What's the BEST Drumming Practice System?
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2017
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A lot of new “quiet practice” products have entered the drum accessory market recently. But with so many options, how do we know which is REALLY the best? I take the three leading options: the Remo Silentstroke, Aquarian Superpad, and RTOM Black Hole, and present a detailed comparison and review. We take a look at cost, ease of use, rebound/feel, realism, and noise level, to see which product wins in the most categories. Which practice pad is easiest to use? Which one actually FEELS THE BEST? Which pad is the quietest? These are all the million dollar questions that I know I had, so I hope to answer these well for you guys. Ultimately the practice system you choose all comes down to your budget, your practicing needs, and your personal preferences. But at least now you can make an educated and informed decision and not have to buy all three like I did. :)
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AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS TO SOME GREAT PRODUCTS:
Remo Silent Stroke:
amzn.to/2jbC8fB
Aquarian Super Pad:
amzn.to/2f9k5m4
RTOM Black Hole:
amzn.to/2vTAVjh
Zildjian L80 Low Volume Cymbals:
amzn.to/2vTSOhO 
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for those wondering what the grand totals are, i worked them out (averaging the values for "rebound\feel"). Superpad = 20.3 | Remo Silent Stroke = 18.7 | RTOM = 22.7. I think the score of 1 for Remo's "ease of use" is justified. If you're a gigging drummer and don't have the luxury\space for 2 acoustic kits, swapping and tuning heads all the time will get real tired real quick. Thanks for the video!
Honestly for price the firdt ones should be 1 and 2 rather than 3 and 4
Yeah...probably so. I couldn't help but weigh "value" in a little along with price. Rating them strictly on cost is tricky since they're such different products. But yeah, solely based on cost, silentstroke is the huge winner.
But as a drummer who is regularly performing; ease comes in too. Switching heads before and after every gig is a no go
Jan Dries yeah for sure
Silent stroke perform well when mic'd also.. so unless you really want to, there is no real need to switch heads all the time
2 kits... you can buy a garbage kit on CL for a couple hundred... or you could just buy an entry level kit from Pearl, Tama, Yamaha, etc for really not that much more. it's what did. i have a tama starclassic for studio/stage and a yamaha stage custom with silent strokes for practice.
Hey Stephen, I am so grateful to have found your channel. Being an apartment dweller (in NYC) who is actively researching sound-dampening products, your videos are so clear + informative. Thanks for sharing your insights! I will watch the rest of your videos and add comments about how well any of my personal modifications work -- over the next few months especially if I buy an acoustic kit. I have a Yamaha DTXtreme III now. ~ Adam (NYC)
Great, SUPER informative video! Thanks for doing all the research and showing us all of this so we can get a real live sound and feel to it and direct comparison. Thanks again man!
I for one have outfitted my kit with the Remo Silent Stroke heads. I have two snare drums. The practice snare drum has the Silent Stroke head on it where the performance snare has the regular head.
As for the Toms I put the Silent Strokes on the bottom and the regular heads on the top. When I’m just practicing I simply flip the Toms break out the practice snare change my real cymbals to the Low Volume cymbals.
For the bass drum I use a soft beater for practice and a harder beater for performance.
This video was precisely what I needed!
THANK YOU!! Fantastic video. Helped me make up my mind on what to order for my setup! (Black Hole)
Thank you for this video! This is super-helpful. I am definitely looking into the Aquarian bass pad-I have the Silent Stroke on my Questlove kit and I want a more solid and less springy, "boing-y" feel so I can work on double strokes and more advanced bass work. I will look at the Black Hole series as well. Much appreciated!
Excellent analysis of the pads. Thank you.
I was looking at a practice setup and this video helped ENORMOUSLY! Thank you very much!!! :) :) :)
Adding my congratulations and thanks for a very good piece. I just set up my kit with RTOMs and Zildjian Low Volumes and I'm loving it. It's an investment, but well worth it for the amount of time you just created that is now open to playing without disturbing others or yourself. I find there's something soothing to being able to work out riffs and tunes without the high volume. I think it can make you practice longer and better. Thanks again
That's awesome! Always great to hear. I agree...It's very freeing knowing that you can just play all you want (when you want) without bothering anyone.
First time to watch your channel. I'm not even 5 minutes in and this is like a great science experiment. Awesome!
That chart was perfect, buddy. Thanks for that.
Hey thanks a lot for putting this video together; it was really well organized, and probably the single most useful thing I saw in helping me to decide which system would work best for me. I got the RTOMs snare/toms with a Superpad kick and so far I've been super satisfied with the results.
Great vid, gonna try the super pad. Thanks keep up the vids and pdf’s !!!
Stephen this is an excellent study......on features vs price ......as much as a drum product review and comparison
Thanks for your vids, man! You've really helped me a lot, also with other vids. I think I'll be getting the silentstrokes for my toms and black hole for snare and kick
Thank You have a blessed week.
Thanks for the demo ,that saves me alot of time.
Amazing video! Thanks for this!
Very thorough Stephen. Appreciate the video brother 👊🏼
Thanks Stephen! Have a good day.
Really helpful -- thanks, Stephen!
Thanks you so much for comparing all three! A couple of months ago I tried to find a video like this one, but couldn't so I was happily surprised to see this among my subscriptions today!
I see potential for a follow up video, where you get your hands on the RTOM and Silent Stroke kick heads and compare them to the Aquarian... I would be very excited to see that
Great video!
Awesome! Glad you liked it. Yeah if I get my hands on the kick heads I'll make a part 2 :) I am kind of curious as to how much low end they would (or wouldn't) produce compared to the super pad kick mute.
I too live in an apartment, I use silentstrokes. To be honest, there is no difference between the sound of the toms and the kick, as far as feel goes; it feels awful at first. It really isn't realistic, you can kind of feel the beater sinking into the head, it feels very loose. One thing I found helpful for toms, snare and kick was some type of muffling. I use drumtacs on the snare and toms and it gets rid of some of that spring feel you mentioned, as far as kick goes you could use an evans pad or remo falam, some type of muffling inside the kick drum also helps, especially if its resting on the head itself.
I got silence stroke heads, and I LOVE them
Thanks for your tips . Im planning to build a Drum basement study and recording room . When recording I plan to use the normal drum and cymbals. And for daily practice the Low volume ones ... Thanks for the help .
thanks for this guide! I have a "Phil Collins" tribute kit (not the same exact hardware to a T to Phil's nor his son Nic's live kits, but exact setup). I haven't played the drums in a long time, but I decided to set them back up this month, and this guide really helps as I live in a townhouse. I ended up going for the Super Pads on my toms and bass, and the Black Hole on my snare :D
Great video Stephen... Much appreciated!👌
I am learning a lot from your videos this one in particular is trying to figure out how to muffle drums Sunwood Drive my neighbor's crazy thanks for your Insight
This helped a lot, thank you!
Thanks Stephen for such an insightful video. I've always wanted to convert my acoustic drums using mesh heads. Do you know if I can use triggers for the drums AND zildjian low volume cymbals? I want to use my e-kit module
Cheers and thanks again. Love all your videos. They're insightful and to the point.
The quality of the drums themselves isn't a big factor here. You can convert inexpensive drums into dedicated practice drums with the Remo heads for manageable cost. If you don't have any old beater or budget drums hanging around, they're easy to find online. First up for me is the snare that came with a Safari kit which isn't good enough to use for shows or rehearsals but will be fine for practice with a mesh head on it.
Awesome - thanks heaps for this video Stephen :)
Love the channel -- lots of good stuff. I watched this vid a couple times, and am thinking a good (reasonably inexpensive) practice setup is a RTOM for the snare, silentstrokes for toms, L80 cymbals, and undecided on bass pad. That sound like a good start? Thanks!
It sounds like you can still get some sound from the snare wires with each system. Were you able to find a way to make the snare wire sound good using the RTOM? Also, what do you recommend to put on the floor to prevent the pedals from reverberating into other rooms?
Aquarian Super pads are fantastic. They allow tone and have some pretty good rebound. Another benefit is that when you lift them off, your acoustic kit is ready to go.
I only need one of these for a snare, which one would you recommend in that case?
excellent vídeo!!! very detailed! Thanks so much. Very helpful. Any tip for a homemade solution for the hi hats? Getting the kit ready is enough money to spend already..
Great video!
I like the content. I wanted to see a final view of the score sheet. Have you posted that anywhere?
I enjoy your channel and appreciate the work you put in.
Thanks! I appreciate that!
hi, good info here as always, good job. Is it possible to trigger the Black holes? and in that case, what kind of trigger would you recomend? ; )
I started off with REMO silent stroke heads and zildjian L80 cymbals. Good practice set up. Then about 6 months ago I switched to RTOM'S on the toms and a Superpad on my bassdrum. At first I dug the RTOM'S even though some of them did not want to fit properly. Then after about a month one of the RTOM's metal ring's came out and try as I might I have not been able to get it to tune up anymore. One of the RTOM'S won't tighten up in one spot around the rim but is still usable. So I've had to go back to the SILENT STROKES on the toms. I love the SUPERPAD on the bass and wish I would have went with the SUPERPAD'S on the toms also.
Thank you for this video
Hey Stephen have you though of doing a review on bass drum practice pads
Well done.Thank You.
I subscribed.
Great video! Any tips on how to get the snare sound good and snappy with the RTom? I can’t seem to sound it nice. Tune the Rtom high and you’ll hear the tone from the mesh, tune too low and the feel is off. Same with the snare drum itself
First, thanks for this video and the other videos you’ve done!! Very helpful stuff. So here’s my question... I’m using a 16” kick with the kit that I want to get the Superpads for. Do you think it would make a difference if I tried to seek out the kick drum pad or just use a 16” pad?
Whats the best way to trigger/pickup the RTOM set up?
Woah! This video was awesome! Keep up the good work, man. Loving the vids. Now I can finally not bother my band mates during practice 😂😂😂
Thanks man!! Haha yeah you actually could use some of these in a rehearsal if you needed to - especially the Zildjian L80s. I've used those in a rehearsal before.
Thanks Stephen!
Hi. Does the Black Hole Pads interfere with clip-on mics because of the additional height? I already have a mic set including these clamps that go on the rims - although the mic distance is somewhat adjustable on those clamps, do the Black Holes cover too much of the rim for them to clip on?
I'm considering getting these for my apartment but would also like to maybe record with them somehow. I saw your video about mic-ing and recording with the Silent Strokes - would the Black Holes be less convenient for that anyway, seeing as you had to turn the snare off to avoid the buzz? Thanks.
I'm thinking of getting the Superpad for my snare since you can use brushes on it. Wonder if you can still do rim techniques on it though.
Amazing detail thank you its a great help . My remo emperor coated are too loud😂
This is very useful information. Thanks for providing it. For a church worship band with a medium sanctuary, would you still recommend the RTOMs? Sometimes our guest drummers have a hard time playing softly and the drums overwhelm the rest of the instruments. Looking for a solution where the sound guy can control all of the elements and get a nice balance without running the faders way up to be heard over the drums. I do like things loud, but I also want to be respectful of those with sensitive hearing and want tp preserve my own hearing in the long run.
Pretty spot on with the silentstroke kick...it has an airy "thuuuum" sound rather than a punchy bass sound. I might try to go for another alternative.
Cool!! what triggers for the snare?
Great video bro! Subscribed !
Thanks man! I appreciate your subscription 😀👍
Thanks for this.
Thanks, that was handy. I've gotta say I liked the sound of the Silent Stroke best. Thought you were a little harsh with the 1 for ease of use, especially if it's a dedicated practice kit. Anyway, you helped me make a decision, so thanks.
If we be fair about it, it is a 1 for ease of use. I can't think of something that's more inconvenient than having to replace every single head.
Well, I have the Silent Strokes on order while waiting for my Pearl Black Halos.... But now I’m thinking about switching my order to the RTOM’s. I play just for fun so I’m ok with swapping heads....and I liked that they were the cheapest. But, with the cost of the kit, what’s another $200... I like the fit ang I like that their tuneable. While I wish this was a more complete comparison, you have covered enough to make me re-think it. Thank you 🥁
Great review. Can you please do the same for cymbal silencers
Do u have a lesson on direction of wood gradient and ply on drum shell? Thx ur chan kicks ass!
Do you think Rtoms or superpads could be used with ddrum triggers? Thanks
Cool thanks for your time
Hi there! I'm just wondering, if you could help me out with these systems. I live in a semi-detatched house and I already have pretty nicely soundproofed room for drumming. Therefore, I'd like to pick a set of silencers, which would leave a noticeable part of the original tone, so that the whole drumset will still sound good on rehearsal recordings.
I know it can be done, for example by taping-up the remo silent strokes. But you've tested all the leading practice systems, so probably you know, which would give me the most satisfying sound. I know I'm gonna use rtom black holes on toms, but I'm not really sure what should I get for the kick and snare. Rtom is probably okay if you can manage the buzz - I have in currently on my 12" snare, and it sounds nice. Also, I love the possibility of practicing rimshots - this is worth gold for me. But what if I'll get myself a 14" snare and the rtom head? The buzz from your snare sounded awful, but I've never heard that on any other demo video.
And the kick. Most important for me right now - what soluion would give the most natural drumkick sound, but still quieter?
I'd be hugely damn grateful for the respose
When you played the black hole snare head in the last part of the video and you said the snares sounded awful, what head were you using underneath? To me it sounded exactly how my silent stroke head sounds on the snare drum which again is awful. Hopefully I'm right and perhaps it sounds better with a regular head underneath?
Would triggers be able to be used along with any of these still? Wonder how it would do with the sensitivity.
What does the entire kit cost include? Is it just Tom and snare heads or does it include bass? And what sizes/quantity of Toms?
I get the 1 on the ease of use for silentstrokes but you can’t give a 4 and a 3 on cost for SPs and RTOM when the those options are over 2.5x the price of the remo st’s.
m trying to decide between an upper tier drum-tec electric kit or something like a pearl export, k sweet cymbal pack with mute options on the entire kit and maybe experiment with recording with the mutes on and then use superior drummer, or some program, to do sample replacement for the sounds. Any insight with my dilemma? Ive only done drum recording with my Alesis dm10 mk2 kit that I currently own. My current living situation calls for me to be quiet more often than not, but I plan to eventually have a recording situation that has no noise limitations. I also want to leave the door open to the high probability of playing drums in a live setting, in the future. Im mainly a guitar player so I would prefer to spend this type of money (3grand range) on a pretty permanent option, and doubt having both an acoustic and electric setup to ever be in my future. Thank you in advance, if you can provide any words of wisdom.
I love your videos. Great tutorials on stuff most don't talk about. Wish you had more subs
Thanks!! My goal is usually to cover the "less-covered" topics.
Stephen Clark you do it very well
im hoping that there will be something that is in the middle between quiet and standard drum set and cymbal volume in the near future.
Thanks!!
Can you do rim techniques on the aquarian super pad?
im deff getting that rtom set dude its on sale now too
Super helpful information! I gave you a like. I’ll prob buy these, and I’ll use your link when I do - Just wanted to let you know tho that it’s okay to crack a smile (and to eat lol)
Great Video !
Thanks, Johnson!
Thank you
Hey Stephen I have a rather peculiar predicament and would like your opinion on options considering you've tried nearly all the popular products out there. I'm looking to reduce my sound of practice by a little bit but maintaining as much tone and feel as possible to the real instrument. This video and others like it seem to really be based on reducing as much noise as possible (for apartment dwellers). I'm actually just BARELY beyond the acceptable noise ordinance and am looking to reduce my volume by just 20-30% or so, so that my band mates can turn down their gear when practicing. Out of the products you've tried what would you suggest for someone that's simply interested in maintain tone and feel while realizing a SLIGHT reduction in volume. So again, volume not really being a factor (since they're all sound reducing products) what is the best in terms of maintaining tone or feel. Also if you have other suggestions on reducing sound a lil bit I'd be all ears. Thanks!
I've found that if you place 2-3 blankets in the base drum leaning against a Silent Stroke head, it gives you very realistic rebound and also has a very pleasing thud. I have a separate drum set specifically for practice and it has eliminated the pains of swapping out heads in-between shows and practice. I would recommend them to anyone not looking to break the bank.. Great Videos Dude!
Thanks! And thanks for the tip! That's really interesting, and that totally makes sense. I'm also hearing from people that those bass drum patches also work well to deaden the excess rebound on the silentstroke heads.
Great video! You should do one on low volume cymbals.
I hadn't thought to do that since I haven't heard of any competing low volume cymbals. But maybe that just means I'm biased toward Zildjian haha!
Are there any other options for low volume cymbals.
Because the RTOM sits over the head instead of on it or replacing it, it doesn't dampen the response from the head which is why the snares can be heard so prominently. He turned the snares off to get rid of the sound.
theres a handfull actually. L80, Gen 16, Sabian quiet tone, agean silent R and a couple more I think. L80s and sabian quiet tones are the most affordable
@@gavinhurley8918 - I bought Arborea mute cymbals on Alibaba/AliExpress, which range from under $100/set for budget to about $300/set for better. (I already had Ziljian L80 on a different set and didn't want to keep switching around)
Hi, very useful video! It helped me set up my own silent kit with silenstrokes and evans soundoff's on cymbals. Now I have a very basic problem: the kit is definitely quiet as I wanted it to be, however I can't find a good way to rehearse using backing tracks. I want them in my headphones (not through PA, or overall volume would be increased, which I don't want), but then I'm not getting enough sound from my kit to confortably play along. I know there are ways to get more tone out of my kit (i saw you video on the topic), but I don't want to raise its volume. I was considering mic'ing up my kit and mix it with the backing track so that I can adjust levels in my headset monitoring, but that would make things a bit more complex and I'm not sure that would work either. I could go with a single-mic setup...
Would you have any advice to share?
It's a bit of an investment, but the Yamaha EAD10 is exactly the solution to this issue. You get to listen at full volume without making the drums acoustically louder, and it's designed to let you mix in the backing track at an appropriate volume.
The upshot is you can even get a decent recording, even with the silent practice setup.
13:02 What do you have on that kick drum? Doesnt sound too bad.
I saw a video where somone wanted to get more tone out of their drums with the silent stroke so they took a strip of painters tape and put it on the head to get more tone and it was pretty good, I've never tried it but if you want more tone out of your drums try it. (Let me know how it sounds in person, please!!!)
ty for this
What kind of patch is that on the RTOM, i may just buy a cheap 3 ply mesh head and glue a kick drum patch?
Has it worked to stuff every acoustic drum with pillows and using L80?
Have you ever tried the Rtom mesh heads only...like the remos..they are actually mounted to the shell like a regular head...the rtoms u show here are the black hole rtoms right? hence the more expensive option...Rtom mesh heads are a few dollars cheaper for me at me local music shop...about $140 for 6 pc set including snare. So i think ill try the rtoms...thks for the video...it helped direct my decision! Keep on drumming rllrlrrlrll!
What’s your take 3 years later? I’m between the rtoms and super pads
Have you tried the Evans sound off heads? i like them better than the Silent strokes..... but haven't tried the RTOM...
Can't thank u enough! Great stuff subbb
Thanks so much! Glad you're liking the channel 👍
how about putting rtom on aquarian superpad under a remo silenstroke on a 14 inch snare?
Amazing video!
Thanks so much!
It would be nice to extend the comparison to some two-ply and three-ply mesh heads: Ballistech 2 three-plys and Roland Powerply two-plys maybe?
Great video dude. I really appreciate the comparisson! I made my mind up and went for rtom pads. Cheers from Argentina!
It's cool to welcome a fellow drummer from south of the equator! 😀
That's awesome! I'm sure those will work great for you.
Great video! Have you tried putting a strip of painter's tape on the RTOMs to enhance the sound quality? I know that dot in the middle functionally does the same thing, but it looks pretty small. I bought a single Silent Stroke head to try out, and it sounds fantastic with a strip of painter's tape. It definitely helped a lot with snare response too. I just don't want to constantly be switching the heads out.
It doesn't work for the same, and the reason has to do with how it works. The Silentstroke basically works by releasing all the resonance through the holes in the mesh head. Adding tape gives a surface to reflect the soundwaves back to the resonant head, and give some of that resonance back.
The RTOM works by basically using sympathetic vibration to activate the sound of the drum, but since you've got two full heads on it already, the resonance is already there, just at lower.volume, the same as if you tapped the rim with a soft mallet. Taping the head doesn't do the same as it does on the silent stroke.
To my ears, the RTOMS naturally have MUCH better tone, assuming you know how to tune and your drums sound good sans pads.
The assumption about the SilentStroke kick - I have both heads mentioned and the SilentStroke doesn't feel like the Pearl Mesh Head at all. Then when you put a Falam Slap pad where the beater makes contact it adds more attack and I think it's very close to the regular drum head I use - an emad- which I also use with a Falam Slap. Maybe that is the key here and your mileage may vary but that's my experience with it.
Interesting. That makes sense! Honestly some kind of pad like that would probably improve the feel of the silent stroke snare head as well (making it more like the RTOM - which has a patch over the center). Anything to absorb that excess springiness.
I don't know what the Pearl head feels like, but my experience with the SilentStroke is that it is too springy for anyone who likes to bury the beater. Personally, I prefer to let the better rebound like I do with a stick, so it wasn't as big of a deal for me, but I wouldn't say it felt as good as the SuperPad which I have on my apartment kit now.
I used the Pearl heads and switched to SilentStrokes. On the kick I also have a Falam Slam an placed a big pillow against the head. The feel became the same as a normal head and the sound too, only much quieter. It did gain some volume though, but it's still quiet enough.
The snare I tuned up high, tried an Aquarian dot on it, but the volume went up so much that it doesnt fit with the toms anymore. Now I'm dampening it with gaf tape, with folds in it. Still not the same as normal, but good enough now for me. I might try a Superpad for the snare though.
Same here. Pillow against the head and Falam Slam patch makes it feel like a normal bass drum head.
On the SilentStroke snare head I use a small piece of gaftape in the centre. The bigger, the louder. It removes the bounce really good and sounds more like a snare too.
For cost and space savings (I only have room for 1 set and do occasionally gig) I use a Silentstroke on an extra snare and rubber pads on the rest of the drums (mine were Vic Firth). The oldschool rubber pads were about the price of 1 Aquarian head or RTom and I can live with them not being as precise. Combined with the low volume Zildjian cymbals this has served me well and made it simple to get ready for gigs. Pretty quiet in my house, but it would not as well in an apartment.
Nice! You know, the whole practice kit thing is really just about finding what works FOR YOU in whatever your situation is. Sounds like you've got it down with your current system! Lately I've been mostly rocking the superpads, but RTOM on the snare for quiet rimshots. So far so good in the apartment :)