Small Drum Room Acoustic Treatment

C

Codeseven

New member
I've built a small drum room in my garage. It's a 'box within a box' roughly 10'x10' in the shape of a pentagon in the corner. Though smaller than I would like it's very well built with double layers of 5/8" drywall, sound deadening insulation and Green Glue. From outside my garage at midnight my wife could barely here me bashing away from 3ft. away.

One prominent feature of being inside the enclosure is echoing. So I put down carpet and acoustic foam on the walls and ceiling. That has taken way the echo but also really deadened the sound more than I would like.

What are some tip to acoustically treating small drum rooms? It's a concrete floor, everything else is drywall, one quadruple paned 3'x5' window and a solid core door with a 2" thick insert from the inside.

Thanks
 
Pretty much the same thing you'd do for any room, but you'll need way more of it in a small room. The fact that it's square (10'X10') makes it even more problematic.

So, like Greg suggested in the other thread, bass traps in the corners, a cloud over the drums, as many gobos and broad-band absorbers as possible. I'll insist again that foam and carpeting will only make your room sound worse. In 99% of rooms, bass is 99% of the problem. Without materials that can absorb bass frequencies, all you're doing is killing the highs and mids. You're now making bass 100% of your problem and making a small room sound more box-y than it already is. The bass traps, cloud, gobos and absorbers need to contain the proper materials like rigid fibreglass or a few other materials that are acceptable.

Unfortunately, acoustic treatment is a science with rules that can't be dis-regarded no matter what the reason. Science doesn't care about your budget, or whether you feel like going through the trouble of doing things properly. If it was as easy as just throwing up foam and carpet, everyone would have a great sounding room. The fact is, those things don't work. Period. Besides the fact that you're creating a fire hazard by hanging carpets vertically. Good luck getting paid by your insurance company after they realize that you used carpets as curtains.
 
Thanks Rami.

The shape of the room is actually a pentagon so it fits into the corner area. From what I had read at the time, having walls at different angles was better and it also saved space in my garage. I only have carpet on the floor but no bass traps so to speak just the 1,2 and 3" acoustic foam in different shapes. are you suggesting that a room like this would be better off without carpet on the floor and no acoustic foam, only the bass absorbing materials?
 
It's hard to say without hearing your room, and I'm far from being an expert.

I'm sure some foam is "better than nothing", but if I'm not mistaken I think you mentioned that you have foam on about 75% of the room. That, along with the carpeting, might deaden the room but it might be robbing you of so much high end and mids that it's killing it. You might find that you're going to go through skins and cymbals a lot faster because, without realizing it, you might be wacking the hell out of your snare and cymbals just to get the crack and sizzle you want.

This is all speculation on my part. In most rooms, I'd say leave the floor bare and throw a little rug here and there and get rid of the foam. In your case, you might want to just deaden the crap out of it and close mic everything.
 
RAMI said:
I'm sure some foam is "better than nothing"
Click to expand...

What matters is the density of the material your using though right? Density of an absorption material (whether it be foam, insulation, what ever) and the surface area it covers, that's what determines how much energy is absorbed, along with intensity of the sound waves. I mean, I have a certain type of foam I'm using that's just as dense as a 2in rockwool sheet and I've tripled it for my bass traps I'm building. The little auralex sheets might not be worth a damn, but something of a higher density is.

But like you said though Rami, too much low density material and covering too much surface area will leave you a boxy/boomy room.

From what I've taken in from here and gearslutz, the best way to approach treating a room is to test it. Using something like R.E.W, see what your working with and then treat using basic bass traps and a cloud, test again, then target those problem points until you don't have as many peaks and valleys and is usable, rinse and repeat.
 
Treat every corner with broadband absorbers made of OC 703 or mineral/rock wool. Superchuncks wouldn't be overdoing it.

In fact, it isn't really possible to overdo it with bass trapping. Keep your floors reflective and treat the ceiling as well.

Foam is bad.
 
Capt Hair said:
From what I've taken in from here and gearslutz, the best way to approach treating a room is to test it. Using something like R.E.W, see what your working with and then treat using basic bass traps and a cloud, test again, then target those problem points until you don't have as many peaks and valleys and is usable, rinse and repeat.
Click to expand...

CH, what is R.E.W?
 
Codeseven said:
CH, what is R.E.W?
Click to expand...

It's called Room. EQ. Wizard. Here's a link to the site: Here.

You basically use this as a tool to show a graph of where your problem areas are (peaks and dips in certain frequency ranges). The site does a great job on explaining everything and just do a little googling for any extra info on it. It's a free program too.
 
Capt Hair said:
It's called Room. EQ. Wizard. Here's a link to the site: Here.

You basically use this as a tool to show a graph of where your problem areas are (peaks and dips in certain frequency ranges). The site does a great job on explaining everything and just do a little googling for any extra info on it. It's a free program too.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks!
 
Codeseven said:
The acoustic foam I'm using comes from an online dealer.

Soundproofing 3" Acoustic Studio Wedge Foam (SP-DEAL) | eBay

I have equal amounts of 1",2" and 3" arranged in different patterns on most of the walls and ceiling.
Click to expand...

Even amongst crappy foam products, Foambymail has been demonstrated to falsify their testing results, lifting them directly from a competitor's website.

Foam is going to make your problem worse. Repeat that as many times as is required for you to accept it.

Do not use foam in your small room.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top