Drum Room Dampening

[cazzo_n_culo]

Just moved into a new commercial space, and its about 15'x10'x10' high.

Tile floors and drop-ceiling.

How the snot do I tame the drums in there?

What is the preferred method: carpet, foam, mattresses?

I dont have the thousands of dollars it would take to buy acoustic foam...

any suggetions would be helpful.

[hungrypo]

dude, you could make that room sound pretty decent with carpet, and a few heavy blankets hung against the wall. when i say carpet i mean even a few cheap throw rugs will do the trick. just try to get it as thick as possible and cover as much of the tile as you can.
for the walls, like i said, heavy blankets will help. but if you have the money you can use sheets of compressed fiber glass. this stuff works really well as mid-range - high frequency absrobption and in canada its about $16 for a sheet that measures 2' x 6'.
but the dimensions of the room seem actually pretty good acoustically. the ceiling is nice and high, and its not too long and narrow.

[samthebeat]

you can make acoustic absorbers reliveley cheaply from wood, rock wool and canvas. Search the internet, the is tons of info on this subjct.

Carpet/blankets are good for highs and thats it, you have make acoustic panels, and bass traps for the other frequecies.

[osamasgoat5467]

For complete soundproofing people go as far as adding walls filled with acoustic foam, insulation, then sheetrock and drywall. If a floor is too resonant floors are raised. And doors are padded with something I'm not sure what it is though. That's the only way I know of that completely isolates the room.

[drozzy]

To dampen a room cheaply, even if it isnt wholly proffessional sounding, try finding a 'dirt cheap' rug/carpet store.

Buy 3-4 very large sized, thick wool rugs. Cover each wall with one hanging rug.

This should stock a lot of sound reflections and allow your music to be recording satisfactorily.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

You can also go to a second hand store, Goodwill or Salvation Army here in the states and look for some old lined drapes or curtains. Get as big as possible. Just hang them from the walls it will dampen the walls for sure.

[PBW]

This should stock a lot of sound reflections and allow your music to be recording satisfactorily.

Only the higher frequencies will be absorbed - the bass and mid will still be reflected and make your recordings sound muddy. You need bigger thicknesses of really dense material (like rockwool) for lower frequencies (like 4, 5, 6 or more inches!)

Here's a great resource: http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

and a useful acoustics forum: http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=26

[skaman]

Leave about 20 % of surfaces untreated, to leave some life in the drums. Rockwool in corners (i made frames 2 m high and half meter wide and put 20 cm thick fiberwool on it, than treathed it with coth). This makes muddy low and low-mid much clearer.

If you are gonna record, You must experiment a lot with mic placement, especially close micing. I couldnt belive, how much difference can a centimeter do!