Playing electronic drums in a flat/apartment?

supermac

Senior Member
Due to a change is my domestic circumstances, I'm moving from a big detached house into a second floor flat/appartment

I've been able to practice prertty much at will on my Roland kit, but in a flat there will clearly be noise issues, even if I practice with headphones on.

Anyone get any advice on how to reduce noise and vibrations?

My local drum shop suggested a yoga mat.


Cheers
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

Due to a change is my domestic circumstances, I'm moving from a big detached house into a second floor flat/appartment

I've been able to practice prertty much at will on my Roland kit, but in a flat there will clearly be noise issues, even if I practice with headphones on.

Anyone get any advice on how to reduce noise and vibrations?

My local drum shop suggested a yoga mat.


Cheers

Yoga mat will not help that much on its own. You propably need to make a tennis ball raiser for your set. The idea is to have a bit of air between your set and the floor. Some mass (a layer of rubber or something even more massive) on top of the air layer is also a good thing, stops some of that low resonance. There will still be some stick sounds in the room so you might want to use some kind of absorbing material on your walls also.

But the first thing you should do is to communicate with your neighbours in a constructive manner. I also live on the second floor of my building. It took me 6 months to get every drop of vibration from travelling to my neighbours, but it was worth it. I can play almost any time I want now.

Edit: I would also suggest to check vdrums.com forums or something similar to help with your quest for a platform.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

I agree you'll most likely need some sort of platform. The vibrations from the bass drum go right into the floor, and will (mostly likely) sound like you're banging directly on the floor to the person under you.

Although how the apartment build was constructed will have a lot to do with how extensive of work you may need to do or not do.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

Noise issues? I've got a simple Roland kit in my small apartment and I can not get how, even when you're using headphones, can create a noise problem. :) Maybe if you plug it into a subwoofer at full volume..

I'm astonished at the situation really. :)
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

Noise issues? I've got a simple Roland kit in my small apartment and I can not get how, even when you're using headphones, can create a noise problem. :) Maybe if you plug it into a subwoofer at full volume..

I'm astonished at the situation really. :)

I've come across numerous threads on the issue. From what I can gather, it's the vibration from the kick pedal that seems to cause the most angst to neighbours, as opposed to the noise of the drums themselves.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

Noise issues? I've got a simple Roland kit in my small apartment and I can not get how, even when you're using headphones, can create a noise problem. :) Maybe if you plug it into a subwoofer at full volume..

I'm astonished at the situation really. :)

It depends on how the building is constructed.

As Pocket says, it's not the noise, it's the vibrations from the kick pedal that go straight into the floor. And if you have rubber pads on a simple rack, the vibrations from that can go into the floor as well.

If you have steel frame and concrete construction building, if the walls are thick or insulated, or other such construction, this may not be noticeable. If it's build with some simple 2x4s and some dry wall, it can be a huge problem. Also, being on the ground floor pretty much eliminates this issue, but being on a 2nd or higher floor can exasperate the issue.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

I have concrete floor, my bass drum pad sounded like someone was playing foot ball to the downstairs neighbour. And the vibration didn't stop there. Every neighbour heard it. Sometimes they can tolarete it, sometimes they can't. My neighbour was writing her thesis so she obviously had an issue with my playing.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

I've come across numerous threads on the issue. From what I can gather, it's the vibration from the kick pedal that seems to cause the most angst to neighbours, as opposed to the noise of the drums themselves.

For sure !!!
I live in a bungalow and sometimes stay up when the Mrs goes to sleep and get some sneaky practice time in on my electronic kit BUT I can't use the bass drum !
Even though the bedrooms are the furthest point away from where the drums are the kick reverberates right through the house and it almost feels like it's shaking the other end but I can sit and do rudiments all night long.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

Oh I get it. My kit doesn't have a pedal with batterhead, but a pedal with a sensor that registrates the beat of the pedal. And my appartment building is made out of concrete with a steel frame, so even with a real pedal it wouldn't create problems. I'm lucky.

I suggest you put some sort of mat under your kit to reduce vibrations. It should work.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

If I could take a picture of my little stage right now I would post it but maybe later today. I just made a 4ft x 4ft stage with 2 x 4 and plywood, filled the space underneath with newspaper and some expanding foam. I live on the top floor and the people would always complain/bang on their ceiling. Not anymore and the stage only cost $40 and some assembly. I even play at 10 pm with no issues.
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

Oh I get it. My kit doesn't have a pedal with batterhead, but a pedal with a sensor that registrates the beat of the pedal. And my appartment building is made out of concrete with a steel frame, so even with a real pedal it wouldn't create problems. I'm lucky.

I suggest you put some sort of mat under your kit to reduce vibrations. It should work.
Lex- are you using Krigg Triggera bass drum triggers?
To the OP- I've recommended these on numerous threads for people asking about silent e-drums. Your bass drum pad (even if its mesh) is by far the loudest part of the kit and these eliminate this issue (although they do take a while to get used to).
The best advice I can give you is go for all mesh heads and the Triggeras for your bass drum (otherwise you will need to build the drum riser/ install insulation in the apartment , etc).
http://triggera.com/kick-pedal-trigger
 
Re: Playing eletronic drums in a flat/appartment?

It depends on how the building is constructed.

As Pocket says, it's not the noise, it's the vibrations from the kick pedal that go straight into the floor. And if you have rubber pads on a simple rack, the vibrations from that can go into the floor as well.

Agreed.

OP being in UK might not help, as some flats (usually conversions) have really thin and/or poorly isolated walls/floors.

The building where I live is pretty much all concrete, but the vibration from the pedal was going all the way to the flat downstairs over the wall OPPOSITE the td4 kit.
I suppose the vibration "travelled" through the floor and then moved down on the structural wall.

In my case, I solved with the suspension platform (I am using foam underneath and not tennis balls) and some cooperation with the neighbours to understand when the vibration acutally stopped.
 
I just bought a Triggera Krigg and I can verify that it drastically reduces the noise and vibrations as compared to any other kick trigger. Basically the bottom of the toe-end of the bass drum pedal footplate strikes the Krigg, and the beater itself can be removed. And this means your kick setup is barely larger than the pedal itself.

Since the kick tower or reverse trigger (like a KD7) are often the loudest part of your kit, the Trigg really helps with less noise transmitted through the floor.
 
I'm thinking of trying to adapt the Krigg trigger unit to my Roland FD-8 pedals as I'd like to also use their foot-switch function when required. It should provide the desired velocity response for the kick sounds if I attach a plastic extension arm, so can someone let me know the range of height adjustment for the trigger pad - Thanks!
 
Don't know which points you need exactly, but it goes from around 2cm to 8cm ...

Thanks triggera and excuse my slackness for leaving out some details. I was mainly interested in the maximum height setting of the trigger pad surface from floor level where the pedal hits the pad so 8cm should be enough. When the pedal is fully depressed it's front edge is 9cm from the base so I would attach an extension arm with the screws on top of the pedal and fix a rubber pad under it to contact the trigger pad. It should easily adapt to the Yamaha HH65 pedal also which isn't much use for kick drum playing normally.
 
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