Full Review: Movement Drum Company practice pad kit

I'd been curious about this pad from Movement Drum Company since I first saw ads for it early last year. However, with a retail price of just over $50, I wasn't prepared to make the commitment, especially when I already had pads that served me well.

Recently I found a "slightly used" one for sale online for considerably less, and decided it was time to try one out. So I made an offer, and a few days ago I took delivery.

The pad itself is very simple, with only a small logo screened onto the primary head. The primary head has a 10.5" diameter surface of roughly 1/8" thick, embedded onto a dense 12" diameter platform (which appears to be some kind of compressed wood resin) and surrounded by a raised rim of hard plastic. I assume the plastic rim is also glued down somehow onto the wood platform, but it's not clear with what kind of adhesive.

This makes it good for practicing rimshots. The response of this primary head is reasonably lively and good for most snare drumming practice. However, I have to say that it didn't excite me; I didn't get a sense that I was experiencing anything radically different or new. Then it hit me; the feel was almost exactly like the feel of the silicon ruybber head used on RCP's Active Snare practice pad (which I reviewed late last summer). Looking more closely at the Movement pad and the installation of its primary surface, I noticed a couple of small blobs of what looked like dried, clear glue poking out from underneath the surface. (Look closely at the photo above and you can see them in the lower-right quarter.)

The bottom of the pad has another playing surface, roughly 1/4" thick and more gently bouncy than the topside, but still quite responsive.  This appears to be glued directly onto the bottom of the platform. Turning the pad over to use the underside surface requires a tabletop with some padding, or else you'll hear the hard plastic against the bare table. I set mine on top of another rubber practice pad that was just slightly larger in diameter than the rim, which made the feel and sound a little less jarring. However, there is a hollow quality to the sound when playing the underside.

So far, I was not getting anything radically new or different in the feel of playing on either side of the pad.

The feel of the underside surface was similar in some ways to the response of many rubber practice pads I've tried, and reminded me of playing on the red Vater Chop pad, another model that did not impress me enough to keep.

Then I turned my attention to the accessories that complete the Movement practice pad kit: a soft foam insert and a hard plastic laminate, which are meant to be used in combination with the primary top surface.

You can place the soft insert on top of the primary surface for more of a workout, and far less bounce, at a quieter volume. This makes the pad a lot more like the pads from Reflexx and Drumeo, both of which provide these softer sides built into their pads. Using the Movement pad with this softer insert (fabric side facing up) on top of the primary surface provides a similarly "mushy" feel that can be used when you want to make your hands work more without the benefit of a lively bounce.

An aside: When I was a kid back in the Dark Ages (circa 1973), we were taught to use a pillow for this purpose. A pillow gives NO rebound at all, and you must do ALL of the work with your hands and wrists -- which is great if you want to slow down your rudiments and really focus on hand and wrist position, build endurance and dial in technique. (I discovered that the top of our sofa could be used the same way, only with just a touch more bounce that the pillow didn't provide, which made it perfect for practicing timpani rolls on at home.)

Using the soft insert with the clear plastic laminate on top was a revelation. It gave the feel of a real drum, with just enough bounce to simulate a Mylar head -- perfect for my purposes. I enjoyed this combination most of all, and would happily use it again.

Removing the soft insert and putting the clear laminate directly onto the primary surface gave the feel of a very tightly-tensioned Kevlar head. Since I don't play Kevlar this did not excite me, though I could see its usefulness for modern marching drummers. The laminate is rather thick and rigid, making it durable and delivering a high degree of articulation. (Bonus points for the fact that it's removable!)

Note: When using the soft insert, place it with the fabric side facing up. Playing on the foam rubber side will wear it out very quickly.
The laminate is made of clear, fairly rigid plastic.
It can be used with or without the soft insert.
Each combination will give a different feel and sound.






























Here are a series of videos illustrating the different combination that can be utilized on this pad.


1. The pad without accessories, top and bottom surfaces

2. Utilizing the soft insert

3. The pad with the laminate, first with the soft insert and then alone

As you can see, this is a practice pad with multiple possibilities for use, depending on the needs dictated by either the style or by the player.

It's good that one pad can offer this much flexibility. And in this price-point, there simply aren't other options that provide a similar experience.
If you really need this much flexibility in one pad, this might not be a bad place to start.

It's also worth noting that if you really need the complete package, you will want to make sure you have a bag to keep it all in so pieces don't get lost or damaged.

Movement also offers a Marching practice pad that comes with two playing sides, one of which is permanently covered with a woven fiber laminate and a plastic rim. From the photos, it looks a lot like similar pads from Offworld and other companies.

Finally, when I went looking for Movement Drum Company's "origin story" I found this:

Our Story
Movement Drum Company is a husband and wife team that aims to help percussionists by creating the most versatile and complete practice pads in the market. We started Movement Drum Company because we love music and believe in it's ability to change lives, create communities, and represent a voice to the voiceless. Because of what both music and the drums have done for us, we want to give back. 

Playing the drums should be liberating, and the sound or size of the instrument should never cause restrictions. With this in mind, our mission is to create quality driven percussion tools that enable drummers to practice and play in any environment without compromise. Honesty, experimentation, and a commitment to learning from history are our best tools.

This was accompanied by a photo of a young Asian couple that honestly could have been taken from a clip-art gallery. The man's face is mostly obscured. The couple's names and address do not appear anywhere on the web site. The country of origin is not listed, though a phone number is provided for if there are questions.
A separate web page provides an electronic form for US customers to begin a return if one becomes necessary. (Non-US customers are told that sales are final. Huh.)

This, plus the price-point, lead me to believe that the pad is made in China, perhaps by one of the same factories that make RCP's Active Snare pad.

This is probably not a pad I would go out of my way to buy at full price, though I would totally understand someone on a student budget spring for this and getting quite a lot of use from it.

The Double Sided Premium 4-in-1 practice pad retails for $52.99 plus a very low $5 flat rate shipping directly from Movement Drum Company. (The Marching pad retails for $54.99.) They also offer free returns for US customers, so it might be best to buy directly from Movement rather than from an online retail outlet.

Happy drumming.