Soundproofing a room is something that every drummer thinks of doing. Unfortunately, drums are one of the loudest instruments out there, and every drummer would love it if they could play late at night without bothering anyone.
If you want to properly soundproof a room so that no one can hear you play, the only solution is to build a room within a room. All the gaps within the room need to be sealed as well.
It costs a lot of money to do that, so there are some other options to look into. In this guide, we’re going to look at all of your options so that you can play drums without bothering the people around you.
Before we get into some soundproofing techniques, it’s important to understand the difference between soundproofing and sound absorption.
Sound absorption is when you treat a room to get rid of all the natural echoes and reverb. When there’s sound absorption, your drums will sound a lot better when you play them. However, that won’t stop the drums from being loud and having their sound bleed outside of the room.
Soundproofing is when you incorporate techniques to stop the sound of the drums from escaping a room. Soundproofing is a lot more elaborate than applying sound absorption.
You typically have to do both to get the best results, though.
Budget Way of Soundproofing:
Since soundproofing a room for drums is so expensive, there are more affordable techniques and options that you may want to look into.
One of the best ones is to hang thick moving blankets along your walls. Thick blankets will do a great job of stopping sound from getting through them, so you’ll be able to soundproof the room quite significantly if you hang them over every bit of wall and door in the room.
The downside of this method is that having thick moving blankets across your walls doesn’t look very attractive. They also don’t soundproof the room as much as many drummers would like.
You’ll still get a bit of sound coming through, stopping you from being able to play drums late at night.
Building a room within a room is the only way to properly soundproof a room for drums. The drums need to be in the center room, and then there should be a room around it to further stop sound from traveling.
To do this, you need to build walls within the room that is already built. Most people opt to put drywall up, and then they fill it with sound insulating material.
If you’re a handy DIY guy, you could try this yourself. Otherwise, we suggest getting people who work in construction to help you.
Even before you build a room within a room, you need to make sure that all the gaps in the room are sealed. These gaps are found in doors, windows, and vents.
If there’s a little gap somewhere in the room, the sound will get out. The best thing to use for doors and windows is weatherstripping. You can stick these around the edges to seal the gaps up. They make the doors and windows airtight.
Sound will still be able to transfer through the bottom of your door, so you need to get a door sweep that blocks the gap.
The more mass there is in your room, the less sound will travel through it. That’s why soundproofing blankets work so well. They’re very thick. You could also use big mattresses.
If you want to do it professionally, you could fill your walls and ceiling with sound insulating materials.
You’ll also need to make sure that you have a solid-core door. Most doors are hollow on the inside, making sound get through them easily. Solid-core doors are a lot more expensive than standard doors, but they’re vital for a soundproofed room.
You can also place things around your room to add more mass to the space, such as furniture.
Sound tends to transfer through the ground quite easily. This is why your neighbors hear the kick drum the most when you play in a room that isn’t soundproof.
The most ideal thing to do is place your drum kit on some kind of elevated platform. You’ll need a large platform to accommodate all your gear.
If you don’t have a platform, at least make sure that your room is fully carpeted. You should then add an extra drum rug underneath your drum kit to further stop the vibrations from getting through the floors.
The thicker your drum rug is, the better it’ll be at stopping vibrations. However, your drum kit won’t be stable if the rug is too thick.
Even if you have weatherstrips and a door sweep on a solid-core door, the sound from your drums may still get through. The best thing to do is build a second doorway.
Have you ever been to a professional recording studio and had to walk through two doors to get to the recording booth? They build studios like this to ensure that absolutely no sound gets through the door.
If your drum room is inside the house, this process may not work well. You should do it if your drum room is outside, though. Build an extra part onto the door that allows another door to be placed there before it.
Once you’ve soundproofed the room with the proper industrial techniques, then you need to apply sound absorption. When you’ve soundproofed the room, you’ll still get plenty of unwanted room noise.
This is when you can hang studio panels on the walls. You’ll also need to put bass traps in all the corners. It’s best to get a professional audio engineer to do this, as the placement of your panels and bass traps will greatly affect how the drums sound.
While the absorption panels aren’t intended for soundproofing, they do a little bit of it by eliminating loud reverb.
To soundproof a drum area, you need to build a room within a room. This involves building the space so that it has two sets of walls between the drums and the outside world.
Those walls then need to be dense enough to stop the drum sounds from getting through. You also need to seal all the gaps in the doors, windows, and vents in the room.
To isolate a room for drums, you need to hang up sound absorption panels. These will eliminate all the reverb in the room, creating an ideal listening environment.
You also need to set bass traps up in all the corners of the room so that the bass frequencies don’t bounce around and cause harsh tones.
It can cost thousands of dollars to soundproof a room for drums. While there’s no set amount, many drummers have paid up to $20 000 to have their rooms professionally soundproofed.
If you aren’t able to spend that much money, then you’ll need to incorporate more affordable techniques, such as hanging up soundproof blankets. Just note that they’re not as effective.
The best thing to do is be transparent with them. Let them know that you’re a passionate drummer and you need to practice to be able to perform with bands.
Give them set time slots where you may practice so that they know when to expect it. When they know exactly what time you’ll finish playing, they’ll be more likely to let you do it.
Neighbors are typically more comfortable with drumming during the day as opposed to the night, so try the practice during the day if you can.
Things you’ll need to consider before learning how to drum.
To summarize everything we mentioned above, remember that soundproofing and sound absorbing are two different things.
Acoustic panels are meant to absorb sound, not stop it from coming through a room. Many people buy acoustic panels and think that they’re the solution to grumpy neighbors.
To soundproof a room properly, you need to completely seal off all the gaps, add walls within the room to further stop the transfer of noise, and you need to put a gap between your drums and the floor by using thick carpeting.
It’s only after that that you should use sound absorption techniques to finish the job.
Founder of TheDrumNinja
I’m crazy about drums, it’s been my passion since I was 12 years old. I played in numerous bands going through different styles like Rock, Progressive, Pop & Jazz-Rock. After being featured in major music publications (Drumeo, Guitar Guitar, AudioIssues, MusicThinkTank) I started this website to share my knowledge and create a resource for drummers of all levels.
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