Acoustic Treatment for Basement Drum Room

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 2:39 pm

Here's the scenario:

Rental 3 bedroom ranch with basement in quiet residential neighborhood. Control Room on ground floor with snake to basement.

Because it's a rental, I'm not able to build new walls in the basement to properly isolate the room. The walls are paneling (some real wood, some fake wood paneling) over block w/o insulation. Floor is carpeted with thick pad. Ceiling is old-fashioned acoustic tile w/o insulation in joist spaces.

Dimensions are approx. 13' X 34' X 7' (8' to floor above) with an enclosed stairway bisecting the space.

It is not necessary to soundproof the room as the small casement windows are plugged with 1" thick rubber, and since I work alone, not with bands, I'm not concered with isolation from the control room. I've recorded in the room before, but because of the small size and the carpet and ceiling tile, it has yeilded a very dead, small sound. I can't take up the carpeting, but I'm thinking of laying 4' X 8' sheets of plywood on 1x4's to create more livliness from the floor, and building gobo's with OC 703 covered with pine paneling so that I can create non-parallel walls. I also plan to bass trap the corners and existing paneled walls.

Does this seem like a good plan to anyone? Or should I just treat the existing walls for reflections and LF modes ,and try to create a sense of space with reverb?

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 9:50 pm

Bump.

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 11:57 pm

Anything under the plywood you put on the floor will create a drum effect.

Creating any kind of non-parallel walls out of temp construction will likely create their own resonance issues, similar to the 1x4's under the plywood on the floor.

If I was gonna try it, I would get as much damped mass in the walls as I could... e.g. sand filled.

Of course filling them with sand isn't the issue... it's getting it out of there when you gotta move it.

I guess you could create some sandwiched materials that would be screwed together as a single damped mass with a hard surface... plywood, gypsum, sheet EPDM, gypsum, MDF, plywood, etc...

Since it's just you, it wouldn't have to be pretty... just functional.

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 3:52 pm

Thanks for your reply MadMax.

so are you essentially saying that I should leave well enough alone and go with my "dead" drum room. The reason for the slightly raised floor was to achieve a "drum effect" to try and add some sense of size to the room. Right now my drums sound a little like cardboard boxes and plastic pails, unless I eq the sh*t out of them.

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:13 pm

I didn't say that...

I'm just trying to point out the facts that if you create a resonant drum riser, you are likely to pick up more of the drum riser resonance than you may want.

Additionally, adding temp gobo's, that are not dampened... they too will resonate at some frequency.

If it was me, I'd cover the floor with 5/8 plywood right over the carpet. Then, to get some reflection off the walls... start with 1/2" plywood and create a sandwiched gobo like I described above.

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:48 pm

Ok. I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

BTW, how do you find time to answer posts with all you've got going? If I wasn't doing this at work, Id never be posting.

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:06 pm

I work 3 part-time (one full-time I'm backing out of slooooowly) gigs, and am building the studio... I don't sleep much since the lightning... about 4 hours/day... so... I'm pretty much at it 16-20 hours.

You get used to it... not to be cornfused with liking it.

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