E-drums to Good old Silencers

Yes folks you heard that right. I'm finding myself practicing on those good old drum silencers once again.

There is this 15th century quote; "The purest part of a stream is it's origin." I feel that in the midst of technological break throughs and sounds of enticing whistles of the latest cutting edge products; going back to rubber silencers is like returning back to the pure basics of what really worked....for me.

Why is this? I find that silencers will give you basically two advantages that makes for improved practice;

1) more resistence (Cobham recommends non-resistance surfaces)...Wonder why?

2) good sense of practicing on a real drum kit.

Let's face it people, e-drums are great and it makes us sound more than we really are (digital realities). But you know as well as I do that it is not realistic in terms of a realistic feel of real drums and secondly, digi drums gives you more rebound than a real drum will normally allow. Dont mistaken me, I'm not demeaning anything just being transitional in my conserns on practice time.

Rubber silencers will obsorb your attack making you work harder pulling up on the upstroke which makes for a better work out and challenges you to play those notations tighter and cleaner. I think you know what I mean and where that will be most beneficially real...... (the gig)

Anyway, check out the pixs below. In my humble opinon, HQ makes some pretty good silencers and the BD adjustable is the bomb on their silencers. It will not totally kill the volume of the BD but give you a nice mild 'thud' which makes it feel good. Of course there are some who don't like them. But after my practice time today, I walked away knowing I had a very very satisfying work out and am looking foward to more! I mean is'nt that what we want is "wanting to pracitce" more?

Total price for this set was only $72.00 American smacks. Compare that to the tag that hangs on a e-drum these days. But I'll always use my e-drums for practicing when I need various sounds etc.

Shalom and Aloha,

rac

it's always good to mix it up, Glenn!!!

Woody wrote:it's always good to mix it up, Glenn!!!

I think Woody hit the nail on the head here and this is why:

There are basically two types of practice:

Music and craft. If you are practicing (rehearsing) the music or working out some drum parts and
there is a volume issue and you happen to have a set of edrums, hey, throw on some headphones
and go to town. If you are working on some technical/ artistic issues and you happen to play real
drums almost exclusively and volume is an issue then go with the silencers.

What I think is cool about the silencers is even though they will not give you the exact feel of real
drum heads, they will allow you to hear exactly what you're doing as there are basically no tonal
values to worry about. So it's all good. Each one has something that the other doesn't.
Beneficial variety, that's a good thing!

I have some, I just don't use them, but maybe I should. I know the next door neighbors on the left of me would love it.

but maybe I should. I know the next door neighbors on the left of me would love it.
Spanky

Spanky, do you have or experienced playing on edrums? If so, my comparing them with silencers is that, I feel, silencers are a much more realistic medium to practice with.

They may not have the rebound as an actual drum but that is purposed for having a non-resistant practicing surface. The edrum however has way too much rebound which is unrealistic for playing. Yet a non-responsive surface such as a silencer encourages/challenges practicing more accurately and definitively which makes us practice smarter than just amusing ourselves with how fantastic we sound digitally. And that can be fun but I would rather utilize precious time we may have practicing smarter than simply amusing myself.

What I've discovered is that practicing with silencers actually 'cuts-down' on the amount of time required to have a satisfying enriching practice time.

And yes, it is quieter than epads because of it's rubber absorbent surface and are very durable.

Shalom,
rac

Well for me, sound dynamics are an important part of practice also. There are no sound dynamics with silencers. Like I said, depending on how you need to practice on any given day, they all have there place.

The bottom line though is nothing beats practicing on what you perform with. You're never going to perform with silencers. I have the luxury of practicing nearly anytime I want (to about 11:00pm). I have really cool neighbors so I'm good to go. I play real drums and that's what I practice on, so I have the best of all worlds.

The bottom line though is nothing beats practicing on what you perform with.
D

But can you somewhat agree that a non-responsive surface can be an important aspect in playing cleaner on a drum after time on silencers?

Last night I was practicing with silencers for about 15 minutes and then took them off and played the drums out load. I found a great improvement as to how i was exicuting what was being practiced on the non-absorbant silencers. And to me that's utilizing time in a more constructive and beneficial way. And yes, you are correct by saying that silencers allows for hearing what needs improvement.

My personal take.

Shalom,

rac

Racman wrote:

but maybe I should. I know the next door neighbors on the left of me would love it.
Spanky

Spanky, do you have or experienced playing on edrums? If so, my comparing them with silencers is that, I feel, silencers are a much more realistic medium to practice with.

They may not have the rebound as an actual drum but that is purposed for having a non-resistant practicing surface. The edrum however has way too much rebound which is unrealistic for playing. Yet a non-responsive surface such as a silencer encourages/challenges practicing more accurately and definitively which makes us practice smarter than just amusing ourselves with how fantastic we sound digitally. And that can be fun but I would rather utilize precious time we may have practicing smarter than simply amusing myself.

What I've discovered is that practicing with silencers actually 'cuts-down' on the amount of time required to have a satisfying enriching practice time.

And yes, it is quieter than epads because of it's rubber absorbent surface and are very durable.

Shalom,
rac

I have some silencers, I just don't use them, but I should.

Whatever technique you develop on silencers, there is still a technique that has to be developed for playing on real heads to get the clean sound you're looking for. Silencers allow you to hear what you're actually doing and I think that's a good thing. I'm only saying that When it's taken to the stage or in the studio with a real kit, that is where it ultimately has to be done.

The feel and response of silencers are different than that of real drum heads so from silencers to real heads adjustments still have to be made. So for me, I like the idea of the silencers allowing me to hear where my inconsistencies are and I then correct those inconsistencies at the kit, playing real heads. It's all simply a means to an end.

My take.

Whatever technique you develop on silencers, there is still a technique that has to be developed for playing on real heads...
D

"When it's taken to the stage or in the studio with a real kit, that is where it ultimately has to be done."
D

Putting it on slow motion
I think that the technique exicuted on real drums are perfected on silencers first then onto real drums. Not to say that improvement can't be developed on real drums. I'm just referring to what I call "fine tuning" what needs to be tightened up. Try thinking of it in terms of slowing down a video in order to see and hear what a drummer is executing. Silencers slows us down in building mental awareness and the physical aspects as to what needs to be cleaned up.

Again, resistance is the point and purpose of using silencers for practicing means. The "non-responsiveness" of the silencers allows the limbs to work harder, therefore increases cleanness and more clarity when playing on real drums. That's the point I'm trying to convey and not actual technique developed practicing on silencers to play silencers. And at some point that can be true for a large majority who are dependent practicing only on e-drums for the sake of playing those drums exclusively. Can anyone hear me?

If, for whatever reasons, 'a form' of technique is developed using silencers than that would do injustice or be counter productive to playing real drums 'IF' one plans to play silencers. And that is obviously outright, word Spankey appropriately refers to as being.... ludicrous.

In other words:
Again, my statement is that practicing on "non-responsive" surfaces (rubber, pillows or your pet cat, etc.), improves playing on real drums . I'm not looking for developing technique to play silencers but rather to playing real drums. That's the end to the means of using silencers as a practice medium in my thinking. And that, my friend, makes practicing with silencers a very real and applicable medium to playing drums realistic.

We agree that actual drums do have more responsive action occur than would rubber silencers. And that can be for some of us work against rather than for us in terms of clarifying what it is we really want to improve and silencers will allow us the opportunity to realistically deal with that. And that to me my friend, is where silencers are not just for dampening noise but more so in terms of actually taking our improvements to the stage.

NOTE:My shop is in a industrial area which makes playing drums out loud not being a problem....Silencers first 10 minutes then live practice 20. A total of only 30 minutes of smarter practice time walking away having a sense of satisfaction knowing I've accomplished that much more. It's all good and a wonderful thing people


Are we in Shalom still my friend?

Rac