Drum room dampening

gbftats

Member
My kit is upstairs in a real small room, i was wondering what you guys would recommend for muffling the room so the neighbors wont complain.. i have used the quiet pads on the drum set, but i hate killing the feel of the heads.
 
My kit is upstairs in a real small room, i was wondering what you guys would recommend for muffling the room so the neighbors wont complain.. i have used the quiet pads on the drum set, but i hate killing the feel of the heads.

The very first thing I would do is to get the drums to the lowest possible floor, like the basement if you have one. The higher a sound source is in elevation, the more it will be dispersed inside and out. That's why loud speaker systems are usually up as high as is practical in arenas, ball fields and concert stages... better dispersion.

Dennis
 
ADDED: oops, he has a small room to begin with... NEVERMIND (am leaving the below for others who may access to a big room).

Best real solution i have used is a room within a room and it aint cheap as Sonex or other solutions. Basically, at one place i lived i played with the maintenance guys of this 200+ apt 10+ building complex. We had full exclusive use of the second recreation room. So what we did is build a room INSIDE the main recreation room. Naturally the inner room had all the sound while the air and secondary (outermost) structure removed the remainder. You could virtually not hear anything from outside the building.

It could be easy/cheap if you can frame, loosely yet fully insulate between the wall and throw up sheetrock yourself. Added benefit is you can run a separate electrical distribution system and wire outlets where you need them. As always, follow ALL building codes, inspection, etc.
 
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Hi gbftats.

I just wrote an article at TheParadiddler.com that I believe will give you some guidance and suggestions as far as damping your drum sound (well, from everyone else's perspective!):

The Thing About the Neighbors

Some practical suggestions, and a bit of comedy as well! Let us know if it helps. And have fun!
 
I use lots of rugs on the floors and moving blankets on the walls. Auralex was too expensive for as much as I needed. You can make your own bass traps for the corners. Just search google.
 
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