Drum Pads

[cmikk]

Hey, guys. I hope this is a good place to as this, I'm having trouble finding an answer. Basically, I'm trying to make my own drum pads, and I'm trying to figure out what kind of material I need. If any of you are familiar with the cheaper electric drum kits out there, you'll know they often use some kind of rubber with a transducer inside. I basically need a material with decent stick bounce (though not too much), good durability (i.e. will last more than a show or two), and can either be molded or machined into the proper shapes. Here are a few links to get an idea of what I'm on about.

Typical kit:
http://itsaboutelectricdrums.com/fil...drum-kit-2.jpg

This is closer to what I'm trying to do:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums...ar-trigger-pad

Thanks for the help,
Christian

 

[btrueblood]

Not an easy problem. Your best bet would be to source a variety of rubbers and durometers, and form drum pads out of them to test. I'd think various forms of urethane rubber would be a good bet, as these have pretty good wear resistance, but even vulcanized natural rubber could work with the right compounding.

 

[johnnymat]

I think the relevant rubber property would be rebound resilience ( stick bounce in your terminology).different rubbers have very different rebound resilience properties and the formulations(mix recipes) of these rubbers also influence the property of energy absorbtion.

However at the very bouncy end of the spectrum is polybutadiene( used for super balls) it can be compounded by adding white fillers to deaden the effect

At the other end of the bouncy scale are Aflas or butyl rubbers . there is not much you can do with these to increase the bounce though

in the middle would be natural rubber and neoprene.

any of the above properly vulcanised would be tough enough to last a few gigs.

You should be able to get a rubber compounder to select a couple of the above cure some sheets which you can cut and try

johnnymat

 

[cmikk]

Thank you guys. I think I'll start with neoprene and see how it is.