For practicing/recording live with band, what is a way to dampen the drum volume?

[hangwire]

I moved and now our band practices in a partially unfinished basement with exposed concrete walls. It seems that now the drums on our live practice recordings are too loud and overbearing.

 

What is a relatively cheap way to keep the drums from being overbearing. I saw those pro "screens", but is there an easier way to get at least half as good results? Maybe soem material I can buy at Home Depot?

[Paul_Caruso]

We need to do this to our basement which we want to put a drum kit in too! I await the replies. I had previously just considered hanging heavy carpet a few inches away from the wall to stop some of the reflections.

[hangwire]

I just don't want to make the band and the drummer seem seperated/boy-in-the-bubble too badly I though of geting a BIG plexiglass or similar "wall", but that may seem too weird... if affordable at all

[rumblebelly]

Hanging carpet, soundboard, mattresses, whatever will make the room much more tolerable. Whenever we "soundproofed" a room, it seemed like the covered walls would just suck out the sound from the room. It's a really weird experience if you put enough stuff on the walls and covered all the surfaces, even the ceiling.

[Old Steve]

You've got two issues at work here...volume reduction and ambience reduction (for lack of a better word).

 

If the goal is to soundproof a drum room, so that people outiside can't hear it, it can be very costly and difficult to do. Basically, you need mass...heavy walls and surfaces that won't vibrate with the noise. You can reduce some of the mass needed by uncoupling the interior (vibrating) walls of a room with the exterior (non-vibrating) walls...if they aren't connected in any way, the interior wall won't shake the exterior wall. Anyway, this is probably overkill for what you need.

 

Sounds to me that the issue is that the room is to "live" for you and you just need to dampen it a little bit. What you want to do is catch the soundwaves and stop them instead of letting them ricochet off of all the cement walls around you. That's much easier to do. Just remember the hard flat surfaces are your enemy and replace them with soft irregular surfaces. Put a layer or two of carpet under the drums. Hang heavy cloth (carpet, packing blankets) on the cement walls. Also, move the kit away from as many walls as possible. While it might not be practical to set it up in the center of the room, it can be equally bad putting it in a corner where the close surfaces act like an ampitheater.

 

That's a good place to start. If you want to get fancy, you can buy special foam products designed to trap sound as well.

 

I wouldn't buy acrylic panels, however. All that really does is create another hard flat surface to bounce the drum sound off of. While it MAY block some sound from getting into the rest of the room, it'll be even louder behind the kit because the "wall" is even closer to the kit.

[Bb]

You are basically playing in a very reflective surface that is well insulated (I'm assuming a basement surounded by earth, even a ranch style with windows).

 

Follow Old Steve's advice and your on the right track. Don't buy fancy materials. Used sheets, blankets, carpets, etc...are your new best friends. In addition, don't overlook furniture....a used couch in the corner can help eliminate a bass trap...not to mention provide a seat for your friends, hot chicks/guys, etc....

 

Don't forget about the floor..cover it with carpets....if low frequency continues to be a problem build a few platforms for the trap kit (drums), Bass amp, 4x12....use 2x4s, MDF board, and foam (or strips of carpet) on the platform side that mates with the floor.

 

Bb

[Old Steve]

 

Originally posted by Bb Don't forget about the floor..cover it with carpets....if low frequency continues to be a problem build a few platforms for the trap kit (drums), Bass amp, 4x12....use 2x4s, MDF board, and foam (or strips of carpet) on the platform side that mates with the floor. Bb

 

 

Another advantage of putting stuff like the drums up on a small riser is that if/when the basement floods, you've got a little leadtime before stuff starts getting ruined.

 

In my experience, there are two types of basements..those that have had a flood of some sort, and those that will.

[Picker]

Hey Steve...

 

It actually never occured to me to build a platform for the drums. I'm not sure I understand how this would help (aside from the flooding). What accoustical benefits would I get if I built a low platform for my drumset?

[ulank]

Originally posted by Old Steve Another advantage of putting stuff like the drums up on a small riser is that if/when the basement floods, you've got a little leadtime before stuff starts getting ruined. In my experience, there are two types of basements..those that have had a flood of some sort, and those that will.

 

Yah, I've thought of doing that cuz I fear the day the flood will occur. All my amps are up on casters, so I have a couple inches to spare there (plus everything in the room is mobile ) and I though it might be nice to have a mobile riser for the drums for both flood protection and, well, mobility.

 

One of these days I'll get to that.

[Old Steve]

Ulank and Picker:

 

A riser is pretty easy to make and worth every penny, IMHO. Ulank, a mobil one is a bit more complicated and adventurous as a project, but if that's what you wanna do, go for it.

 

A riser can actually do several things acoustically. First off, you can build it if you want to uncouple the kit from the floor. So if you had a drumset on the 2nd floor, and the kick was making the chandelier rattle, you could build a riser, insulate the area underneath it, and reduce the vibrations going directly from the floor to the joists to the cieling.

 

I've used uncarpeted plywood risers in a basement, and the whole riser almost becomes a resonator for the kit. Kind of like playing on a big acoustic guitar...sort of warms up the sound for lack of a better description.

 

In your case, the primary benefit would be that you could 'treat' the riser. You could acoustically deaden it by insulating underneath it and then carpet the top of it. I suppose from a scientific standpoint, sound waves won't resonate concrete so almost 100% of the wave bounces right back. On a more resonant surface, some of that sound energy is absorbed and expended in order to vibrate the riser, so the reflected sound is reduced.

 

To me, the primary reason has always been to protect from water damage in case of a flood. My current basement is practically unfloodable (we're on a hill, and the water could only get about 1" deep in the whole place before it would run out the door, through the garage, and down the hill). Still, seeing my kick drum sitting in a puddle of muck is something I want to avoid, and we've had our water heater leak out, a backed up sewage line, and a couple of other occasional problems that have more than paid for the hassle of building the riser.

 

As for "how to", here's how I make 'em. Get two sheets of 3/4" thick plywood, and a pile of 2x4's. Make a frame with the 2x4's (mine is 8'x6') with the joists running parallel at 12" or 16" intervals. You can try 24" spans, but just remember that the further apart the spans are, the more the riser will wiggle..closer makes it more rigid. Then cap off the parallel 2x4's at each end with two more 2x4's. In the end, you'll have a wooden rectangle with a bunch of horizontal 2x4's inside it. Now, cut your plywood sheets to fit on the frame...make sure that the 'seam' where the sheeting meets isn't sitting over one of the spans. Finally screw the plywood onto the frame, and drag the riser to where you want your kit.

 

Now you've got a 4" tall 'safety cushion' if your basement starts to flood, and you've also got a less reflective surface than smooth concrete to muffle the sound a little bit.

[Picker]

Interesting... thanks Steve!

 

I'm currently working on finishing my basement to be my studio/music room. Along with my other work (I intend to make some bass traps for the corners of the room etc.) maybe I'll be building a drum platform.

[hangwire]

Are thete any cheap materials that you can buy which absorb sound? I am thinking hauling covers and blankets up/down would get old very fast...

 

...maybe some type of plastic home wrap stuff... ? ...or just sheets of plastic ?

[Old Steve]

Originally posted by hangwire Are thete any cheap materials that you can buy which absorb sound? I am thinking hauling covers and blankets up/down would get old very fast... ...maybe some type of plastic home wrap stuff... ? ...or just sheets of plastic ?

 

Ideal (but not cheap) would be some kind of heavy curtains. I once played in a place where a guy bought moving blankets, put grommets in the edges, and hung the blankets on the grommets. You could probably rig something like that in a curtain-like way where you could open and shut them.

 

The other thing that hasn't been mentioned yet are moveable baffles. You'll see these things in studios....they're basically little walls on wheels and they're made of padded material over a frame. Pretty easy to build as well. In fact, I've heard of guys going to old office furniture places and/or looking for businesses that have shut down, and buying cubicle walls and putting them on casters. Basically the same kind of thing, except pre-fab. When a company liquidates these things, they tend to be pretty cheap. When you're done using them, just roll them out of the way and into storage.

[Picker]

Originally posted by hangwire Are thete any cheap materials that you can buy which absorb sound? I am thinking hauling covers and blankets up/down would get old very fast... ...maybe some type of plastic home wrap stuff... ? ...or just sheets of plastic ?

 

Plastic sheets would do virtually nothing. You need something heavy. Blankets would be a minimum.

[hangwire]

Originally posted by Old Steve buying cubicle walls and putting them on casters. Basically the same kind of thing, except pre-fab. When a company liquidates these things, they tend to be pretty cheap. When you're done using them, just roll them out of the way and into storage.

Hummmm, interesting....

[Old Steve]

If you think about it, that's exactly what office cubicle walls are designed for: reducing sound between spaces. Not that they work all THAT well...I can tell you in extreme detail about a certain co-worker's wife's medical problems.... But for knocking down some overbearing drums in a really live room, they fit the bill.

 

Still, if you happen to see a company going out of business, it might be worth stopping in to have a look see. Either that or check out a used office furniture place.