Drum room construction

[roguedrums]

Hey Guys
I am in the middle of constructing a drum room in my Bonus room. I will be tracking and mixing (drums only) in the same room. I am building a room within a room and need some insite on accustic treatment as well as drum and console placement. also, would plywood walls sound better than sheetrock? fabric on the walls...etc...etc????? I have attached a layout of the room, as if you were looking down on the room and as if you were looking thru the door. Ceiling height is 8' and the walls are 5'. the room is 14x19.
thanks for your help!!!

[jhbrandt]

Hi Rogue,

Well, my first question is; "Why are you building a room in a room?" It's in the attic, i am guessing -- and quite small. If you add airspace and more walls and ceiling, it will be smaller still. I understand that with drums, you need as much isolation as you can get. But with a sloped ceiling like that, you are very close to the roof and the outside world... not much between you and there.. and then there's the floor - You will have to beef it up so much and add a floating floor.. It's almost not worth it. If you build the walls and not the ceiling, you are wasting your time and money. -- almost the same if you don't isolate the floor, IMHO.

The room doesn't look bad for a nice home mix room, but I would put the mix position on the wall opposite the door. This will give you a more balanced (symmetrical) environment and get you away from the 'speaker boundary interference region'. Be sure to pull away from the wall in front of you when setting up... start by putting yourself about 7' 5" away from that wall for a monitoring position. Think of an equilateral triangle - place yourself at one corner and your speakers at the 2 other corners. Put absorption panels at the reflection points, trap the corners and go. (There's more to it than that, but I hope you get the idea)

Can you record the drums remote?? I have some friends (Nashville) that have taken their rig (laptop) to a great sounding cathedral and recorded the drums and then OD back at the studio... etc.

-Just a thought.

Cheers,
John

[roguedrums]

thanks for your help.
here is my thoughts. please tell me what you think. Double the sheetrock on the side walls. there is air space behind the side walls.
Build a wall infront of the outside walls, one leading to the outside of the house and the one with the door. Then line the sloped ceiling with bass traps and seal it up best as possable. I also thought about building a small riser for the drums out of 2x6's and insulate the bottom of it and place it on rubber feet to isulate it from the floor somewhat. Dont know if the riser is a good idea or not???? I know I cant isolate it completely but if i can knock out 50-75% of the sound then that should be good enough.

[Ted White]

Quick list of concepts:

You'd like to have the drum room framing decoupled from the original structure.

If there's no drywall already, you can add new stud walls 1" away from original. Can be 24" OC studs to conserve materials.

Ceiling is trickier, due to slope. But same decoupled, separate framing concept.

Add R13 fiberglass to new walls.

Add double 5/8" drywall on inside.

The floor is the bugger. Don't add a floating floor, assuming the ceiling under the drum room is drywalled. Instead, consider adding a layer of soundboard and double OSB (damped), or just add damped OSB directly to the existing subfloor.

You would do well building the inner walls on this new floor

[jhbrandt]

50% is probably doable. May I suggest then that you use Green Glue and one layer of 5/8 gypsum on all walls and ceiling? If installed per manufacturer instruction this can increase TL up to 10db - which is 50%. and adding a layer of damped OSB to the floor like Ted suggested will help - you may gain 3 -4 db TL there - but people in the house will hear the drums. But this will save you real estate.

Sealing is very very important. Make sure that all cracks, joints, and trim work are all caulked with an acoustic rated caulk. (pretend that you are making a refrigerator room)

But don't put your speakers facing that sloped wall. SBIR - look it up.

As for treatment have a look at some of my pubs, GIK Acoustics, and Real Traps for information and suggestions.

Cheers,
-John

[Ted White]

Originally Posted by jhbrandt

May I suggest then that you use Green Glue and one layer of 5/8 gypsum on all walls and ceiling?

John, we should maybe clarify that. Damping materials are used in between two massive panels. So in between double drywall, or double plywood, or a mix. You couldn't use damping materials with a single, solitary panel.