V-Drums in apartment. Need help to eliminate thumping.

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conman013

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I figure this would be the best place to ask this question as most of you would know all about sound proofing and such.

I just bought a set of Roland TD-9S electronic drums, and just recently i've gotten a complaint from the tenants that live directly under me about the thumping coming from the hitting of the pads vibrating through the rack and on the floor, and from kicking the kick pad. Mostly from the kick pad though. I am looking for a solution to eliminate this without having to relocate my electronic drums.

One solution I came up with was to lay four cinder blocks on the floor with a thick sheet of plywood on top to raise the drums off the floor. Would this work? I am thinking that because vibrations can't travel through air, they would just dissipate through the plywood and therefore stop the thumping on the floor and keep peace with my neighbors below. Or would the vibrations not dissipate enough and just travel down the cinder blocks and back through the floor? Maybe add some rubber between the plywood and cinder blocks if this happens? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!
 
I doubt it's the rack toms. The only part of the TD kits that seems a little on the loud side is the kick drum, though unless you're playing way late at night, this is a pretty shitty move on the part of your neighbours.
 
check local noise nuisance laws...In Cali you can make reasonable noise between 8am and 10pm....it may not come to that but if they're just being pricks about it
 
yeah, the noise bylaw is somewhere around 8am - 10pm, but I guess the people that live below me have some messed up work hours. Sometime they work late nights and are asleep during the day, and other times they're shift switches and they work all day and sleep all night, so there is no winning. they told me they have been trying not to complain, but it's been really bothering them. It was actually the landlord that came up and told us about it.

It sucks, but I really have to find a solution to this. I'm losing valuable practice time.
 
There's alot of fluff and ephemera in this thread but there's a couple of solutions littered among the debris.
 
The best place to look or ask that question would be on the vdrums website forum.
I remember Reading a thread about that a while ago on there
 
Your best bet would be to pickj up some rigid fiberglass (around 3pcf in density) and rest plywood on top of it to create a mini drum riser -

A double layer of 1/2" plywood screwed together would be perfect - that way the sheets can't move.

I have used this successfully) in the design of pro studios located on the upper floors of buildings - the rigid fiberglass is great for isolating impact noise......

Your idea with using cement block probably won't help - the blocks themselves are great transmitters...... sounds passes through them very easily when the sound is caused by physical impact.

Rod
 
Despite the obvious advantage of V drums, having had one, I'm still amazed by how much noise the kick made. In a way, it was worse than a regular kick. It made this dense 'toop toop toop' sound that wasn't loud as such, but it carried in a way that a regular kick doesn't and I can honestly understand why the neighbours would be crawling up the wall because it's one of the most irritating sounds known to man or beast. Especially if it's coming from a distance through a floor or wall. Give me a crying baby any day.
 
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