Drums against wall?

[TechBoyJK]

Hey guys

I'm trying to figure out a better way to setup the drums in my music cave.

Right now, the drums are setup in the corner of the room, facing the center.

I understand that acoustically, this is best because, especially the lower pitched drums (kick, floor tom), their waves need room to complete and expand.

However, they're just too damn loud if you play them full on. It's a small room, and with the drums being so loud, if I want to jam or my roommate has band practice, everyone else has to crank it up to compete, and in that small room, it just becomes an acoustical cluster fVck.

I've been exploring ideas on how to muffle them a bit. I was thinking about framing up an enclosure and putting in some plexiglass. That's probably cost $150 and would be a hassle though because it'd have to be movable, etc.

So I'm thinking I might just turn the drums around and have them face the wall. I know that acoustically, this isn't ideal because of how the sound waves will reflect, but I'm not in a great position acoustically already.

My idea is to find some thick cloth, quilt like material and hang it from the wall where the drums face, so that it will dampen the sound a bit. This would be much easier than framing up a drum cage. If anything I could even put up sound baffling material.

I'm not trying to setup an ideal recording environment, so it doesn't need to be perfect. I'm going for something that will deaden the overall sound of the drums and make them more tolerable in that small room.

Thoughts? I have to do something. Turning them around and hanging up some cloth or sound deadening material seems like the easiest/cheapest option. I rent, so I'm not going to build anything too elaborate.

Here's a vid walkthrough of the cave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2O3fSy351k&feature=channel_video_title

 

[TechBoyJK]

anybody have good ideas on a cloth to use? I'm thinking of a thick quilt of some kind.

 

[alkemyst]

An enclosure of plexiglass would be a lot more than $150 if you wanted it to be effective.

This is why many use electronic/pads only in a home setting.

There are a few things that mute the drums themselves.

 

[coaster831]

It's going to be tough to deaden them in a room that small, especially with the low ceiling, but blankets couldn't hurt to try if you already have them. You'll probably want to treat all 4 walls, not just the one nearest the drums. I bet treating the ceiling would help a lot, too.

Packing blankets (like the kind you rent from U-Haul) are pretty effective for absorption -- better than comforters/quilts, anyway.

Edit: I don't think turning the kit around is going to buy you much, and will probably frustrate your drummer, but hey, it's free, so may as well try it.

 

[TechBoyJK]

An enclosure of plexiglass would be a lot more than $150 if you wanted it to be effective.

This is why many use electronic/pads only in a home setting.

There are a few things that mute the drums themselves.

Well, I have a nice Roland TD-8 eKit behind the real drums. And that's what I thought about the plexiglass enclosure. Big, bulky, probably not all that cost-effective either. I was thinking just hanging some quilts and turning the kit around would be the more cost-effective approach. I'm probably only going to be in this place for another year anyway.

 

[Saint Nick]

You can deaden the room and make it less "live" with foam and bass traps (which is probably more desireble) However, if you want true "sound proofing" then you need to add mass to your walls. Green Glue and drywall works great.

 

[TechBoyJK]

the walls are concrete.. they are the foundation walls in the basement.

 

[Saint Nick]

Also, using deep earplugs works wonders. I even use earplugs live and I can hear everything being played on stage.

 

[TechBoyJK]

You can deaden the room and make it less "live" with foam and bass traps (which is probably more desireble) However, if you want true "sound proofing" then you need to add mass to your walls. Green Glue and drywall works great.

I don't want to spend all that much money. Everything else in the room sounds fine, so I was thinking if it was turned to the corner facing some soft quilts it would help.

 

[hanoverphist]

hang acoustic foam covered panels in rows from the ceiling. this will absorb a lot of the echo at least, even if you wont be deadening the drums themselves. cork board with thick woven fabric will do about the same if you dont have any acoustic foam available. loosely woven fabrics work much better than standard fabric, due to all the nooks n cranny goodness they provide, soaking in all those sound waves. my dad hung rugs up and put pillows in his drums to keep them quieter while practicing. my mom used to get pissed that he kept stealing the throw pillows from the couch.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Just get some cardboard (fold it like accordion) or boxes and put them between the drums to make sound baffles and the others and then cover them and the walls with blankets.

 

[PatrickBateman]

I play drums in my basement as well and I second the earplugs suggestion. I also found everything sounded better. My fix was stacking the acoustic drums in the corner and buying a TD12 e-kit.

When I was younger, we used to play in the other guys basement and we didn't care too much what it looked like so we used a couple mattresses to build a "half wall".

nice little room you have though.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I think turning the kit to face the wall would be extremely weird for the drummer during jam sessions.