastic rim around each drum. Well I expected these drum pads to fit inside that ring. Nope, if you stuck them on, they would go over the ring and then sort of float on top of the actual drum pad and MAYBE make contact in the center, where the pressure transducer is that picks up your drum strikes.

So, to install these drum pads, you must TAKE OFF THE PLASTIC RIM around the drums. It takes a few minutes, but isn't hard. You have to pull the striking part of each drum off individually. It takes a lot of force, but be careful not to yank out the wire underneath. If you look at your RB drums from below, you'll notice 3 or 4 small rubber wedges sticking through the plastic base. These are what hold the drums into the frame. Once you've pulled off a drum pad, unscrew the plastic rim, take it off, and reassemble the drum (make sure all the rubber pieces are back in place, sometimes they stay attached to the drum surface half and need to be taken off and screwed back into the base. Push the drum pad back onto the base and make sure all 4 rubber feet click into place. THEN stick the drum silencer onto the drum pad.

After performing the installation as I mentioned above, these pads make the RB drums much much much quieter and WAY more pleasant to play, especially in groups or at night. There are no installation instructions included with this kit, but there should be.

Another option is to trim the pads so they fit inside the plastic rim. I thought it would be easier and cleaner looking to remove the plastic rim instead.

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Considering how much bad press the Rock Band peripherals have received since the game's launch last November, it's not surprising that something like this would be looked upon as a gimmicky, band-aid solution to a less-than-perfect drum set.

Sure, there are better kits being developed by Harmonix and Red Octane for their respective upcoming sequels, but if you own a Rock Band drum kit now, then these silencers are actually pretty good for the price. First of all, they're a bit more stylish than the gray plastic pads that you'd normally drum on. Second, they reduce the drum noise considerably, even during more demanding songs. Third, the material reverberates much, much better, allowing for better runs and rolls, and you get far fewer missed and/or duplicate notes in the process. Finally, these things are easy to apply, sticking right over the pads themselves. At first, it seems like a cheap way to attach them, but the adhesive holds up--just make sure you center them properly.

This is definitely a product for people who are tired of the dull plastic noise during game sessions, and if you have friends over who tend to overhit or flat-out miss the pads entirely, the pad silences those errors as well. Other than a reinforced pedal, this is the best add-on I've seen for any rock band peripheral.

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I picked these up liking the idea that they'd make the drums a bit quieter and add to the bounce on the drum head. They do make it look a little nicer, they do make it quieter, and they do add a little bounce...

...but they also kill your accuracy. I put these on and started playing and immediately started wondering if maybe the calibration on the system had somehow gotten off. What I ended up doing was going to practice mode and doing a roll on each pad at the beginning, just before the song started. I could watch the pad missing hits. Take the pad off, everything gets caught correctly again.

I tried hitting the pads in different places, with different amounts of force, but it pretty universally took down about 10% of the hits, regardless of force or location.

I'm taking these back today. It's unfortunate because they do look good and they totally do a good job at noise reduction.

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I own an XBOX 360 elite and I just bought Rock Band 2 a little bit ago, and if you are into rhythm based games...this should be a definite purchase. Anyhow, i was interested in the drumming aspect of the game so i bought a set used for a really good deal. The drums are not that loud to begin with, but i would find myself early in the morning playing a bit softer because i thought i would wake the neighbors. These drum silencers were the best choice i made!!

So like i said, i use these on a rock band 2 drumset. I read numerous reviews about the silencers before purchasing. For those of you on the fence about how effective these are...dont be anymore, they work...and they have improved my game very much.

On multiple reviews users have said that they would actually disassemble the drumset and attach the silencers so they didnt go over the plastic rim on the outter edge of the drum. THIS IS NOT NESSECARY. These silencers are meant to not only quiet down your kit, but add more bounce to them. Thats why they go over the entire drum head, they provide a bit more spring when your rocking out. Im the type of person that will follow the instructions, and i didnt want to run any risk of damaging my drums that i got for such a great price. I simply pulled the paper backing off each silencer, made sure my drums were powered off, stuck them to the drums (making sure they are centered) and pushed firmly across the ENTIRE surface of the drums. THERE IS NO LOSS OF SENSITIVITY OR MISSED NOTES. The drums are just as responsive as the day i bought them. If youre like me one of your favorite aspect of the RB is doing a drum fill, and this has been dramatically increased for me. I can do drum rolls much much better now.

The drums themselves are a bit more silent, but dont let me saying "a bit" deter you. The noise they produce is drastically changed after applying the silencers. Its more of a thud, as opposed to the loud clacking noise they make without the silencers. What i noticed is that without the silencers on, if you really hit the drum hard...it was very loud. But with the silencers, the noise level is going to be pretty much consistent. You can hit them as hard as you want and its going to produce the same volume of noise as if your just tapping them. And that in itself is where i loose the most points, when im trying to play quietly and not wake anyone.

If your questioning how effective these silencers are...dont anymore. They work great and they do exactly what they say they do. They DO NOT affect your playing one bit, youre not going to miss any notes...as a matter of fact you may get better scores because your not worrying about playing quiet anymore. If you own a rockband 1 drumkit then maybe you should read more reviews, because i have not used a set of these on that particular kit.

Just buy them, its well worth the money to protect your drums and keep your neighbors from calling the cops on you.

I bought these for our Rock Band 2 Wii drums and I love them. The thick rubber will protect my drum set for the rest of its life, which was a major concern since after only 3 months of drumming some of the drum heads were beginning to wear thin. The sound is not completely silenced but is "dampened". Instead of a clacking sound its a dull thwack or thud. The thick rubber also gives the drums a bit more bounce, making rolls easier.

I did a lot of research before I bought them. It seems there is a love-hate split in people who have tried them. First, apparently there are slight variations in drum head size on Rock Band drums, so these pads fit differently on different drums if you're applying the silencers over the plastic rims, working better on some models and not as well on others. It seems most reviewers had a higher success rate when putting the silencers on after removing the plastic rings. The idea being that applying the silencers over the plastic rings leaves a slight gap all the way around causing missed hits. It's okay to remove the plastic since it doesn't act to hold anything in place, it simply protects the edge of the drum head and makes it look nice; the drum silencers extend a bit beyond the drum head edge so will take over protective edge duties. Two other people before me have written how to remove the plastic but each left out some details so here's my version:

HOW TO REMOVE THE PLASTIC RINGS:

* Removing the rings takes 15 to 30 minutes, some strong fingers (I'm a girl, I did fine), and a precision (No.0 philips) screwdriver.

* Remove the drum pad assembly from the legs and do each drum head one at a time.

* The plastic rings are screwed in from underneath the drum heads. To get at the screws you have to pop the entire drum pad assembly out of the plastic case of the drum set. Each drum head is held in place by 4 large rubber plugs (others called these "wedges"). If you flip your drum set upside-down you will see the ends of these rubber pegs poking through the bottom (visibly there are 4 on the red and green heads, 2 on the yellow and blue). You can push on these but I found it was easier to simply wedge my fingers in the gap between the plastic drum case and the underside of the drum head and pry upward (I am a girl so I had an easy time with my small fingers). Do this for each rubber peg one at a time, being careful not to pull too far or you risk ripping out the wires that go from the underside of the drum head to the drum body (you have 2-3 inches of leeway here). It takes a bit of force but its easy once you get the hang of it. This is the scariest part but isn't that hard.

* In one instance one of the rubber pegs stayed in its hole and instead popped away from the underside of the drum head. This is easy to fix: the peg base is held in place by a piece of plastic held in with two screws (No.1 phillips precision screwdriver). Just remove the plastic bit, thread the peg back through its hole and screw the plastic with the peg back into place. Easy.

* With the drum head popped out, use your No.0 screwdriver to take out the 5 or 6 screws from the underside of the ring, releasing the plastic ring.

* Pop the drum head back into place. Repeat procedure for the other 3 drum heads.

* To apply the drum silencers I cleaned each drum head with rubbing alcohol and then stuck the pads on. They lie flat with the plastic rings removed.

Having applied my silencers this way the response time is just as good as it was before. I prefer the feel of the drums WITH the silencers and found I can drum very very gently and still get amazing accuracy. There is more bounce so rolls are now easier and best of all, I no longer fear guests destroying my drums by hitting them too hard. I can see how accuracy would take a hit if the pads were applied OVER the plastic rims because a gap would be left so I highly recommend the careful removal of the plastic rims (or the trimming-down of the pads with scissors so they fit within the circumference of the plastic rings).