When I first set up Rock Band, I noticed something that many others noticed as well--the drums are very loud. Not only can this cause a disturbance to neighbors, but it detracts from the game experience as well. You tend to hear the CLACK CLACK CLACK of the drums instead of the actual song and drum track. So I set out to find a fix, and being a drummer one of the first things that came to mind was a material used in many practice pads for drums, natural gum rubber. After experimenting with different thicknesses, the results were even better than I hoped.