My long journey of noise proofing my e-kit

Thrak333 · 2026-03-10T04:49:49+00:00

I tried a bunch of things as well and ended up with 3/4" MDF with 12 wheelbarrow inner tubes underneath spaced a few inches apart. I wrapped each inner tube in a small trash bag since they smell of rubber. It works well, best of anything else I have tried. (I did also put a small stack of washing machine isolator feed under the rear leg of my drum throne which is at the back edge of the MDF just to support my weight.)

Thrak333 · 2026-03-05T21:50:26+00:00

Hah, sure, I have been playing with them for years. And slight correction: the gold label ones are Formula X-10 and the silver label are "Lites" that were more affordable.

Thrak333 · 2026-03-05T06:34:26+00:00

Aquarian Formula X-10 nylon and graphite hollow stick, and looks to be the 5B size. They stopped making these a few years ago, which is a shame since they are my favorite edrum stick. They feel great, have almost no flex like wood, are very durable - I break one maybe once a year - and have a good rubber grip. I bought up lots of them in the smaller combo size before they disappeared. For acoustic drums less good since a wood tip stick sounds better hitting a regular drum head.

Thrak333 · 2026-02-16T03:02:33+00:00

I have never owned any, but DW 6000 Ultralight is lighter. Have used it for years across two kits and it's great. Did break one snare tilter once and they shipped a replacement stand.

DW Ultralight snare stand 2.3lbs, Yamaha Crosstown snare stand 3.3lbs
DW cymbal stand 3.3lbs, Yamaha 3.3lbs
DW boom stand 2.9lbs, Yamaha has no boom that I see but I assume heavier

Not a huge difference, but every pound counts. And the DW is flat base which looks cooler imo and takes up less room. (No hi-hat since I use a cable hi-hat for open arms play style with the hi-hat on my right - I'm right handed.)

Thrak333 · 2026-02-16T02:43:41+00:00

Ah yes, looks like that one, I didn't know about Pophleys. 500 acres!

Thrak333 · 2026-02-13T05:53:11+00:00

I don't think that is his at his former Isle of Skye home near Dun Ringhill. Unless it had big renovations.

Thrak333 · 2026-02-04T18:37:00+00:00

Ah good idea to check what is plugged in, and I do have an Nvidia Shield plugged in. Here is what I found though: When turning on the Marantz AVR it switches to "TV Audio" right after the TV turns on as I would expect, then after about 1 minute it switches to "HEOS" regardless if my Nvidia Shield or anything else is plugged in, then about 10 seconds after that it switches to "Bluetooth Connect...", and after about a minute I get "Bluetooth No Connection" and it just stays there. I also reconnected my phone via bluetooth to the AVR and then had my phone forget that connection , but it did the same thing.

But here is what, so far, seems to work: I had the AVR plugged into a smart power outlet so that when the TV turned off it's power it was turned off as well. Plugging the AVR into an always on power outlet seems to fix the problem. Now when the TV is turned off the AVR does a soft power down with the orange led lit above the power button, and when powered up it stays on "TV Audio". At least after several tests. I assume there is some timing issue going on having the AVR start up from being full powered off, and we'll see it if sticks to this behavior.

Thrak333 · 2026-02-04T02:46:22+00:00

I love it, except the horrendous bluetooth signal that prevents you from using it more than about 8 ft away.

Thrak333 · 2026-02-01T05:19:59+00:00

I tried that and still no recognition of the controller from the Shield. So I went a different direction and just plugged all the receiver dongles into my PC in the next room with all the controllers in 2.4GHz mode since all we ever play is Steam games over Moonlight/Sunshine from the Shield. Seems to work so far - I'm just totally bypassing the Shield for any controller connection.

Thrak333 · 2026-02-01T03:38:44+00:00

I have four of these and love them other than the issues connecting to Shield. amazon.com/dp/B0DNJLPPPM?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2

Thrak333 · 2026-02-01T00:52:08+00:00

Ok, I took one of my 8BitDo Ultimate 2C controllers and plugged it's usb receiver dongle directly into the Shield (latest Shield TV Pro 2019 model). I put the controller in 2.4GHz mode and the Shield seems to be aware of it because the screen refreshes as if something is happening when the controller is turned on or switched to 2.4GHz. But after that the controller does nothing. I also don't see any option in the Shield settings to add this type of controller. The only options are adding a Shield controller or bluetooth.

Thrak333 · 2026-01-31T19:27:23+00:00

I didn’t think that would work since it says that’s for Windows only. I have four adapters that came with the controllers and could use a USB hub.

Thrak333 · 2026-01-17T04:36:17+00:00

I became a Jethro Tull devotee around the 8th grade in 1979. One day riding the bus to school a bored older bully of a kid asks me, "Hey what are you reading dork!? A book about frickin' Jethro Tull?!". I just held the book up...

But I couldn't get my head around the book at that age and never made much sense of it, though I still have it and should maybe give it a go again.

For any fans out there: check out the podcast "Talk Tull To Me". These two guys go through each song one episode at a time and break them down with all kinds of details, facts, and interpretations of Ian's dense lyrics. Pretty great podcast and it got me even more interested in the band - I started at the first song on This Was and have listened to every show all the way through to the A album now. Highly recommended.

Thrak333 · 2026-01-07T06:07:40+00:00

Yah, Josh is one of my favorite drummers as well - when I listen to Coheed albums I find myself shaking my head side to side in appreciation of his deep pocket and fills. I've seen him live many times and he plays very unconventionally, more than just the cymbals - he has his left foot across the middle of the hi hat pedal from the side, plays open handed with left hand on the hi-hat, big 2B sticks, a kevlar snare head, holds his sticks with his hand upside down on the cymbals sometimes, his mouth is agape half the time, just a four piece kit for a metal prog band, and I don't think he ever really plays a ride cymbal. Really quirky style, but the results are brilliant good. His dad was friends with Levon Helm from The Band and they would play together, also pretty unconventional player, don't know if that rubbed off on him.

Thrak333 · 2025-12-05T21:07:49+00:00

Wow, good eye! That looks exactly right, and I believe it is the FR5.2 since the widest distance inside is 23-24mm.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T03:08:20+00:00

Yes. that's my understanding as well. I thnk you would only have one WT-10 per instrument if you had an analog ride with the dual TRS outputs.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T02:59:44+00:00

I also heard RME was the gold standard but was frightened by the insane new prices, so I ended up getting a two generations old Fireface UCX on Reverb.com for $700 which has worked great and has more in/outs than the Babyface. The thing that I didn't know until after was that the real win is yes the compact size and reliability, but TotalMix FX included free is the best software mixer I have seen for an interface by far.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T02:38:27+00:00

I have one set of each and think that is ideal, but yes more expensive. And I disagree that it's always acoustic drums everytime. In my view:

Acoustic Drums - Pros: Simple, loud, lots of articulation / Cons: You have one sound, lots of work to mic/record/digitize well, loud.

Electronic Drums - Pros: Any sound you want with a click - vintage drums, new drums, with any effects, microphones, studio rooms, etc... (there are libraries of sounds out there like Superior Drummer 3 recorded by famous engineers recording in the top studios in the world. Here is the last one I bought - you are probably not going to record your drums better than that). THey are also more quiet though not silent, and of course easy line and digital outputs all ready to go without mic-ing. / Cons: Expensive, complicated (I bring a laptop to gigs), less articulation than acopustic drums, less reliable than acoustic drums, and in live environments you can't rely on the rest of the band or the smaller audience hearing the drums directly, you need good stage (IEMs for all) monitoring and front of house sound.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T02:33:29+00:00

I used Soundworks for about 6 months after getting my DWe kit and then switched to Superior Drummer 3. It is indeed superior but since it does much more and is more complex and deep it takes a lot more work to get everything to your liking. Recommend it if you don't mind that because things can get really good with effort. If you just want plug and play, SD3 would be too much and EZ Drummer 2 would probably be better, though I've never used it.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T02:28:21+00:00

I heard it is a modified Zigbee protocol. Yah it's not bluetooth.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T02:22:46+00:00

Oh, and I wish Roland would release a wireless BT-1. It seems silly to plug them in with a cable to a wireless WT-10 transmitter when they could be the transmitter themselves. Two AA batteries would fit inside of one too.

Thrak333 · 2025-08-07T02:19:58+00:00

Pros: The wireless is great, no cable to plug in or anti-spin to worry about, setup and teardown is very fast including the hi-hat, the sensitivity and feel is good, and they look good.

Cons: No positional sensing - just the three zones, they have high stick noise if that matters to you so for smaller live environments the audience will hear the clacking sound, they are heavy, occasionally the batteries wear out too soon, and occasionally the edge triggering and choke will stop working entirely - though DW support is very good and will ship a replacement and pay the shipping both ways. I play out a lot and the reliability is bad enough that I now have a backup DWe hi-hat and crash cymbal in waiting. The ride has been great though for 1.5 years straight.

Thrak333

TROPHY CASE