Hardwood flooring for drum riser?

[TheBeast]

Hey all,

Right now I've got my drums set up on an 8' x 8' wooden riser that is covered in carpet. The room is about 15 x 20 with 8 foot ceilings, and I have 2, 6" Mineral Wool panels hanging over the kit. The floor underneath the riser is carpet on top of concrete. My question is, would it be worth while to cover the carpeted riser with hardwood flooring? I've heard it makes a tremendous difference with acoustic guitar, is the same true with drums?

Thanks,
Mike

[travisbrown]

Saw that you moved this to this section after I posted. Oops. You should get ules to delete the original post.

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Yes, it makes a tremendous difference. Whether it's a difference you want or not is a different matter.

It increases the reflective quality of the stage. Generally makes the kit more "live" because you get more sound bouncing off the floor into overheads and other mics on-axis enough to pick up such reflections.

Unless you want to use hardwood for aesthetics, you don't need real hardwood. Laminate or finished MDF works just as well. Some people think that it will act like a guitar soundboard, but unless you've designed a resonant chamber and found a way to get 3/4" wood to resonate outside a spectrum only elephants can hear, you are only changing the reflective quality.

I'd make a riser with a laminate surface, then have a carpet to roll out over it when you want less reflection. Area rug would allow you to partially expose the laminate top.

[TheBeast]

So it sounds like sort of a gamble on wether I want to do that or not. I don't have all of my gear wired yet (Still in construction phase), so is there any way I would know if this would benefit me or not?

I would probably use a small rug regardless, just to keep the drums from dancing around the riser.

[avare]

Originally Posted by TheBeast

So it sounds like sort of a gamble on wether I want to do that or not. I don't have all of my gear wired yet (Still in construction phase), so is there any way I would know if this would benefit me or not?

I would probably use a small rug regardless, just to keep the drums from dancing around the riser.

No gamble, it is a subjective issue. Is a guitar a better instrument than drums? No, each has its place. Make it bare and have the throw rug to give you options.

Andre

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by TheBeast

So it sounds like sort of a gamble on wether I want to do that or not.

No gamble needed! Buy some cheap 1/4 inch plywood and try it temporarily as a test. If you like the sound, get nicer wood and do it for real. Otherwise give the plywood away. This is a cheap way to find out quickly.

--Ethan

[TheBeast]

So MDF and Laminate flooring have the same reflective sonic qualities? Is there no advantage to getting real Oak hardwood flooring?

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by TheBeast

So MDF and Laminate flooring have the same reflective sonic qualities? Is there no advantage to getting real Oak hardwood flooring?

These are my best guesses:

Real oak flooring, if flatsawn, rough-milled, and not porefilled would have a slightly greater scattering effect, but it would have to be really, really open-grained to make a difference.

MDF is as about as hard/dense as Big Leaf Maple and slightly harder/denser than red oak, and would reflect as much as any tight grained floor. Most flooring is so glazed with finish, with the objective of making it hard and durable, the wood has nothing really to add. It just looks pretty.

I'd guess that anyone who could hear a difference between an oak and any floor is deluding themselves. Differences would be on subfloor cavities, other room treatments, coplanar amplification...

There are other threads about putting hard-surfaces vs. carpet in control rooms and the effect on monitoring. Same principles apply.

Someone like Ethan W. would know more.

[Disjointed]

as a drummer,carpenter, and fellow slut.... id recommend solid wood... mostly for wear and tear reasons..

Laminate or Mdf, will get beat up/scratch pretty quickly... especially with no lil carpet to keep the drums in place, the points of the drum hardware are going to 'dig in' to stay in place...

i can see the mdf chipping away and the laminate scratching the top off in no time...


that being said, i always pack my lil rug with my kit to keep my drums in place, so would that defeat the purpose of a hardwood floor?


you could always try to coat the hardwood surface in some kind of 'traction additive' .. that would probably keep the drums mostly in place, and maybe even add a desired HF diffusion?

?
gl

[Bob Olhsson]

I've found soft wood that a drummer can spike the whole kit into is best. I'd put something reflective near the drummer's ears too. This will cause the drummer to not play as hard which can result in lots better defined tone.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by TheBeast

So MDF and Laminate flooring have the same reflective sonic qualities? Is there no advantage to getting real Oak hardwood flooring?

The only real difference will be wear and tear as was already explained. Most wood reflecting surfaces sound the same. Linoleum and painted cement are other common floor materials.

--Ethan

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by travisbrown

Real oak flooring, if flatsawn, rough-milled, and not porefilled would have a slightly greater scattering effect, but it would have to be really, really open-grained to make a difference.

Yeah, like wood with gouges two to three inches deep.

--Ethan

[gullfo]

just use 3/4 or 29/32 plywood on top of the MDF (or other massive base) so you can screw in the kit or toss on a small rug etc. when its chewed up, take it off and put another piece on. just using MDF, laminate or nice hardwood is just bound to end up looking crappy with the wear so you might as well make it replaceable. if you need to take photos of folks using your studio and the rugged wood is too harsh looking, pop down a layer of snap-together wood flooring, then store when you're done.

[TheBeast]

Thanks for the tips guys. I ended up getting a great deal on some natural bamboo hardwood from lumber liquidators. 64 square feet for about 250$ after supplies, subfloor, and nailer rental. It looks fantastic, I'll post some pictures when I finally get a camera down there. Thanks again for all the help!

-mike

[DeadPoet]

Went shopping in IKEA (of all places) for laminate flooring.. 60m² at €7/m² which translates to roughly 1$/ft² (material only, no subfloor- I was told not to skimp on that for a more 'real' stepping sound)


Herwig