Keeping drum volume down

A

andyg_prs

New member
So, my rehearsal room / studio is a soundproofed single garage - which in the UK means internal dimensions of about 5.5 by 2.6m. My 5 piece prog rock band have rehearsed in there regularly for around 18 months. We are really pleased with the space.

We recently had a tidy up / re-model of some storage and I jokingly talked about boxing the drummer in so we could keep the volume lower *inside the studio* for our own comfort. He agreed and said his friend back in Poland had a really expensive perspex-like barrier he used to reduce the volume from his drums.

As the drummer is at one end of the studio, something that was about 2.6 metres wide and maybe 1.2 metres tall would let us see our drummer but hopefully just keep the noise down a bit?

Any ideas if it would work and what I might construct it from?

Thanks,
Andy
 
Plexiglass (I assume 'perspex' is the UK name for it). But it doesn't really keep the noise down, it just reflects it (up is the usual direction). If you add some bass traps on the ceiling above the drummer this will help.
 
mjbphotos said:
Plexiglass (I assume 'perspex' is the UK name for it). But it doesn't really keep the noise down, it just reflects it (up is the usual direction). If you add some bass traps on the ceiling above the drummer this will help.
Click to expand...

Thanks. In that case, being such a small space, how about some acoustic foam on some plyboard just to deflect a bit and absorb a bit of the noise that flies straight at our ears.....question is, how thick would the foam have to be to significantly reduce the noise that hits us? I could also of course encase the surfaces around him in foam too......how thick does foam have to be to count as a bass trap? To be fair it's as much, or more the higher frequencies that probably get us......cymbals / highhats etc....

Cheers,
Andy
 
Get a drum machine it has a volume control!

Just joking, you will find that if you treat the room to take out any splashy slap-back and build some gobos the volume in the room comes right down. Some ceiling clouds above the drums may help. It's hard to advise on the acoustics as there is not much info supplied. However in my studio a lot of bands comment on how the drums are not as loud as in their rehearsal space, this is due to the gobos and ceiling clouds. The drum space itself is still live and open sounding but it does not splash around the room.

Alan.
 
andyg_prs said:
Thanks. In that case, being such a small space, how about some acoustic foam on some plyboard just to deflect a bit and absorb a bit of the noise that flies straight at our ears.....question is, how thick would the foam have to be to significantly reduce the noise that hits us? I could also of course encase the surfaces around him in foam too......how thick does foam have to be to count as a bass trap? To be fair it's as much, or more the higher frequencies that probably get us......cymbals / highhats etc....

Cheers,
Andy
Click to expand...

Acoustic foam only absorbs the highs until you get too thick to be of practical use. Build some gobo bass traps you can stack and move around the drummer (and hang as a cloud) using rockwool.
 
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