Will a drum riser help isolate the "impact" sound for an apartment?

[leepmeister]

I'm in college, this semester the drummer in my band and I are sharing an apartment, on the 3rd (top) floor. We intend to put mesh heads on an extra drumset to keep set-up in the apartment, rendering them useless for anything but quiet practice, which is what we want (might trigger them down the line).

 

Anyway, the concern is that, being on the top floor, a lot of the sound of the kick pedal impact/vibration and foot stomping is going to transfer to the floor below us, even if there is no drum sound.

 

Will a MDF drum riser help this? Should we modify the typical design at all to more directly address the floor impact issue?

 

Thanks for the help.

[Badside]

Has to be an isolation riser (you can use foam, fiberglass, whatever, there was a topic regarding this recently).

 

Auralex builds a dedicated isolation drum riser.

[leepmeister]

 

Originally posted by Hardtailed there was a topic regarding this recently.

 

 

Yeah I saw it, didn't want to de-rail it with my question, but yeah I see the info on how to make 'em.

Thanks

[Leteguera]

Ok, I have decided to purchase 96 square feet of 2" 703 rigid fiberglass to use as the base of my drum riser.

 

http://www.insulationworld.com/prod...p?idproduct=394

 

or I could get the same amount of mineral wool.

 

http://www.insulationworld.com/prod...p?idproduct=631

 

The rigid fiberglass will be on the floor with a couple sheets of plywood on top, then drums go on top of that. Does this seem like a good idea?

 

The mineral wool is cheaper so I wanna get that, but I am not familier with it. If the mineral wool is just as good as the 703 please let me know because I will purchase that.

 

Thanks,

Allan Franklin

[Kiwiburger]

Architects use polystyrene foam under floor boards as a cheap way of minimising impact noise. I think a sandwich of several layers of MDF and polystyrene foam (or foam rubber, if you can afford it). Even layers of carpet - but the polystyrene with be the cheapest. It's the bubbles of air that are the cushion. In fact - you could probably use bubble wrap - if you were careful not to pop them when making the sandwhich, the load would probably by evenly distributed enough to stay intact.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Although I've never tried polystyrene in that application, I think Kiwi's idea is a pretty good one... I don't think I'd want to use 703 as the "base" layer that the platform would "sit" on.

 

You basically are trying to decouple the riser from the floor to reduce the mechanical coupling / impact noise. As long as you're over on the Auralex site, you might want to look into some of their neoprene "U Boats". Build a frame out of 2X4's, and sit that on top of the neoprene U Boat blocks. A layer of 703 on the underside (facing the floor) of the drum platform won't hurt, and a nice thick "sandwich" layer of various materials on top of it will also help. You can use Auralex Sheetblock on top of the plywood, then a layer of the polystyrene, then a layer of MDF or an additional layer of plywood. Put carpet on top of all of that. I would think that should significantly reduce the coupling between the kick pedal and the floor.

[Kiwiburger]

Just had another idea ... why not get some inflatable innertubes. Or even an inflatable bed. That would give some real isolation.