Drum Pads for Rock Band - Large Four-Color

I bought the full size Drumshhh pads for two reasons - to help decrease the noise of my Rock Band drum kit and to protect the pads on the kit. While these pads did decrease the noise quite a bit, I found some major drawbacks to their usage.

I have an EL set of drums, which are known to be less sensitive than the other Rock Band drum models. These pads, unfortunately, decrease the sensitivity even further, causing for more dropped notes and having to hit the pads harder (a potentially damaging situation).

I recently attempted to remove the Drumshhh pads from my set, and they made a complete mess of my drum kit. I now have felt and adhesive all over my drum pads. The instructions that come with the Drumshhh pads do indeed say that they can be removed (and I tried per their instructions), but fully removed? No such luck. I'm now left trying to figure out how to remove the remaining felt and adhesive without doing damage to my drum kit and voiding the warranty.

Ok, first things first: NO, these pads aren't gonna make your RockBand drums silent. (Honestly, I don't think it's possible to have something you're whacking with sticks *be* silent) I'd say they knocked the "thwack, clack" down ~60% or so. A noticeable amount that really lets ya hear the music better, which I think makes me a better drummer.

I was going to make my own pads using instructions that are all over the internet with self-adhesive foam and felt layers and a rotary cutter. Bought the supplies, but never got around to it because it was going to be such a PITA. These are a great alternative. The home-made option would have been twice as thick as these pads, which I feared would cause a loss in sensitivity. The Drumshhhh pads have much thinner, denser foam than I could find in the craft stores - and I imagine the adhesive is better; I was able to reposition them easily before applying full pressure to attach the pads.

The pads do change the way the drums feel, but I can't find a downside to it. They don't bounce back as much as without the pads, but I found that a little easier to play tight rhythm sections. It will take a little getting used to the change in my drums - they feel the tiniest bit `mushy' for lack of a better way to describe it - but the protection for my drums and the reduction in 'thwack' is worth it.

Only complaint is that I wish Amazon carried the other styles of Drumshhh pads - the solid color drums look a little cartoon-y. But since I wanted full pad coverage, these were the only real option. The company makes a full-coverage black pad set as well as a quadrant-style version that is really sweet looking. I am planning on taking a black permanent marker to my pads though, so they won't be cartoon-y for long!

They should advertise this product not as something to silent the tapping of the drums, but rather just the protection of the drums for Rock Band. When I first bought Rock Band, I didn't realize that that hitting the drums would somewhat dent the drums (very tiny, but I'm nit-picky, especially with new things). I bought these colorful circles to protect the drums from the dents-- and guess what! They did, and they do at the moment,wonderfully. What they didn't do is remove the sound at ALL. So the stars I rated was for their advertisement--to quiet the tapping of the drums--so I rated it lowly for that. I only recommend these pads for the protection of the drums. Good Luck! =)

The pads are felt covered and do reduce the clickety-clack of the Rock Band Drums.
Do they make them whisper quiet? No.
Do they reduce the noise? Yes.

Things they also do:
Reduce the 'bounce' of the stick off the pad and make it easier to hit bring them back down for repeat notes.
They are the color of the pads and make them stand out more than the little color ring does.
The increase the size (height) of the pad so it is less lickely to hit the rim of the pads with the stick if you contact the pad at an angle.

No, I have not had to hit the drums any harder to ger them to work, either. While they are rubberized, it is a harder rubber similar to a mousepad. They are self adhesive backed and the adhesive is firm enough to hold but weak enough to remove if you should ever want to send the drum kit back under warranty.

After applying the drum pads, I could hear the drums on TV a little better, but there was still a fair amount of noise coming from the drums themselves. My wife, who loves /Rock Band/ but not the clickety-clack of the fake drums, didn't think the Drumshhh pads helped at all.

Overall, you get what you pay for. If you want something that'll completely silence the drums so you can play without waking a baby down the hall, you'll need a to pony up a lot more than fifteen bucks. If you want something that will reduce the annoying clickety-clack to a dull thump, this works fine.