drumming floor/surface

A

adiobox

New member
I play drums and record them in a carpeted room. I have been wondering about a DIY project I thought about... is it worthwhile to get a more "lively" sound by getting some plywood and laying it under the drums? Is it that simple. Also if I do that, and wanna make it look cool I was think of maybe glueing on something like lenoleum to add some aesthetics. Any thoughts here?
 
I play drums in a ceramic tiled room, and I keep my drums on a carpet because without it, the reflections are insane. Be careful what you wish for.
 
I don't want the whole room done like that... just enough to fit the drums... to provide a reflective surface for the drums only. Not the whole room. Is this a good idea?
 
adiobox said:
I don't want the whole room done like that... just enough to fit the drums... to provide a reflective surface for the drums only. Not the whole room. Is this a good idea?
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I personally don't really think so. Getting some snare wire snap reflection off a hard floor could be good, but a bunch of cymbal reflection is really never good. If it's a small-ish room (< 200 sq ft) with normal 8-10 ft ceilings, too much reflection is gonna sound bad. If it's a big room, it might be worthwhile to try.

Go smaller scale. Maybe get you a 2 ft x 2 ft piece of wood or plexiglass and put it just under the snare stand.

Another thing to try if you want a project, and some people swear by this, is to build a small drum riser out of wood - about 6 inches high and leave the sides open so air can pass through. It's been said that this can really enhance the low end and liveliness of drums in a bad room.
 
Cool, thanks for the info. While I don't plan on building that anytime soon ill certainly keep it in the back of my mind. Currently I'm working on acoustic treatment. So it'll have to wait for a little while
 
I followed the advice of many, and went with a solid (concrete with a thin commercial carpet under kit) floor, and treated the ceiling. If you are able to open up your ceiling, and fill it with rock wool, I would suggest that, as it is working very well for me. If not, I would suggest some type of overhead treatment. A hard ceiling above overhead mics, just creates too many issues. Not that it cant be done, but it is not ideal to leave UN-treated. I used to use the hated material, 'Auralex foam', above my kit. It worked to some degree, but nothing like the fully treated ceiling with rock wool.
 
I have wall to wall carpeting here, unfortunately. But what I did was get 2 4'X8' pieces of drywall, one under my desk and one under my kit. I have a very small piece of thin carpeting under my kik, mainly so it won't slide. I also have a cloud over my drums as well as my desk.
 
I once read/heard that the producer of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album put the drum kit on a live platform, to give them that loose sound. He was also reportedly responsible for using the UCLA Drum Corps on the song "Tusk."

For whatever that's worth.
 
Greg_L said:
build a small drum riser out of wood - about 6 inches high and leave the sides open so air can pass through. It's been said that this can really enhance the low end and liveliness of drums in a bad room.
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I built an 8x8 drum riser out of some 3/4in 4x8 sheets of plywood, and floated it off the floor on some tires i picked up from a local shop. it sits about 8in off the floor. it definitely helped the sound of the kit....the kick in particular. the difference in the toms was also quite remarkable.

Greg_L said:
I have clouds of OC703 over my kit.
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Yeah, i've got three 2x4ft clouds of 4-inch thick roxul rockwool (equivalent to OC 705) over mine as well. The way i see it, if you can't record in a room with 20ft ceilings, and especially if you record in a room with 8ft (or less) ceilings, you need to do everything you can to "remove" the ceiling.


cheers,
wade
 
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