Volume vs. shell size

Would an 18" bass drum be quieter than a 22"? I had a nice acoustic set, but sold it and went electronic because of neighbors. But I didn't like the electronic drums. I want to get another acoustic set but try to keep from making my neighbors hate me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In general, yes, less volume = less air = less overall sound. Also, the sound won't be as deep, so it won't rattle the walls (as much).

My bass drum doesn't rattle the walls really.

Zero is right on all counts. Maybe another solution would be to invest in some soundproofing. Assuming you own your place and/or you plan to be there for a long while, it might be worth dropping a couple grand on setting up a 'reduced sound' area to practice.

While achieving "zero sound leakage" is a tough nut to crack, if you're talking about keeping your neighbors from hearing your drums in separate houses (not connected builidings), a combination of scheduling and some relatively minor soundproofing techniques can allow you to rehearse with ANY kick drum.

If you live in an apartment, or other attached structure, it's much more difficult.

My neighbor is approximately three square inches away, and I practice at the house here occasionally. I've had the cops called on me from my little brother watching TV too loud -- and it's an RCA console TV!

Best thing I found was to use those drum mutes you can buy. I bought the ones Guitar Center sells that aren't the Vic Firth ones. I forget who makes them now. Either way they're basically really heavy duty mouse pads in the size of the drums, and a giant foam pad for the kick drum. It had a little too much bounce for me on the kick, so I put some velcro on the kick head and on the back of the foam, and it works great now. You could mic it into some headphones, or use a trigger on the beater pad into headphones or computer speakers if you wanted to hear the kick better. The kit I bought was like $60 and came with cymbal mutes too... which also work great, provided you don't miss them, at which point you scare the holy hell out of yourself.

I disagree with this statement somewhat. I read a study on hearing protection with drums and the bass drum was only 115 dB at the drummer's ears and the snare was 135 dB at the drummer's ears. I think regardless of what size drum you have, it's a combination of direction, frequency (low's get through walls, but highs are much easier to make louder) and how hard you play them. As far as my opinion goes, I would expect the kit to be a bit more mild, but I wouldn't expect to think you could play next to an acoustic guitar unmic'ed.

Snares have an added factor -- the snare wires. Take the snares off and move the snare an equal distance from the ears as the kick, and the kick will move more air. The snare will be "louder" because of the tuning, probably... but this thread (and my statement) were about kick drums.

Taking/adding inches to the drum's depth will also make the drum softer/louder also.

Ok, good points...but now let's get REALLY complicated!

Higher pitched frequencies carry well, but are more easily "cut down" and reflected when they hit a surface. Lower tones tend to carry further but aren't as "cutting" as higher ones.

So bass notes tend to be less painful at high volume levels than higher frequencies. If you played a kick drum at 120db, your body shakes and it's loud. If you play a snare at 120db, your body doesn't shake so much, but your ears hurt.

So a smaller kick drum assumes a higher note, right? As a result, it's harder for a smaller (higher) kick drum to make walls vibrate than a bigger one. In the room itself, however, it's likely that the sound of a higher kick drum will "sound" louder because of it's higher pitch.

If your volume issue is similar to a guy with big subwoofers in his car (all low end annoyance), a smaller kick drum might help. If, on the other hand, your cymbals and snare are causing the problem, then soundproofing is your solution and you can keep your current kick.

Well said Steve. You may want to try a Taye 'Go' kit if it's just for practice. They have small bass drums that are not deep and are open like concert drums. This is of course assuming that your problem is with the deep tones vibrating the walls from a big kick drum.