Your practice area set ups

Suburbankidz

Active Member
Would love to see how you all have set up your practice areas. Right now I've got my kit out of the way in an available space in a room at the back of the house, but day dreaming about a better drum room set up with shelves for storage and wall soundproofing or at least muffling the sound somehow. My basement can be damp (very old house), so not good for a drum kit. Any ideas for inexpensive wall muffling systems, like rugs on the wall or are there better options?

A photo of my kit with early this morning with the early shadows coming through the window. Getting ready to have some coffee and work on some exercises with the metronome. Gotta be consistent with the timing--practice practice practice!

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Nice setup there

I see you have these black muffling on your cymbal, I used them in the past and they leave a nasty black residue. On cymbals with rough lathing it can't be cleaned, my ride has a black spot forever.

If I could go back in time, I would not use these cymbal pads.
 
I posted my setup on the POV thread but will share it here as well.

This is my Alesis Surge. Please excuse the green screen. I've been working from home since March 2020 and my Den doubles as my home office. I only put the screen up to hide my office space.

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Great idea. I use moving blankets as a pseudo wall in my basement jam space. Effective and cheap!
I can’t find any old pics when my gear was in a very old basement, but I hung the blankets (in pairs) around the room and it really improved the space. No more flutter!
 
Great idea. I use moving blankets as a pseudo wall in my basement jam space. Effective and cheap!
Moving blankets. I bought a 12-pack, tacked pairs together with grommets and hung them using pipe & Velcro. The A-clamp prevents slippage on the pipe.

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I’m interested in doing something similar. If y’all have a good suggestion for stands and where to get the blankets, I’d appreciate it!
 
My space we're currently rebuilding after huge water inflow because of melting snow. Drums, bass towers and keyboards are back in their spot already.


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Here's the latest making-of, still missing the rebuilding part:


And a plan of the studio:

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Most basements are damp. The real problem is if you get real water down there. If so, you need to resolve that to save your foundation. But if no real water, put a dehumidifier down there and keep the humidity at about 45. My drums have been in basements for most of their 45 year lifespan. My parent's basement was damp and occassionally saw a little water in a corner. But they had a dehumifier down there. Then when I bought my house it too is damp, especially in the summer. From day one we had a dehumidifer running down there. We recently finisthed the basement and got a new dehumidifier to go with the new installation. In the winter it rarely turns on. In the summer it runs most of the time with daily dumping of the water. But the humidity level down there is always around 45.
 
My practice space looks like a practice pad on a stand, next to my drums, where I do rudiments and such while the tv is on, sometimes with youtube videos.
I feel very lucky to have a place where, besides heat, climate is not an issue. It sounds like, based on your situation and location, you want to get a dehumidifier, as noted above.

As for sound absorption, you could do a lot with DIY bass traps and such, but sound transmission can be a tough thing to mitigate. What's above/around the room where you play? How many windows?
 
All you guy’s spaces are primo!

My drum room is in the basement surrounded by concrete shell, shoal and dirt. The other two sides are next to another basement room, and stair wall.

Nothing technically fancy, just a great controlled underground room with no windows, and I can access anytime to play within reasonable hours.

The first pic, I had the Luddie facing in another direction. There’s the funky duct system carved on top left.
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For convenience, now I use the wall with the built in shelving (and somehow better lighting? 😶).
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The last, is old POV pic showing the 4th wall, so to speak.
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A while ago, I really enjoyed my short weekend with our upstairs area. It’s wood floors and 20” pitched ceiling. I loved how the sound opened up.
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Maybe my wife will let me return upstairs with a set for a solo recording session.

Doubt she’d let me 3M my black/red checkered foam panels; or at least hang our moving blankets.

I can ask 😬
 
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Here's my basement jam space. It's not very glamorous at all. It's the "better than nothing" spot I offer up if people want to jam and have nowhere else to go. This is not my regular practice space.

The long wall opposite the drum kit is made of moving blankets that I hung to deaden the sound and to hide the furnace. The exterior walls are framed and insulated but not drywalled so they're pretty ugly. I hung a bunch of department store curtains to hide the ugliness and to provide a bit of extra sound dampening. They actually give the space a bit of a "tent" vibe which is kind of nice, especially at night.

I bought a small PA amp/mixer combo and a pair of decent Yamaha speakers for the space ( I am a yammyfan, after all) and picked up a couple of mic stands and microphones to complete the setup. All in all, it sounds pretty good down there and as mentioned - it's better than nothing.

The drum kit pictured is my cheerful old 2nd generation Stage Custom. It sounds great in that room and because it's a "fusion" kit, it doesn't overwhelm with volume or take up a lot of space.

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I originally converted this space for my daughter when she first took up drums. Now that she's out on her own I have inherited it for my rehearsal space.

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Nice setup there

I see you have these black muffling on your cymbal, I used them in the past and they leave a nasty black residue. On cymbals with rough lathing it can't be cleaned, my ride has a black spot forever.

If I could go back in time, I would not use these cymbal pads.

Thank you for that important tip about the black muffling rubber pads on the cymbals!! (y)(y) I have noticed a bit of a residue. I think I'll switch over to more kitchen towels--cheaper (about a buck and a half a piece) and they won't mark the metal and affect the tone in the long run.
 
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