Ceiling treatment over drum kit

virtualsamana · Post by **virtualsamana** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:56 am

Room Size:

15' x 20'

I have 703 2'x4'x4" panels in each of the four corners of the room.
The space directly behind the kit is treated with 2" 703. I also just picked up some one foot squared 4" depth wedge acoustic foam panels to place above the drum kit. Walls are concrete, floor is carpet, ceiling is concrete.

If I treat above the kit would you recommend spacing the acoustic tiles to allow for some reflections? The ceiling is only 9' high. I think I read somewhere that for ceilings it is best to cover as much space as possible with broadband absorption. I know I should use my ears to gauge but I am looking for general recommendations.

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:42 pm

we made 4" thick pillow panels out of UltraTouch cotton insulation and covered as many surfaces around the kit as we could. this has worked very well for us.

i'm not one of the acoustics experts on here, but foam may not get you the absorbtion you need.

Shane Michael Rose · Post by **Shane Michael Rose** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:51 pm

so i take it that you are going for a very dead space?

leftofthedial · Post by **leftofthedial** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:54 pm

I'd go to autozone and get a 8 X 6 rubber mat that comes in 2X2 sheets and put a cheap throw rug over it.

Ceiling, I'll leave to someone else. But, a concrete ceiling is bad.....

aaronaustin · Post by **aaronaustin** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:16 am

I made several 703 panels covered in burlap and hung two of them over the kit. Since we're at my drummer's house, I didn't want to ask him to hang stuff from the ceiling, so I built at frame out of 2x3's to hang them from. They're about 6-8" from the ceiling and it's worked fine for us. Some people suggest deadening the entire ceiling if it's fairly low--that just wasn't feasible for me right now.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:33 pm

I definitely recommend treating the ceiling above the drum kit with absorption, especially given that your ceilings are only 9' tall. It will help things soudn better, particularly the overheads.

I'd use panels at least 4" thick made from proven absorptive materials (such as rigid fiberglass, rockwool, or acoustic cotton) that are spaced down 4" from the ceiling. This will give you an absorber that extends low enough to help the kick drum as well.

The foam you mention will help at higher frequencies if you use it, ie, the cymbals will probably sound better in the overheads.

virtualsamana · Post by **virtualsamana** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:37 am

Great, thanks to all for the very useful advice.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:08 pm

JWL wrote:especially given that your speakers are only 9' tall.

dang it - my speakers are only 8 1/2 feet tall!

Weasel9992 · Post by **Weasel9992** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:35 am

I'm with jwl on that one. Cover it. The only thing you'll get off that ceiling is comb filtering anyway. You'll get enough "ambience" from the rest of the room.

Frank

overseer · Post by **overseer** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:49 am

Hello all,

So I finally have a house of my own with a basement for my music. YAY! Well, I need to do something in the way of sound proofing to make the little lady happy.

The basement was 90% finished when we moved in, and the side of the basement I am using as my practice space/studio has a carpeted floor, 2 finished walls and 2 concrete walls, and a finished ceiling.

What's going to be my best solution for sound proofing the ceiling to eliminate the majority of the sound coming upstairs?

I'll also take any suggestions for treating the 2 concrete walls?

Thanks folks, and I look forward to your replies.

OvrCr

Weasel9992 · Post by **Weasel9992** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:55 am

overseer wrote:Hello all,

So I finally have a house of my own with a basement for my music. YAY! Well, I need to do something in the way of sound proofing to make the little lady happy.

The basement was 90% finished when we moved in, and the side of the basement I am using as my practice space/studio has a carpeted floor, 2 finished walls and 2 concrete walls, and a finished ceiling.

What's going to be my best solution for sound proofing the ceiling to eliminate the majority of the sound coming upstairs?

I'll also take any suggestions for treating the 2 concrete walls?

Thanks folks, and I look forward to your replies.

OvrCr

I'll leave the sound proofing for others, but the walls and corners will need a combination of bass trapping and high frequency treatment like any other space. Bass traps generally straddle all the corners floor to ceiling if possible and go on the back wall...possibly the front wall too depending on exactly what's going on. You'll need 2" panels for higher frequency stuff at the reflection points to the left, right and above your head. If you're doing a live end-dead end thing, the tracking end can be left more lively (possibly), but you'll probably want some 2" panels on the walls and above the tracking area to reduce comb filtering.

All very general advise. Your room layout and what you're doing in there specifically will determine all the specifics.

Frank

overseer · Post by **overseer** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:32 am

Frank,

Thanks for the reply. Mostly we're going to be practicing in this space, but I would like to eventually be able to do some tracking and such. Then again I also eventually plan on sectioning off the space into a live room and a small control room. That's a ways down the road tho.

playinbass · Post by **playinbass** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:36 am

Can I tag on to this subject with a slight alteration? Weird idea, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

My basement space is 13' x 21' with 7 foot ceilings. I put the drums in this corner generally.

Pics here
http://www.belltower.net/studio/Studio/ ... 0284_e.htm

I've since changed things a bit and put up some 703 bass traps (there are more elsewhere too).

http://www.belltower.net/studio/Bass_Tr ... G_0826.htm

I'd like to get a bit more 'life' into the high end and am thinking of tiling the floor (asphalt/linoleum type commercial tiles like you see in schools). I was going to put a 'cloud' over the drum kit...don't have much room so it couldn't be very thick and I think I'm OK with bass trapping. I'd like to kill reflections without absorbing ALL the high end.

So here's where the weird idea comes in. Since I've already got carpeting deadening the floor what would happen if I put parquet flooring or tile ON THE CEILING and leave the floor as is. Am I crazy? It would sure be a lot easier.

I'm also thinking of putting wood on the walls and incorporating some sort of random diffusing.

I know my room will never sound great, but just want to make it the best I can (within reason).

What do you think?

Gerry

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:10 am

Smitty wrote:we made 4" thick pillow panels out of UltraTouch cotton insulation and covered as many surfaces around the kit as we could. this has worked very well for us.

i'm not one of the acoustics experts on here, but foam may not get you the absorbtion you need.

I'm interested in working on my ceiling a bit myself. I have this awful cardboard click together type ceiling in my room and it has stupid stucco paint on it. I want to make clouds, but I'm curious as to the construction of these "pillow panels" that you mentioned. How the heck did you mount them so that they stay up there?

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:44 am

Smitty's Pillow Panels
Makes 12 or more.

Ingredients:
1) Ultratouch cotton insulation batts
2) several multi-packs of small (1'x2') foamcore panels from an Office Supply store.
3) some bargain basement fabric
4) spray adhesive (i think we used 3M Super 77)
5) industrial grade velcro (wide strips)
6) small thin slats of wood (maybe 1/4" thick?), at least as wide as the velcro and about 3' long.
7) a staple gun.

cut the Ultratouch to the dimensions of the foamcore panels (piecing together small chunks worked as well when we got to the end of a batt) and spray-glue them to the foam. now spray the other side of the foam so it'll stick to the fabric when you apply it.

wrap the panel and foam together with fabric, leaving enough space on the back (the foam side) for a generous application of velcro. glue and/or staple the fabric taut to the back so you basically have a one-sided pillow. repeat until you have lots of them.

screw the small slats of wood to the places you will want to put them (ceiling, walls, etc.) this cuts down on ruining the finish on the walls with the velcro adhesive, and helps keep everything where you want it.

apply one side of the velcro to the back of each panel, and the other to the wooden slats, using a staple gun to secure the velcro to the slat. let them sit for a few minutes to give the velcro adhesives time to set. (at first, the hook and loop grippy action will be stronger than the new adhesive bond... this is strong stuff!)

then put them up. the neat thing about this method is that you can remove and place them elsewhere as needed. we use them all around the drumset when tracking drums, in a makeshift vocal booth for vocals, on some sort of easy frame for gobos, or around the mix area, etc.

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Ceiling treatment over drum kit

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