isolated drum practice room

Rimshot

Rimshot

New member
Howdy, I'm a brand new newbie to this site and I did a search for an answer to my question but couldn't find it.I need some advice.
I own a groundfloor co-op built on a concrete slab and I never practice before 11:00am or after 6:00pm but I have an upstairs neighbor that works nights and complains about my playing. I'm in the midst of building an 8' x 8' x 7' high room within my studio (a bit cramped for my kit, but do-able. I'm using front and back plasterboard fixed to staggered studs that don't touch the other wall and I'm using tight packed pink insulation and I'll be using acoustic foam on the interior walls. A solid oak door and the ceiling treated as the walls.The ceiling in my co-op is 8'5' so I'll have at least 1' of space between my practice room ceiling and the co-op ceiling. Will I need to build a riser to isolate the low frequencies?
I realize that it will be virtually impossible to create a "soundproof room" but I'm looking to drastically dampen the sound so that I won't be getting the daily complaints and banging on the ceiling. I realize that I'm within my legal rights because of the time of day that I play, but the co-op board has it's own rules. Mostly I play jazz and blues, but I have a seven drum set with about 8-10 cymbals.
Can I skip the riser? Or will enough bass sound escape to create a problem upstairs. I know it's no problem building it, but my concern is for height space.
Thanx for any help.
 
I could really use some help here. I've already framed out my room and it's gotten bigger (8'x 10' now) and I'd like to keep the drop ceiling away from the actual ceiling because there are pipes for the building running through it. If I built a riser, I'd like to do it before the walls go up. I've read all of the literature about how important it is to have a riser, but will I actually need it to cut low frequencies from traveling up? The specs say it should be done, but I'm asking it of people that have first hand practical experience here. Can I get away without it? I have headroom considerations.
Anybody?
 
Hey, can somebody help this guy out? He's my drummer, and I told him this was an active board where he would get some good advice. It isn't a stupid question, so can somebody please try to help him out, or at least point him to the right threads? Come on guys.-Richie
 
RimShot - what you are doing is fine and it will fix your problem. Don't worry about the floor - sure some sound will get through the concrete but you can always float a floor later if necessary. My only question is why 8 x 8?? why not make each wall different so you start off with no parallel walls?? Same with the ceiling, put a pitched roof on it.

cheers
john
 
Thank you.
Yes, let me think this through. Since I'm building this to be fairly permanent, it would make more sense to make the walls not parallel. Fortunately I've only just started framing it.
Thanks for the advice.
 
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