Drum Room Advice

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eappleton1

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Hello all,

I posted some time ago when I was in the process of looking for a house regarding building a room for my drums. Well I finally have purchased a house and now I can get more into the specifics. My current only concern is to eliminate as much sound from coming out of the room through the house as possible. I would love it if no one upstairs had to hear me, or at least can only hear me faintly. I have a basement with a finished section and an unfinished section, the room room will be in the unfinished section which is about 3 feet underground with cement floors, walls, and no ceiling panels as of now.

The room is rather large so we cut it in half, as you will see in the included diagram. If you want to work off the diagram to add stuff, give me your email and I can send it to you: drum room.webp

You enter the unfinished basement in the right room that has 2 cement stairs leading down, as well as a ~3ft cement shelf across the width of the room. The room has a window on the right wall and has already been drywalled and painted. This room was originally what I thought would make the best drum room, I am not sure why our contractor felt otherwise. The contractor is a good friend of ours so I am not worried if we need to tear down the drywall and make this the drum room.

The plot gets thicker because the contractor's brother does industrial insolation (super dense white foam) and had him use what seems to be a thin coat on the open framing of the current drum room. I am not convinced that this will take care of my needs because it might be very dense and hard, but there's no mass to it. *SEE BOTTOM FOR PICS*

I understand the concept of building a room within a room as well as that sound is dampened by density, mass, depth, and vibration absorption, but things get hazy for me when it comes to what products are most effective for my specific room. I would love suggestions for wall and ceiling treatment, and come to understand that foam underneath carpet will probably be the best for the floors (correct me if I am wrong).

Main concerns:
-water heater room (should I frame and insolate around the room basically making a set of doors to get to the set of doors, or just get better solid doors and weatherproof them?)
-HVAC Duct (the duct runs the length of the room, what the hell should I do about that?!)
-Should I work with the room that got sprayed, or the windowed room and just tear down that dry wall?

Budget: $2000 (hopefully less, but able to do more if absolutely necessary)

IMG_20110719_191917.webp
Notice that powdery coating? That's the insolation. Also you can see the HVAC Duct. The drums are there because I wanted to see if the insolation did anything by itself: it didnt.
 
You've got a great sized room with high ceilings. I would recommend skewing the angle of your walls as much as possible to avoid parallel walls and making some large partitions to move towards and away from the kit depending on whether you want an open or close sound.

Other than that, soundproof away and let the good times roll.
 
I would make a floating room. Build a smaller room within that room and have it float on the walls of the outer room.
 
Looks like you have the beginnings of a great room there. It's nice to have ANY space that you can dedicate to one thing haha.
 
A couple comments; most general contractors and builders don't know crap about building studios so be prepared to pay close attention to how things get put together since even a few misplaced nails/screws can increase sound transmissions. The "mechanics" of building a studio is far more involved than just throwing up some studs and drywall.

Drums are loud (upwards of 110dB) so you need to ask yourself what will be acceptable sound transmission levels upstairs, other rooms in studio, & outside (how close are your neighbors)? What are the current sound levels that transmit into and out of the current space? Get a SPL meter & put a loud sound source (performance level) in the space and go around the house (including outside) and measure the sound pressure levels. Measure the background levels that transmit into the room from outside, upstairs, etc. An SPL of 30dB is enough to make someone very unhappy, especially at 1am.

All this information will tell you how much transmission loss you will need, which translates into the various design, construction, and material requirements. I’d suggest doing a lot of research on how to build a studio before you march off and spend (waste) any money. Doing your homework will ultimately save you countless headaches and dollars later.

Granted you will ultimately have to make a lot compromises do to the location of the space and your budget. Speaking of your budget, it is low by at least a factor of 2, IMO but hey it may be fine for your situation.

Good luck.
 
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