Setting your drums at the right volume is essential to maximizing your enjoyment of playing. Let’s take a look at the elements:

Walking softly and carry a bunch of little sticks. Consider using rods or “hot rods:” groups of mini-sticks bundled together. This produces more flex and less volume on acoustic drum sets.

Mutes offer a quick way to dampen 80-90% of acoustic sets’ volume. These are floppy rubber disks that set on the drum heads or cymbals.

Damper rings or gelpacks cut sustain cumulative decibels of a session. Additionally, they improve the control of the sounds.

Padded headphones as noise cancelling hearing protection is a great investment.

For digital sets, turn the volume down or to the right level. Beware of backing track volumes and creep when trying to mix drums and, say, piano accompaniment.