Band Project

Shortly after the beginning of this year we purchased the game Rock Band 2 for the Wii. We love it. We recently had the opportunity to play Guitar Hero World Tour while visiting with family, and we decided that between the two games we enjoy Rock Band more. However the one thing we did like about Guitar Hero was the configuration of the drum set. It has three drum pads and two cymbal pads which gives you a more realistic feeling of drumming during game play. Despite the lacking cymbal pads in our Rock Band set we still like the game better for multiple different reason. However, the real reason for this post was not to compare the two games. The reason was to share with you our little project that made our Rock Band system even better.

When striking the rubber drum pads with drum sticks there was a distinct thwacking noise. Which at times could get very loud, especially when the drummer really gets into the excitement of playing a song. There are many different techniques the other have used to help deaden the thwack. We decided to go with the addition of thick foam placed on the drum pads. This is to turn the hard thwack sound of the wood stick hitting pad into more of a soft low thud sound.

Here is what we did.

Supplies Needed:

4 - 6mm thick by 8.5x11in pieces of Craft Foam (black)
4 - 2mm thick by 8.5x11in pieces of Craft Foam (red, yellow, green, blue) w/peel-n- stick back.
1 - Compass, the one used for making circles, not the one used for finding true north.
1 - Cutting board
1 - Exacto knife
1 - 1-2mm thick piece of chip board, we used the back of a scrapbook paper package. Sturdy cardboard would work also.
1 - Spray Adhesive, make sure it is safe for use on rubber and foam. Elmers has one.
1 - Large trash bag



Each pad of the drum set has a specific color that corresponds with a note in the game. We chose to add the colored foam for two reasons, 1) we just think it looks cool, and 2) it actually helps beginners and children to recognize faster which pad needs to be struck when the notes are on screen. We placed the four different colored peel-n-stick foam pieces onto the four black pieces of foam.

We measured our drum pad and set our Compass to make a circle slightly smaller than our drum pad,less than a centimeter. We created a template for the circles we needed to cut using the chipboard, to ensure that all the foam circles would be the same.

When we cut the chipboard we made sure to cut the circle out of the middle of the 12in x 12in board. This way we could use the piece with the big hole in it as a stencil/shield. We cut bot sides of the large trash bag to create a long flat sheet of plastic. We then cut a circle out of the middle of the trash bag. Using the spray adhesive we lined up the hole in the trash bag with the hole in the 12x12 chipboard, and stuck the two together. This created a drape that could be placed over the drum set and protect the electronic parts from the spray as we attached the foam to the rubber pads. We then used the circle template to cut our four colored circles from the foam pieces.

We placed the trash bag drape over the drum set, aligning the hole with the colored pad that corresponded with the correct colored foam piece. We sprayed the adhesive on the black side of the foam circle and then sprayed the drum pad. We removed the trash bag and place the colored foam circle with the adhesive side down onto the drum pad, making sure that it was centered. We did that four times,and presto we now have four new sound-muffling fully colored drum pads!!


We of course have already tested the improvements that we made to the drum set and they work great. There is no loss of function, meaning the pad sensors are still just as quick to respond when the pad is stuck. The thwacking sound is now a low thud and does not interfere nearly as much with the enjoyment of playing the game. We are very pleased with ourselves!!