Improving a room's acoustics

E

Element564

Junior Member
Hi all ,

I'm trying to set up my very small practice room to sound better for my kit. After reading a few threads here a while ago I stuffed as much padding to damped the sound around my kit as much as possible , including

-Two halves of a ping pong table covered in heavy blankets positioned right near the kit , almost in a sort of perspex-screen-wall fashion

-The back corner behind me has thick mattresses stacked up to the roof , covered with a tight black sheet

I also have the kit standing on a thin blanket since I don't have a proper carpet yet.

Basically it hasn't helped my sound at all - my cymbals still sound really sharp to my ears and the sound drums doesn't sound very good at all , I'm trying to deaden the sound abit more. I find myself having to wear earplugs because the high's sound so sharp.

Should I move the walls away? How can I make the room sound more dead? Do I need to invest in acoustic foam?

Cheers for any advice.
 
It depends on so many things.

In a previous practice room I achieved a lot with just tons of carboard boxes in the corners and some shelves stuffed with sofa pillows.

If you wanna play cymbals ina small room without a mixer setup, I guess it needs to be really dead. If all you care about its dampening things inside the room with enough mass of carpets, pillows, duvets, boxes or whatever, things will start happening. You might wanna put somethin in the ceiling.
 
Element564 said:
my cymbals still sound really sharp to my ears and the sound drums doesn't sound very good at all , I'm trying to deaden the sound abit more. I find myself having to wear earplugs because the high's sound so sharp.
Click to expand...

Playing in a small reflective room I would advise to wear earplugs anyway. Long term this will hurt your ears without.
I agree with Arne you are going to have to do something about the roof, and the floor. Hang a blanket from ceiling and get thick carpet or foam.
It sounds like your kit is in the corner? Try it against a wall and/or further way from a wall (towards middle of room). Either way you are fighting physics, every sound wave is bouncing several times off an opposing surface.
 
Yeah it was in a corner.

I'll try move it towards the centre and add as much pillow/blanket mass as I can lol.

Thanks for the advice everyone :)
 
Those blankets and cardboard boxes actually do very little to dampen unwanted reflections.

Without getting into a whole discussion on acoustics, you need to get bass traps in the corners as a priority. That will give you the most bang for your buck.

Get 4" thick rigid fiberglass or rockwool and place it across each corner at a 45 degree angle. 24 x 48 is a common size. In a normal room, 2 pcs will be required per corner. I made a little wood frame and fastened them to it. It runs from floor to ceiling across the corner.
 
Carpeting the wall is pretty good for getting rid of any harsh reflections.

I always play with earplugs in anyway.

Mind you I've played at many a venue where the best way to improve the sound would be to demolish it and start again. Bare stone walls are a favourite!
 
Get some free futons off Craigslist (sans bedbugs).
Keep them rolled up and put them in the corners.

Make an acoustic cloud over your drums with two doubled up moving blankets.
Hold them up with a couple truck cargo rods (from Harbor Freight if you are in US).
 
opentune said:
Playing in a small reflective room I would advise to wear earplugs anyway. Long term this will hurt your ears without.
Click to expand...

This (wearing earplugs) is a very easy way to make the drums sound better to you personally, for practice (plus it's a good idea anyway).

I would try moving the kit around too, but I would only treat the room further unless you have plans to use it for recording or band practice etc.

Good luck...
 
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