Not every drummer has the privilege of playing their acoustic drum kit as loud as possible at all times. Neighbors get frustrated, and it’s especially not possible when living in an apartment.
So, most drummers need to make a plan to keep volume levels down when they practice. One good way is to use sound mutes on your drums and cymbals.
In this review, we’re going to check out the sound mutes from Evans. We’ll look at the Fusion Mute Set specifically.
This set includes a drum mute for each drum and cymbal in your setup. These drum mutes are made from a rubber material that imitates the response you get from drumheads.
They’re designed so that you can easily place them over the drums and cymbals for times when you don’t want to make noise. Then you can take them off just as easily when you’re ready to make a loud noise again.
Here’s everything you get in the set:
2 x 14” mute
10” mute
12” mute
16” – 26” bass drum mute
Crash mute
Ride mute
Hi-hat mute
The sound quality you get from these mutes isn’t anything exciting. They deaden the sounds of your drums and cymbals, so they’re not designed to make your kit sound nice while you practice.
However, they do a fantastic job of maintaining the physical aspect of playing. When they’re placed over the drums, you still get the same responsiveness from each shell.
The cymbals feel different, though. Since the mutes are fairly heavy, you don’t get a lot of give from the cymbals. They tend to feel stiff, which takes a bit of getting used to.
These mutes are made from a dense rubber material that keeps them as durable as possible. They’ve been around for decades, and we know many drummers that own them and claim that they’ve maintained their quality.
We’re particularly impressed by the pad that attaches to your bass drum. All the other pads simply rest on top of drums and cymbals.
The bass drum pad has a special design where you clamp it onto the rim. It’s designed so that it can fit on any bass drum, no matter how big or small it is. So, it’s quite versatile.
Just note that this is the fusion version of the set, so it comes with a floor tom dampener for 14” floor toms. If you have a 16” floor tom, the mute won’t fill the whole drumhead space.
These mutes don’t make the drums feel the same to play, but they do a fairly decent job. The mutes for the drums are particularly great in how they feel.
They’re a bit thicker than drumheads, so you naturally get less rebound. That’s actually a good thing, as it helps you strengthen your wrist strength.
In terms of volume, these mutes only produce a fraction of what you get from a standard drum set. You can happily play them at all hours of the night, and no neighbors will hear what you’re doing.
You can even crash on your cymbals, and the mutes will cut out all the resonance.
This set costs around the same price as a set of low-volume drumheads. The value is around the same, as those heads aim to do the same thing with your drum set.
However, the included cymbal mutes allow you to play your cymbals without making any noise, while low-volume cymbals cost a few hundred dollars.
So, we think the price is excellent for the amount of value you get.
Drum mutes are fantastic for practicing without bothering anyone. They’re inexpensive options, and they tend to last years.
However, low-volume drumheads and cymbals are far more popular these days, and they also tend to offer much better playability.
So, drum mutes are great, but they’re not as good as their low-volume competitors.
Evans SoundOff Drum Mutes have been on the market for decades. Drummers in the early 2000s grew up playing with these mutes on all their drums and cymbals. They were hugely popular back then.
They’re not as popular anymore due to all the low-volume practice options. Evans even has their own line of low-volume drumheads called the dB Ones. Those tend to get a bit more traction than the SoundOff mutes.
If you’re looking for something easy and affordable to use that will cover your whole drum kit, these SoundOff mutes are a fantastic tool to use.
If you have a higher budget, we’d recommend going with low-volume drumheads and cymbals instead. They feel much better to play, and they bring actual tones out of your drum set, which makes playing them more enjoyable.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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