The Vater 6 inch single sided practice pad is a great option for a portable pad that easily fits into backpacks and other smaller bags. It offers a soft rubber surface that is more on the quiet side in terms of practice pad volume.
Feel and Playability
This practice pad has a pretty small playing surface at 6 inches in diameter, but even with the smaller playing area it still offers some excellent playability. The playing surface is the softer, red rubber that Vater is currently using on their practice pads. The rubber is pretty thick and it offers some good rebound and stick definition, which I like. This is also just a one-sided practice pad, so there’s no alternative surface on the reverse side.
The bottom is padded but it isn’t very tactile, so if you’re laying this pad directly on a harder surface like a countertop or a table it tends to move around a little bit, especially if you play it harder. That’s easy to remedy though by just placing it on something softer like a towel or something to keep it from moving around.
How Loud Is The Vater Single Sided Practice Pad?
This is one of the softer, more quiet practice pad surfaces available from Vater and it’s pretty quiet when compared to many other practice pads with harder surfaces. I find this pad to be quiet enough to use in my apartment and it’s not really going to be overly loud or bothersome if there are other people around.
Portability and Design
As far as practice pads go, this one is quite portable. The smaller design easily fits into backpacks, and it might even be small enough to fit into some stick bags or smaller gear bags. The red pad surface is about 6 inches in diameter, and the total diameter including the base is about 7 inches. This pad is also only about 1-1/8 inches thick. It’s a pretty solid and sturdy feeling pad but it only weighs about 1 pound.
The base feels like a wooden composite like pressed board, and it’s painted black which smoothes out the edges a bit and gives it a nice look. On the bottom there is a centered mount for mounting on a stand. There is a also a thin ring of padding on the bottom to provide a little bit of insulation when placing this on a harder surface, but as I mentioned earlier it isn’t very tactile and doesn’t really hold the pad in place on smooth, hard surfaces.
There is a larger 12 inch version of this pad as well, if you like the design but want something larger.
Durability
This is a very durable feeling practice pad and there really isn’t much that can go wrong with it. The rubber playing surface is secured well onto the base and I haven’t seen any of these have issues with falling apart. It’s durable enough that it can be dropped or beat up and still hold together, even if it gets scuffed up.
Pros
- Very portable
- Durable and well constructed
- Available in two sizes
- Plays great with good rebound and sticking definition
- Can be played more quietly
Cons
- Slides around a little during playing while sitting on hard, smooth surfaces
The Verdict
This smaller Vater practice pad is a great option for drummers who prefer a softer, more quiet playing surface and who also need portability.
The playing surface is excellent for warmups and rudiment work, and it provides all the playability of a larger practice pad without the bulky size and weight of a larger pad. The stand mount is handy for drummers who prefer to mount smaller practice pads on a stand.
