Small Room Acoustic Issues With Drums

K

Kertbert

New member
Hi,

As I'm continuing to struggle with how to acoustically treat my small square room (12'x12'x7.8'), I'm noticing that I get a lot of echoing off my drum kit. It almost seems like more than the room walls. Does anybody have experience with this issue.

To be clear, I'm not talking about playing the drums, I'm talking about clapping hands or singing, etc. in the room with drums sitting static.

My concern is that I'll aggressively treat all the walls and corners and still have significant echo issues with the drum set.
 
It's a good idea either way to treat your room. A room that small and that square should have a decent amount of bass trapping/broadband absorbers.
As for the drums ringing, I would just toss a blanket over them while tracking other things or tune them or mute them so they don't ring.
I have a few guitars hanging on the wall of my little 12' X 10' X 8' studio and when I track drums I have to take the acoustic down because it resonates so much. Maybe because I have bass traps in the corners and a little foam I don't have as much trouble out of the drums. I do turn the snares off when I record anything else with mics.
 
I agree about the bass traps. It's a good idea anyway and ESPECIALLY in a small square room. The more the merrier in this case.
My room is a little bigger (14X16 ish...maybe a little bigger) but I still cover my drums and turn off my snare when I'm tracking anything else.

The ringing could just be from sympathetic tones with the slap back and bass waves bouncin all over. Maybe retuning them would help.
Easier to just cover em tho. ;)

Luck man...
 
Thanks for the responses. I guess I'll try the blanket method.

As for the bass trapping, since I need so many, for a small room, I'm a little worried about making the room too dead for practicing/recording live instruments. If I make a bunch of 4" thick bass traps out of Roxul Rockboard 60 (or similar) for all wall/wall and wall/ceiling corners, and treat the walls and ceiling (still thinking about with what), what else should I be doing to maintain some liveness to the room but also keep it suitable for mixing?
 
You have very poor acoustics due to your room dimensions. Standing wave doubles at 86, 94, 105, 118, 127, 141, 148, 152Hz, etc etc etc.

There is one way to deal with it and one way to fix it. To deal with it, you must trap as many corners as possible and at the centers of the walls. To fix it, you must add a wall or move a wall. :D

Good idea to remove the kit while mixing.. or you can cover them with towels or blankets.

Cheers,
John
 
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