Best Drum Risers and Noise Platforms for Electronic Drums

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The kick pedal is the part of an electronic kit your neighbors hear. Every stroke pushes energy into the floor, and in a wood-frame apartment it comes out as a steady thud in the ceiling below. A drum riser or noise platform sits between your pedals and the floor and soaks up a lot of that energy before it reaches the building.

This list covers the commercial platforms I’d look at in late 2026, from small pedal boards to full-kit decks, plus when a homemade riser is the better buy. It’s for apartment and condo players, parents with a kit in an upstairs bedroom, and anyone who’s had a polite knock on the door. If you’re not sure the floor is your problem, read can neighbors hear electronic drums first.

How I picked

I haven’t tested these platforms. The picks come from manufacturer specs and spec sheets (Roland, Auralex, Apartment Drummer), US retailer listings at Full Compass, Kraft Music, Adorama, Chuck Levin’s and zZounds, and recurring owner reports from apartment drummers. Specs were checked on November 3, 2026.

What I weighted:

• Impact isolation. Does it decouple the kick and hi-hat from the floor? That’s the job.
• Fit with e-kits. Size and compatibility with common kick pads, towers and hi-hat stands.
• Feel. A platform that makes the pedals bouncy or raises them too high changes your technique.
• US availability. Several noise products are hard to find in the US right now, so I say where stock is thin.
• Honest claims. Very few makers publish test data. Where they do, I quote it and say who measured it.

Isolation products also have a hard limit. They deal with impact noise through the floor. They do little for the tap of sticks on pads, which travels through the air. For the full set of fixes, see how to make electronic drums quieter.

Roland NE-10 Noise Eater: best pedal platform

The NE-10 is the product most e-drummers mean when they say “noise eater.” It’s a low board, 8-5/16 in wide, 21-5/16 in deep and 1-3/16 in high, with a set of dome-shaped rubber dampers underneath. You set a kick pedal and kick pad on it, or a hi-hat control pedal, and the dampers decouple it from the floor. It weighs 6 lb 3 oz.

Roland says it reduces playing noise and vibration transfer to the rooms below by about 75% compared with playing without it. That figure comes from Roland’s own test data, and Roland doesn’t publish the test conditions, so treat it as a rough guide. Still, it’s the only number in this category from a major maker.

Compatibility is specific. Roland lists the NE-10 for standalone use with the KD-9 kick pad, the KD-7 kick trigger and the FD-8 hi-hat controller. For stand-based setups like the KD-140 and KD-120 kick pads and the VH-13 and VH-11 hi-hats, Roland says you also need NE-1 feet under the stand legs. With non-Roland kits, the board is sized for a single pedal plus a compact kick pad, so measure the footprint of your kick tower before you buy. Wide towers won’t fit.

Owners generally report a clear reduction in thump downstairs, especially on wood floors. The one US retail review I found, on Adorama, gave it four out of five and said it made a noticeable difference without fully eliminating vibration felt in the room below. That matches what I’d expect: the NE-10 isolates the pedal, but your throne and the rest of the kit still sit on the floor.

The downsides: you need one board per pedal, so a kick and hi-hat setup means two boards. It’s expensive for what it is. And availability is a real problem in late 2026. Roland still lists the NE-10 on its global site, but Adorama marks it as no longer available, Chuck Levin’s shows it sold out without plans to restock, and Full Compass lists an extended delivery time. If you find one in stock, it’s still my first pick. If you don’t, jump to the Silent Stomper below.

Roland NE-1 Noise Eater: best add-on for stand legs

The NE-1 is a small isolation foot, 2-13/16 in square and 1-5/16 in tall, weighing about 4 oz. It goes under each leg of a kick pad stand or a hi-hat stand. Roland lists it for the KD-140 and KD-120 kick pads and the VH-13 and VH-11 hi-hats.

On its own, the NE-1 is a partial fix. Roland’s own page says the NE-10 is needed for the pedals, with the NE-1 going under the legs, and it quotes the same “about 75%” figure from Roland test data for the combination. In practice, I’d think of the NE-1 as the second step: once your pedals sit on an NE-10 or another platform, NE-1 feet stop the stand legs from passing vibration around the platform.

They’re also handy for the hi-hat stand on kits with a real stand-mounted hi-hat, and some owners put them under throne legs or the rack feet to soften rack vibration. Roland doesn’t list those uses, so results are on you.

The downsides are cost and scope. You need one per leg, so a hi-hat stand alone needs three. Retailers don’t always state how many come in the box, so check before ordering. And like the NE-10, US stock is patchy. Kraft Music lists it as available for special order.

If you have a kit with a separate hi-hat stand and kick pad stand, the NE-10 plus a set of NE-1 feet is Roland’s full answer for pedal noise.

Silent Stomper: best NE-10 alternative

Silent Stomper platforms come from Apartment Drummer, a small Canadian seller that builds pedal platforms for e-kits and practice pads. They ship to the US. The regular single platform is 10 x 18 in and the double is 14 x 18 in, sized for a double pedal or a kick and hi-hat side by side. Each platform comes with two extra rubber feet that go under hi-hat stand legs or kick trigger spikes.

There’s also a cheaper LITE line, 16 x 8 in for a single pedal and 18 x 8 in in the XL size. The seller recommends the XL for Evans RealFeel practice pads and towers with a flat base. LITE platforms don’t include the extra rubber feet. Product photos show the platforms under Alesis Nitro kick towers, and the seller lists compatibility with Roland, Alesis, Yamaha, Donner and Evans setups.

The appeal is simple: it does what the NE-10 does, and it’s built specifically for e-kits rather than one brand’s pads. The double size covers both pedals on one board, which is neater than two NE-10s.

The downsides are the usual small-seller ones. The product pages don’t list materials, weight or load ratings. The noise claims are marketing, with no published test data. The listings I checked showed several pack options sold out, so you may wait for a restock. And since it only covers the pedals, your throne and rack still sit on the floor.

If you want something you can pack away in a closet and you can’t find an NE-10, this is where I’d look next.

Auralex HoverDeck v2: best modular full-kit deck

Auralex is an acoustics company, and the HoverDeck v2 is its modular drum riser. It comes as a set of two panels, each 23-3/4 in square and about 1 in thick (the product page says 1 in, the spec sheet 1.15 in), with an MDF laminate core, a web of “ISO-Puck” risers underneath and a fabric top. The panels join with hook-and-loop fasteners. Auralex says eight panels suit a typical four- to five-piece kit. Its spec sheet shows a six-panel layout at about 71 x 48 in, which covers most compact e-kits with the throne.

This is the only product here that puts the whole kit and throne on one platform, which is how a good riser should work. It’s low, tidy and quick to assemble.

The catch is what it’s designed for. Auralex describes the HoverDeck as a way to decouple drums from stages and floors to reduce resonance and improve drum tone. That’s a studio and stage goal with acoustic kits, not the same as stopping kick thump from reaching an apartment below. The page doesn’t mention electronic drums, and Auralex doesn’t publish a load rating. On paper, a 1 in panel with small rubber pucks has less give than a riser on tennis balls or inner tubes, so I’d expect less impact isolation.

It’s also expensive once you buy enough panels. zZounds lists the older bundled HD-64GIG kit with a road case as no longer available, so expect to buy panel pairs.

Buy it if you want a portable, good-looking full-kit deck for a home studio or for gigs, and you also want some isolation. If your only goal is to stop complaints from downstairs, a homemade riser does more for less.

Compare the platforms

The best option you can’t buy: a homemade riser

None of the commercial options above float the whole kit and throne on soft supports, and that’s what works best for downstairs neighbors. A homemade riser does: a heavy deck of MDF on 2×4 runners, resting on halved tennis balls, inflated inner tubes or high-density foam.

Published builds back this up. Ronny Watson’s foam-and-MDF platform for his electronic kit, written up in Sound On Sound in January 2014, left no detectable kick vibration in the floor in his listening tests, and in apartment drumming threads a full floating riser is the fix people most often credit for ending complaints. The materials are cheap compared with commercial full-kit platforms, and you can build it to any size. The downsides are the time, the weight (a double-layer MDF deck is a two-person lift) and a step of about 3-1/2 to 4 in.

My step-by-step riser guide has a materials list, dimensions and a support layout for a 60 x 72 in deck.

What about a beaterless pedal?

A beaterless kick pedal hides the trigger inside the pedal, so there’s no beater slamming into a pad. Roland’s KT-10 is the best-known example, and some kits ship with a beaterless kick. It cuts kick impact at the source, which is often more effective than isolating a regular kick afterward.

If you’re still picking a kit, consider one built around a beaterless kick. My silent drum kit guide covers them. If you already have a kit and want to swap pedals, my kick pedal guide explains what fits.

Buying guide: picking a riser or platform

Pedal platform or full riser?

Start with the pedals. In most homes, the kick and hi-hat cause most of the noise that reaches neighbors. A pedal platform handles that with almost no setup.

Move to a full riser if:

• you live above someone in a wood-frame building,
• the pedal platform helped but the thump is still there,
• or you play kick-heavy styles or double kick.

A full riser also isolates the throne, which rocks with every stroke and can pass more vibration than people expect.

Measure before you buy

For a pedal platform, measure the footprint of your kick pad or tower plus the pedal, and the width of your hi-hat stand’s legs. The NE-10 is just over 8 in wide, so wide kick towers won’t fit. The Silent Stomper double is 14 in wide.

For a full deck, set up the kit and throne as you play, measure the outer edges and add a few inches on every side. My guide on how much space e-drums need has real dimensions for popular kits.

Height matters for feel

A low platform keeps pedal feel close to normal. The NE-10 is about 1-3/16 in tall. A taller platform under only the pedals means your feet sit higher than your throne expects, so you may need to raise the throne a little. That’s not a problem on a full riser, since everything goes up together.

Heavy and soft beats light and hard

Since almost nobody publishes test data, fall back on the physics: a heavy platform on soft supports isolates better than a light one on hard feet. That’s why a homemade MDF riser on tennis balls can outdo a thin commercial panel, and why a pedal board only helps the pedals. When comparing products, ask how much the board weighs and what it rests on.

Use a rug on top

A rug or mat under the kit, or on top of a riser, stops pedals and stands from creeping and protects the floor. On its own, it’s too thin to stop impact noise. See my picks for drum mats.

Don’t forget the rest

Platforms won’t fix airborne noise. Mesh pads, quieter cymbal pads, closed doors and keeping the kit off shared walls all help with tapping.

Final advice

If you only do one thing, isolate the kick and hi-hat pedals. Get an NE-10 if you can find one, or a Silent Stomper if you can’t. Test with someone downstairs. If the thump is still there, build a full floating riser that carries the throne too. That combination solves the noise problem for nearly every apartment drummer I’ve heard from.