About rugs
- Thread starter reDrum
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MrInsanePolack
Platinum Member
A rug will absorb the sound, the bare floor will reflect it. As far as if it effects the drums through contact, I have no idea. A rug will also keep your gear from moving while you play.
MrInsanePolack
Platinum Member
Think about an empty bedroom. It's super echoey. You clap your hands and you can hear the sound reflect off all surfaces. Depending where you are in the room it could be worse or better.
Now put furniture in the room. The echo lessens as you put more and more stuff in it. It's the same idea.
If you like a big boomy room, you want more reflective surfaces. If you want a dead room, fill it with stuff to interrupt the sound reflection.
Perhaps dboomer will chime in. He knows all about how sound acts and why.
Bo Eder
Platinum Member
Unless the entire floor is carpeted, it's negligible on how it affects your sound. When I play on a room with a bare floor, I bring a 3'x4' door mat rug I found at Home Depot for $20, and it's just there to keep my bass drum and hi-hat from floating around while I play. Because of the spurs and the bass drum pedal, my bass drum doesn't even touch the floor. Depending on the room, I may want the extra reflectiveness of no rug - Buddy Rich used to carry a 4'x8' piece of plywood to put the drums on (digging in the spikes too) so his sound wouldn't soak into anything at all, and that works too. But if you're just talking a small rug just for your kit, I don't think there's enough material to really affect your sound any. Of course, you'll discover this the more you go out with the kit and play in various places with and without the rug.
Thank you Bo.
Honestly we’re in danger of disappearing up our own fundaments as we look for or recognise ever smaller theoretical effects on the sound of drums. Play in a stone or wooden room, echoey and harsh. Play in a carpeted, curtained, soft furnished room, not super echoey or harsh. Play in rooms in between and get in between results. Put a mat down on a stone floor.......yeah if you A/B test our snare drum with and without the mat you MIGHT notice a slight difference.
I gigged last week in a bare room with little in the way of furnishings and wood laminate flooring. With my mat down the kit (to me) sounded awful, fortunately this didn’t translate to the audience but the only way I could have combatted it would have been to fetch a rooms sized roll of carpet. And perhaps if I could have increased the ceiling height it would have helped too
Honestly we’re in danger of disappearing up our own fundaments as we look for or recognise ever smaller theoretical effects on the sound of drums. Play in a stone or wooden room, echoey and harsh. Play in a carpeted, curtained, soft furnished room, not super echoey or harsh. Play in rooms in between and get in between results. Put a mat down on a stone floor.......yeah if you A/B test our snare drum with and without the mat you MIGHT notice a slight difference.
I gigged last week in a bare room with little in the way of furnishings and wood laminate flooring. With my mat down the kit (to me) sounded awful, fortunately this didn’t translate to the audience but the only way I could have combatted it would have been to fetch a rooms sized roll of carpet. And perhaps if I could have increased the ceiling height it would have helped too
WillCay
Member
Hmm. you have a point here
PorkPieGuy
Platinum Member
I don't know if a rug would have much effect on sound or not, but I know it sure does keep my kick drum from sliding away from me!
Not to hijack a thread, a drum riser (even one that's just like 4" to 6" off the ground) will have a dramatic effect on sound in regards to volume and resonance of the whole kit from my experience.
Not to hijack a thread, a drum riser (even one that's just like 4" to 6" off the ground) will have a dramatic effect on sound in regards to volume and resonance of the whole kit from my experience.
GetAgrippa
Platinum Member
I do the same Bo just to keep hats and bass drum from drifting. I like the plywood idea-I'd make it smaller and pre-drill holes for legs to fit. I have an old piece of plywood I may experiment with-maybe staple a rubber gripper to bottom. Have you tried the plywood Bo?
Bo Eder
Platinum Member
Not inside a room. But I did an outdoor thing on a football field and had two 4x8’s to set up on so I wouldn’t mess up the field. Totally helped my projection.
dboomer
Senior Member
Mostly straight up so I‘m sure you heard it. Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection.
Bo Eder
Platinum Member
If anything they sounded good to me, which helps me play more relaxed, not having to totally beat up the kit
