As a musician, especially a drummer, one of the most difficult things is to find a suitable place to practice. Most of us are eventually relegated to any unused space in the house, such as the garage, a spare bedroom, or even a closet, the ideal soundproof drum booth.
If we can't do this, many of us will have to pay for the rehearsal space. But in all cases, the drummer needs a place where he can play at the maximum volume without disturbing others. This is a DIY drum shed.
Intuitively, you might think that the soft materials around our house-blankets, egg boxes, carpet residues, and mattresses can be used to soundproof our practice room. These things can't stop your drums from spreading to the outside world.
Build a soundproof drum booth.
If you can't build a complete room in a room, you can do something to reduce the sound flowing from your practice space. However, to do this, some modifications are needed to the existing structure. If you rent an apartment, attic, or basement, or you live in a condominium, you need permission to carry out any serious construction.
In addition, you need to handle any structural work carefully, because it may be dangerous to increase the load on the walls, ceiling, and floors, depending on the age of the building, the materials us, and the location of your room. It is necessary to seek the advice of structural engineers.
What material has the best sound absorption effect?
Simply laying more gypsum boards on the original structure can not effectively reduce the sound transmission through the wall. If you want to soundproof your drum booth, here are the steps you should follow.
Step 1
The first suggestion to increase sound insulation is to separate the thin rock from the wall frame. This requires removing the existing thin rock layer, attaching an elastic channel to the stud, and then hanging a new thin rock layer there.
Step 2
You can further improve the sound insulation effect by using RISC 1 (Elastic Sound Insulation) clips, which use rubber isolators to separate the clips from the studs. Next, you should fix the cap groove on the clamp, and then hang the gypsum board on it.
Step 3
At this point, you can add a second layer of drywall with a layer of green glue or a noise reduction layer in the middle. Placing sound insulation materials, such as sound insulation mats (a material with lower density than standard glass fiber insulation materials) in the wall, will add a little isolation.
If you are taking pains to enlarge the walls in this way, you will want to enlarge the ceiling in the same way. Otherwise, you won't get much benefit in reducing sound transmission (Figure 1).
Step 4
You also need to consider the doors and windows in the room. If it is not properly sealed, the sound will leak out. Although recording studios usually have doors and windows made in industry, many books tell you how to build them yourself with little money.
If done well, a soundproof drum booth will be sealed, so you need to figure out how to ventilate it. Similarly, all kinds of DIY studio books show examples of ventilation systems, which will not damage the isolation effect you want to achieve.
The next level of isolation comes from adding an air gap of at least 2 "between the walls and ceilings of the studio and the surrounding surfaces (Figure 2). At this point, you are building a room within a room.
How much does it cost to drum a room?
If you want to build a room that is really soundproof, or as soundproof as possible, a simple egg box won't work.
Although the high-end method we will describe below may be expensive, it is not as expensive as you think, especially if you or your friends are good at using woodworking tools.
If the room you plan to use will become a source of income, whether through teaching or remote recording, it is worthwhile to explore the concept of a drum booth in the room.