Construction of a small drum booth.

[Mixbuster]

Hey guys..
I started building a small drum booth! Finally.
Due to Drum Noise, I decided to make one

I'll post pictures during the process, and when it's finished I'll give you a sample of how it sounds ^^

Here is the first one, raising the foundation for the first wall

[fabricaudio]

can you post some measurements of the booth? I looks very small, do you actually fit in there? (just wondering) You mentioned ''due to drum noise''. You mean for the tracking or the neighbors. Since you are still on the start better make plan before spending any money.

Nikolas

[Mixbuster]

Originally Posted by fabricaudio

can you post some measurements of the booth? I looks very small, do you actually fit in there? (just wondering) You mentioned ''due to drum noise''. You mean for the tracking or the neighbors. Since you are still on the start better make plan before spending any money.

Nikolas

I wish I could have a live room like yours :p but my house wont let that happen :p Maybe in a couple of years, when I'm more established.
Yes, The drum set, mics and the drummer fits right in and 2,40m floor/ceiling The noise due to tracking/ctrl room and yes, a little due to neighbors..
I already build the foundations for the remaining walls.. Gonna put in some traps and stuff. I care about the result yes. but this was the best solution I could come up with along with my band mates.

The dimentions is in the attached thumbnail..

[fabricaudio]

The dimensions look ok at the moment, it is just that maybe you are going to end up with a very dead room for the drums. I had the same problem when we were thinking the layout of the studio and we went with one big room instead of two (live-booth). Maybe you are going to end up tracking drums alone so it will no be a problem not having a booth, or using DI for bass and guitar. Have you figured out how are going to ventilate the booth (it is going to be a sauna for the drummer). I did research for booths (vocal or drums) and one thing is sure, good booths (space and acoustics) end up costing like a proper room. A cheap booth maybe be even worst than tracking in a bigger room with loads of screen panels. For the moment i will go with one room an using variable acoustics depending the instrument i want to track. About the foundations you mentioned, are you making a seperate floating floor for the drums (otherwise everything will transmit through the floor). How thick are you going to make the walls of the booth? You can always do the opposite thing like using the booth for tracking amps or vocals if it ends up very incovenient for the drummer


Nikolas

[Mixbuster]

Originally Posted by fabricaudio

The dimensions look ok at the moment, it is just that maybe you are going to end up with a very dead room for the drums. I had the same problem when we were thinking the layout of the studio and we went with one big room instead of two (live-booth). Maybe you are going to end up tracking drums alone so it will no be a problem not having a booth, or using DI for bass and guitar. Have you figured out how are going to ventilate the booth (it is going to be a sauna for the drummer). I did research for booths (vocal or drums) and one thing is sure, good booths (space and acoustics) end up costing like a proper room. A cheap booth maybe be even worst than tracking in a bigger room with loads of screen panels. For the moment i will go with one room an using variable acoustics depending the instrument i want to track. About the foundations you mentioned, are you making a seperate floating floor for the drums (otherwise everything will transmit through the floor). How thick are you going to make the walls of the booth? You can always do the opposite thing like using the booth for tracking amps or vocals if it ends up very incovenient for the drummer


Nikolas

There is a ventilation fan I'm going to install, so that's not my concerns.
It's going to be totally dead.. Adding ambience later on..

Yes, we usually track 1 instrument at the time. First drummer, then bass and on. I stepped by the thought of raising the floor of the original floor.
The wall is 6cm thick. dfegad Nothing big.. It's gonna lower the db of the drums atleast.. I have to do the best out of the situation, having 1 "actually" small live room, is better yes, but! Then I'll be struggling with noise in my ctrl room, neighbors and on.
You talked about using it for tracking amps or vocals. Yes, maybe I'll do so. But then I don't have any room for the drumset :p

[fabricaudio]

How big the is remaining room after the booth. What kind of insulation you have between the control room and the live? How did you raise the floor in the booth?

Nikolas

[Mixbuster]

Originally Posted by fabricaudio

How big the is remaining room after the booth. What kind of insulation you have between the control room and the live? How did you raise the floor in the booth?

Nikolas

It's not big.. I guess about 2.5m wide and 1.80m long.
The wall between is quite sound "proof". Double layered wall, with rockwool in both walls, and space between. But it's my door between the ctrl room and live.

I haven't raised the floor yet. The only problem with raising the floor is the door in the back of the booth. Last pic, in the first post.

[fabricaudio]

If you already bought the materials and done the job fair enough. I am just sceptical about spending money and having not good results. My order of actions would be

1. Soundproof the control

2. Make a floor for the drums, it is the structural vibration that is difficult to reduce and the wall of the booth will not be appropriate.

3. Use screens for variable acoustics.

4. When you do rehearsals pass the rest through DI so you have only drums live and everybody listens through headphones

5. When tracking each instrument then you just use the amps in the room


I may sound bad, if you already did the job, but you are going to spend money anyway so why not have a good result.


If you see in our webpage fabric audio the wall between control and live is 80 cm thick with 3 layers of 5cm rockwool each. The theoretical sound reduction is 80dB (no, it doesnt go 1dB per cm, hahaha)

I understand you dont that big space but first priority in to soundproof the control

Nikolas

[Mixbuster]

Originally Posted by fabricaudio

1. Soundproof the control

It's only the door that needs to be sound proofed. then I'll have to take out the door, and cut some new dimentios for a new door. It's gonna take time and I have to spend a lot of money.
The booth only costed me about 130 dollars..

2. Make a floor for the drums, it is the structural vibration that is difficult to reduce and the wall of the booth will not be appropriate.

Mixbuster: I haven't raised the floor yet. The only problem with raising the floor is the door in the back of the booth. Last pic, in the first post.

reead

[fabricaudio]

Ok, this sound promising that you didnt spend alot money yet!!! The floor doesnt need to be raised all the way,since you have the door problem,just put the drums on a raiser thats all, like they do in gigs, it just needs to have rubber mounts underneath

You mentioned that

''I have to do the best out of the situation, having 1 "actually" small live room, is better yes, but! Then I'll be struggling with noise in my ctrl room, neighbors and on.''

So is the booth fully isolated from all the sides?. It is difficult to understand the plan (sorry if i sound stupid!!!) do you have more photos of the booth?


Nikolas

[Mixbuster]

Originally Posted by fabricaudio

Ok, this sound promising that you didnt spend alot money yet!!! The floor doesnt need to be raised all the way,since you have the door problem,just put the drums on a raiser thats all, like they do in gigs, it just needs to have rubber mounts underneath

You mentioned that

''I have to do the best out of the situation, having 1 "actually" small live room, is better yes, but! Then I'll be struggling with noise in my ctrl room, neighbors and on.''

So is the booth fully isolated from all the sides?. It is difficult to understand the plan (sorry if i sound stupid!!!) do you have more photos of the booth?


Nikolas

Hehe, I will post some more pics today, when we're finished with todays work!
The booth has 2 sides which wont be isolated, but one is to my ctrl room, dosent matter, and the other one in to a cellar room, dosent matter either

[fabricaudio]

Ok, good luck with the rest of the job.

Nikolas

[Mixbuster]

Update 2:
We finished the foundations, going to connect them tomorrow. So this is just a quick update
Picture 3, you see the vent? Gonna build a box around this and into the booth

Next update will come in a couple of days. Hoping to get the 0.3cm boards on tomorrow and the insulation, and maybe the paiting too. Well see

[Mixbuster]

Hey guys. Camera broke down!
Picture update will hopefully come tomorrow. we finished the walls before the weekend. Began painting today.
The booth sound better than the room did, so expections high!

Cheers.

[Mixbuster]

Finally!
Here is a update.
I got the painting finished, ran out of red paint, so made a "artistic" twist for the wall, you'll see
Picture three, the red light, its the fan

Later I will install the locker in the door and paint the door white
And after that, some new lights and basstraps.

Cheers!

[Mixbuster]

Hey peeps..
Finished the room a couple days ago! Tomorrow I'll hand in a sample
The basstraps has not arrived yet, so it will be interesting to hear
Pictures will also come tomorrow

[Mixbuster]

Hey guys. I'll guess that tomorrow is today
Well.. Yesterday me and the drummer recorded some shit for ya
And here's some photos and a drum sample, 100% raw
Room treatment will come, so this is actually 100% raw. Without treatment and effects on drums. Hope the treatment will make my room much more comfortable to record in
Ps. Drummer wanted me to tell you he got a new hi-hat and crash cymbal after the photos were taken

Thanks for following the thread, cheers!

[phybeau]

Hi Mixbuster,

Just wondering if you already have samples of drumrecording after the treatment,...and willing to post them (since I'm in the process of building a similar size room)

Thanks,
Phybeau

[Mixbuster]

Well, it's a long time since you posted, haven't seen it.
But here is a recording with treatment..

sE electronics mics with sample inside

Check it out