DIY Drum Booth? Question for all you DIY acoustic people!

S

sbrennt

New member
Few people have the luxury of an acoustically treated room. Especially one to record in. I have tried to record my drum kit in my garage, and boy does the room sound horrifying. I thought about getting one of those isolation booths from clearsonic, and when I saw the price my head bout exploded. A grand for plexiglass and some foam? :facepalm: HOLY SMOKES

So i have decided to venture to the good ole Home Depot and get some materials to build my own. My plan is to get some plywood boards, probably 4 around something like 3x6 feet each, glue sheets of rockwool over the wood boards, which is basically the insulation used to insulate houses. You know, those grey rolls of that gritty foam stuff. I would use my plywood/rockwool panels, hinge them together, and kind of stand them up like a plexiglass shield. I would get a larger plywood/rockwool assortment for the roof, and one for the back wall. I don't need to see out of it really. Yes, it will probably get hot as an inferno in there, but I don't really care. I mainly just care about the sound.

SO do you think it will work? My main goal is to have as little reflections as possible, and isolate my drums from the outside world as much as possible, as to not disturb my family in the house when they are busy with the things that they do, and also to prevent their activities from interfering with my bodacious drum recordings. I'll probably just practice in that room quite frequently as well.

Any tips? advice? rebukes? your help is definitely appreciated.
 
Sound treatment and sound-proofing are 2 different things. You might manage to make it sound better, but you'll still disturb the family. sound-proofing is a whole other subject and a huge expense.

Why don't you just treat the walls of your garage rather than sit in a box? All things being equal, a bigger room will (almost) always sound better than small room, let a lone a small box.
 
Thanks Rami! I do understand soundproofing is a bit out of the question. I still do want to reduce the sound though as much as possible. And I can't treat the whole garage mostly because, well, its giant. The reason I opt for the box is because:
1) I could record without being in a horrible sounding room
2) I could practice my drums without being interrupted by people coming into the garage to do their laundry, and have to stop every time someone comes in.
3) I think having the box would be fun honestly :)

So to rephrase my question, would the design and materials i mentioned earlier work for what I'm trying to do?
 
Have you considered an electronic kit? Roland and Yamaha make some very good kits that feel and sound like an acoustic set. They are dead easy to record with because you obviously don't need to mic any thing up and you can happily practice with headphones on.
 
sbrennt said:
Thanks Rami! I do understand soundproofing is a bit out of the question. I still do want to reduce the sound though as much as possible. And I can't treat the whole garage mostly because, well, its giant. The reason I opt for the box is because:
1) I could record without being in a horrible sounding room
2) I could practice my drums without being interrupted by people coming into the garage to do their laundry, and have to stop every time someone comes in.
3) I think having the box would be fun honestly :)

So to rephrase my question, would the design and materials i mentioned earlier work for what I'm trying to do?
Click to expand...

Yes, the design would work for your intended purposes, however, it really won't make it much quieter at all for anyone inside the house or the garage. It will help take the high end off for those in the garage but that is the extent of it. Sound is very difficult to isolate at all.

But yes, what you're thinking of is a gobo with a roof. Which will work for better acoustics and a slight high frequency dampening inside the garage.
 
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