Home Drum Studio - Soundproofing

A

apimenta

New member
Hello Everyone,

I would like to ask a very frank opinion and help in regarding of soundproofing:

I live in corner townhouse unit where I have 2 neighbors. The basement is unfinished where I wanna to make it to a home drum studio.

I am wondering which kind of layers and materials I must used to avoid to bother my neighbors when I would be playing.

After much research sounds to be a perfect cookbook to follow "Rockwool insulation + MVL + Drywall + Green Glue + Drywall" for the walls and ceiling.

Here in Toronto, Canada is not being so easy to find MVL to buy, it must have to be imported from US.

On other hand, I am finding some materials talking about Sonopan + Reflexor as good option. But I am not SURE if it is really applicable to handle drums noise properly.

I would like to hear if someone here has and could share experience with SonoPan or other material options.

sonopan.com

Soundproofing Panels| Sound Reduction| SONOpan

SONOpan panels for ceilings, walls, and floors are the best solution to reduce noise and stop sound transmission.
sonopan.com sonopan.com
(Reflexor)

Super Thanks!
Amauri
 
The 'box' has to be isolated from the current house construction, as things like the kick drum will transmit through solids. You need to build a 'room in a room' with rubber isolation pads.
 
Yep - concur 100%. Drums are not something that treatment cures - they travel. So timber walls on the solid floor - probably with something like neoprene to sit on, then layers on the walls and a ceiling sitting on the top of the wall plates, again with layers. then - a floor sitting on neoprene. Many people use the little blocks on the floor. Then your kick drum will be decoupled from the floor, and sound 'landing' on the walls and ceiling will also transfer down to the floor. Not remotely a simple task. Things like green glue can be hideously expensive, and frankly, my view is that an extra layer on the wall performs better than green glue anyway and is much cheaper! People will also tell you that what you are going to build is also airproof so you need to incorporate some way to get fresh air in, without lettingt eh sound out. Rod gervais's book

Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros Paperback​


is the standard bookto buy for all things building. It's full of useful stuff.
 
you'd be better off getting electronic drums, way cheaper. You can easily spend 10, 20 grand and more, only to find out it doesn't work. Townhouse you say? HOA covenants often frown upon such 'modifications'. It will not help with resale and you'll all but assuredly will end up having to tear it out or concede the expense in the closing costs. Which will be a pretty penny.
 
Stupid question: My basement has a concrete floor and concrete walls. If I used a real bass drum, besides the sound traveling up through the crap paste board floor into the rest of the crap TH, would it also go through concrete walls? The only time the neighbors heard anything through the concrete wall, I dragged a cedar chest filled with crap (weighed over 150 lbs) from one end of the basement to the other. I know that was loud and probably sent vibrations through the concrete. I didn't think a kick pedal on piece of carpet in the basement would do the same thing. I haven't set up anything yet. So, I don't know. Our basement also has sliding glass doors, so it's all going to be heard through that.
 
Snowman999 said:
Stupid question: My basement has a concrete floor and concrete walls. If I used a real bass drum, besides the sound traveling up through the crap paste board floor into the rest of the crap TH, would it also go through concrete walls? The only time the neighbors heard anything through the concrete wall, I dragged a cedar chest filled with crap (weighed over 150 lbs) from one end of the basement to the other. I know that was loud and probably sent vibrations through the concrete. I didn't think a kick pedal on piece of carpet in the basement would do the same thing. I haven't set up anything yet. So, I don't know. Our basement also has sliding glass doors, so it's all going to be heard through that.
Click to expand...
You are one step towards great sound proofing - the walls need a 1 inch air barrier and another layer of Drywall. Then the roof needs insulation and air walls.
 
I am an acoustic drummer (of questionable ability), and have faced this problem. My modest modern house is linked to neighbours on both sides, by single garages.
My drum room is my garage, with just a 4.5 inch single block wall to my neighbours garage, and their house is a mirror image of mine. If I had just the kit in an unmodified garage, I would annoy the whole street. The solution for me was to spend ~ £7000 (15 years ago) on a modular system isolation booth, which free-stands inside my garage. It is called an Esmono booth, and is made with steel panels containing acoustic rockwool boards. It has substantial steel doors. The garage floor is concrete slab, but even so, I made a multi-layer carpeted floor internally.
concrete floor - underlay - chipboard - underlay - chipboard - underlay - thick carpet
There is a photo of this room on my website romeobravo.net
I can still hear anything with a V8 engine going past, but practically nothing else.
When I play my drums inside it, it probably has the volume outside the booth of a TV set, within the garage.
 
Esmono rooms are great and can move home with you too - the only drawback is cost. Kick drums seem to travel though concrete, and next door, they'll hear a very quiet thump - what makes it annoying is the repeating of it. That's what winds people up a quiet repeated thump thump that goes on for three minutes, then stops then starts again is not neighbour friendly, even if it's more felt than heard. The room within a room is the usual safe cure - but you do need a floor that is also able to not pass it through - the neoprene blocks under a timber subfloor joist system are popular and cheap, but of course decrease height inside.
 
I built a room inside of a room more or less in my basement. It share very little with the surrounding basement structure. Being decoupled offers a lot of isolation. I also doubled up on the drywall. Its pretty effective.
 
My neighbour tells me they can hardly hear it, but I'm considerate and try to get on the drums when I see they're all out.
I have plans to buitld a detatched music room at the end of the garden, just need to rob a bank first.
I bought a second Esmono to go in my dining room, so I can let rip there too.
 
At my old college where I taught we had one and moved it. The sales blurb said this was simple, and other than heavy - it really was. It went back together totally trouble free. What worried me was how much black dust there was in the vents! The initial price was a squeeze for us, but the move was really cheap.
 
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