Best Drum Heads (Updated Dec 2024 )

How effective are drum mutes?

Drum and cymbal mutes are very effective. They definitely come with the cost of making the drums less fun to play on, and they can create a lot of rebound noise.

There are many ways to make your drums quiet, but they’re all expensive. If you don’t have the money for those methods, try these affordable solutions. Using drum mufflers doesn’t completely silence your drums, but it does help. It’s also important to dampen your drum with something else, too. And if you don’t want to disturb your neighbors, play a little quieter.

What are drum and cymbal mutes like to play?

Quiet drums. Drum mutes are just like playing with headphones off or a drum amp turned off. The drums are very quiet and not very responsive, kind of like an electronic drum set. I’m being honest with you here. In my experience, these drums don’t sound as good as acoustic ones. They’re not as much fun to play either.

During my teenage years, I played the drums to practice for hours and hours. However, the loud noise my roommates made often interrupted my practice. So I bought drum mutes. It was a small price to pay for a quiet environment.

Do drum mutes make the bass drum quiet?

If you want to muffle the sound of a bass drum, you can use a bass drum mute. It will definitely reduce the volume. But if you really want to silence it, you should also stuff a pillow or blanket into the drum.

The bass drum is a large instrument, and it makes a lot of noise. To mute the sound, you’ll need to put something soft inside the drum. A pillow or cushion would work, or you could remove the front head of the drum and put it in the drum.

Do drum mutes make drums silent?

Drum mutes don’t make your set sound like a library. They reduce the volume, but you won’t hear the drum set tick or tap. You’ll still hear some tapping sounds as you play.

If you live in a house with thin walls, poor soundproofing, or neighbors that don’t like your drumming, drum mutes might not be enough to solve the problem. However, they can significantly reduce the overall volume from the drum set. That can be sufficient for most drummers.

What Are Drum Mutes Made of?

Most drum mutes are made of soft rubber. This is because the rubber is able to absorb a lot of the sound, but still give you a slight bounce. Some mutes will use foam, rubber, and neoprene in their construction. The foam mutes are cheap and straightforward, but they take away the bounce entirely. You will feel like you are playing on a drumset, not through it.

Mesh Heads or Drum Mutes for Silencing Drums

If you want to be able to swap between a practice kit and a normal one, you need a mesh head. If you are only using the practice kit occasionally, then you will rarely swap heads and would therefore be fine with a drum mute.

Mesh heads tend to be quieter than muffled drum heads, making them ideal for apartment life. They are also more responsive than the muffled kind, so they might ruin your technique over time. But this is much better than the alternative, which is no response.

Drum mutes are circular pieces of rubber or neoprene that you place over your kit. They are considerably cheaper than mesh heads and much easier to attach and detach from your kit. However, they can feel worse than mesh heads and are slightly louder.

Alternatives to Drum Mutes

Drum and cymbal mutes have some serious problems. For instance, they don’t sound good, they don’t allow drummers to fully express themselves, and they don’t bounce back as well as real drums. The only thing drum mutes have going for them is that they’re better than nothing. But there are alternatives to practicing silently.

Electronic drum sets are expensive, but they are also many steps ahead of traditional drum mutes. They make no sound, they have a million functionalities, and they are the best option for home practice due to their small size and relative inaudibility. However, they are much more costly than the $30 you might spend on drum mutes.

While cymbal mutes are affordable, they don’t sound good. They also have a bad feel. If you want a high-quality alternative, you should buy low-volume cymbals. These cymbals have a much better sound and feel than the mutes. One of the best low-volume cymbals is the L80 by Zildjian. It can reduce noise by as much as 80%.

If you want to keep practicing drums without irritating your neighbors, try Remo Silentstroke drumheads. They’re super quiet, but still have all the playability and resonance of a regular drumhead. They’re also cheap, so you can replace them more often.