What are the materials and/or layout of your favorite sounding room to play in?

cdrums21

Gold Member
There was a club I played extensively a few years back that had the best sounding room for drums, at least for what I like to hear. It was a pretty large room, seating for about 600 people with about 12 foot tile ceilings. There was a stage and it was carpeted, but there was a very large dance floor that stretched out in front of the stage that was all hardwood. Wooden paneling half way up the walls on the sides, with plaster the rest of the way. My drums sounded great in there, big kick drum with nice low end, popping, snappy snare with balls and the toms sounded like mini kick drums. That room sound made it so much more enjoyable to play there. The combination of the size of the room, high ceilings and wooden floors, with just enough carpet to take out excess boominess was the formula for the great acoustics. Wish I could've taken that room with me everywhere!
 
My favorite live setting ever was a Texas coffeehouse/art gallery called Downtown Grounds. The establishment has since closed, but I played in a group that was practically the house band there in the early 1990s. Downtown Grounds was a massive, wide-open space with ceilings from which you could have skydived. The venue accommodated large turnouts on weekends, and the place throbbed with life. Though the dimensions were expansive, the vibe was one of intimacy, as there was no stage and we were thus at the same level as the audience, who would stand or sit all around us. As a rule, we'd do two forty-five-minute sets with a twenty-minute break in between.

The acoustics: Vast and gothic are the most fitting terms that come to mind. All sound had a cathedral-like aura. Gregorian chants would have been appropriate. I used no muting at all on my drums in that atmosphere. Abatement of any sort would have been criminal.
 
My favorite live setting ever was a Texas coffeehouse/art gallery called Downtown Grounds. The establishment has since closed, but I played in a group that was practically the house band there in the early 1990s. Downtown Grounds was a massive, wide-open space with ceilings from which you could have skydived. The venue accommodated large turnouts on weekends, and the place throbbed with life. Though the dimensions were expansive, the vibe was one of intimacy, as there was no stage and we were thus at the same level as the audience, who would stand or sit all around us. As a rule, we'd do two forty-five-minute sets with a twenty-minute break in between.

The acoustics: Vast and gothic are the most fitting terms that come to mind. All sound had a cathedral-like aura. Gregorian chants would have been appropriate. I used no muting at all on my drums in that atmosphere. Abatement of any sort would have been criminal.
That sounds awesome man. Don’t the drums almost play themselves in an acoustical atmosphere like that? So much fun when you hear that sound you love.
 
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