I Built a Drum Room in My Townhouse
In 2013, I researched and built a drum isolation room in my townhouse. I did tons and tons of research, and I constructed it within a spare bedroom. My goal was to isolate the drum sound and make it as soundproof as possible on a budget.
The drum room was built within an existing room to help contain the sound. While not truly soundproof, it isolated and contained the majority of the sound. I was able to play any time of the day, so the project was a success! When doing this type of build there are two fundamental concepts to keep in mind.
Soundproofing
My drum room was not soundproof, but I did as much as I could reasonably do. To stop sound waves from traveling, you need mass. In my case, I chose 5/8 drywall which is typically used on exterior walls. In addition, I used heavy roofing felt between the drywall, stuns, and on the exterior of the room. I attempted to dampen the low end vibrations / thuds using the rubber “floaters”, but I would’ve been better off with a different approach.
The first issue was that they were on top of carpet. If they were on top of a concrete slab, they would have worked much better. They’re not able to absorb as much vibration and “decouple” the room from the floor.
A better approach would have been to use tennis balls and suspend a platform on top of them. Building a “drum riser” for the base of the room would provide better isolation. This is a technique a lot of electronic drum kit drummers use in apartments.
Sound Absorption
Have you ever been in an empty room and noticed the amount of echo, reverberation, and harshness of the sounds? This is especially noticeable with hardwood floors. The sound waves simply bounce around indefinitely from hard surface to hard surface. This is a terrible scenario for acoustic instruments and audio recording in general. The problem is that there is nothing to inhibit or absorb the sound waves. If you add carpet, foam, or insulation, you can contain the sound waves and “tune” the room’s acoustic response.
There is a true art to acoustically treating any room. If you plaster foam, carpet, or insulation on every surface, you’ll get a very sterile, eerie, dead sound. The goal is to create a good mix and absorb the unwanted sound waves at different frequencies.
I did a great deal of experimenting and through trial and error, came up with a sound treatment I liked.
After I got married and needed more space, I eventually demolished the drum room. I made these videos to document the process, and thankfully I thought to upload them! The drum room lives on forever thanks to YouTube!