How to Soundproof a Drum Room

Learning to play the drums is an incredibly exciting and rewarding endeavor. However, drum kits are one of the loudest instruments we can learn, so soundproofing your practice space is an essential part of keeping the peace between you and your neighbors. Learning how to soundproof a room for drums is not incredibly difficult, but you do need to understand some key concepts to do it correctly. But, if you take the time to do it right, you’ll gain some great benefits.

Why Soundproofing Matters

Due to the incredibly loud sounds drum kits are capable of producing, it is important that we implement noise reduction efforts to keep the neighbors happy and our bodies healthy. 

Chronic exposure to excessively loud noises has a detrimental effect on our health and happiness in the long run. That noise can damage our inner ear structures, which can lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. Not only are these effects annoying, but they can lead to far more serious problems if not addressed. 

Learning how to soundproof a room for drums will give you the tools needed to protect both your health and your relationships with the neighbors, and identifying which room you’re going to use is going to be the first step.

Identifying Your Ideal Drum Room

One of the most impactful steps you can make in creating the drum room of your dreams is choosing the right room. Big windows that provide ample natural light may be nice for afternoon practice sessions, but those big windows won’t do a whole lot to help keep sound contained. For this, your best bet is to select an interior room, one with thick walls, or a basement room.

Basement rooms are ideal because the thick concrete walls surrounded by earth provide perfect natural insulation. From this starting point, it is incredibly easy to keep the sound of your drum practice from your neighbors’ ears. If you don’t have any basement rooms available to you, any room with thick walls and ample insulation should be your next consideration.

If you have multiple rooms that fit the bill, select one with the fewest parallel surfaces, if possible. This will keep reverberation to a minimum and make your drum kit sound a little better. Once you have selected the room you would like to use, it’s time to add soundproofing materials and acoustical treatments.

How to Soundproof a Room for Drums

Now that we understand the importance of noise reduction in creating the ideal drum room, let’s take a look at how we accomplish this. It will take a combination of soundproofing efforts and acoustical treatments to do it right, so let’s begin by looking at the difference between these two concepts.

Soundproofing

Soundproofing a space is the act of implementing measures to stop sound transmission across walls, floors, and ceilings. A properly soundproofed room will keep inside and outside sounds on their respective sides of the barriers. The primary purpose of soundproofing is sound isolation.

Acoustic Treatments

Acoustical treatments, on the other hand, are designed to reduce direct reflections that create acoustical issues in the room. Acoustical treatments primarily involve introducing porous, absorptive materials to absorb sound waves, as well as diffusers to redirect reflections. Removing and redirecting reflections keeps inside volumes at a reasonable level and improves speech intelligibility. As such, the primary purpose of acoustical treatments is noise reduction.

Both of these concepts are important when learning how to soundproof a room for drums, and each one is handled a little differently. Let’s begin by looking at some classic soundproofing measures that deliver really big results.

Soundproofing

In order to properly isolate sound, we primarily rely on structural soundproofing. By altering the construction to damp sound waves and prevent them from traversing surfaces from one side to the other, we can contain those waves to the areas they belong. Here are some soundproof construction concepts that we utilize to make this a reality.

Build a Room Within a Room

If you are willing to get into a relatively large project, building a room within a room is likely the most effective means of 100% soundproofing a room. It allows us to decouple the surfaces, meaning we can prevent vibrational energy from traveling from one side to the next via direct pathways.

In a traditional wall, a single set of studs is connected to a layer of drywall on either side. This allows vibrations to pass from one sheet of drywall to the studs and onto the next sheet of drywall. In this scenario, quite a bit of vibrational energy can take that direct path from one side to the next, creating a lot of sound on the other side. 

When we build a room within a room, we utilize two sets of studs, staggered so that none of the studs from the first set actually touch the second set. Each sheet of drywall is attached to only one set of studs, meaning there is no direct pathway from one side of the wall to the other. As far as wall soundproofing and ceiling soundproofing are concerned, few alternatives work as well as a room within a room.

Increase Mass and Volume

The more substantial a surface is, the harder it is for sound waves to pass through it. Just as the earth around a basement room prevents a good deal of sound passage from one side to the next, increasing the mass and volume in upstairs and interior rooms delivers a similar effect. One of the most popular ways of shoring up our walls is to add mass-loaded vinyl.

Mass-loaded vinyl, or MLV, is an easy-to-use solution that adds considerable mass and volume without the need for expensive construction projects or contracted labor. Simply roll a layer of MLV out over your existing drywall and cover it with a second layer of drywall. If you are building the wall from scratch, you can even roll it out onto the studs directly and cover with a layer of drywall. Either option will add enough mass to greatly improve your wall’s sound-blocking ability.

Improve Doors and Windows

Doors and windows are two spots where we tend to experience a lot of sound escape. Any gaps or cracks around the perimeters will allow sound to pass through unimpeded, and many doors and windows are not designed to be thermally efficient or block sound. Luckily, there are some relatively simple ways to improve their performance on a budget.

Doors

Most interior doors are not built with efficiency in mind. They are not intended to keep the elements at bay, nor are they intended to be used for security purposes the way exterior doors are. If you’ve got a hollow-core door, the first step is going to be swapping it out with something more substantial.

Solid-core doors have much more mass and density, and are therefore better suited to soundproofing projects. There are specialty doors designed for use in recording studios, but those aren’t always necessary for home practice studios. As a rule of thumb, the thicker and heavier the door, the better it will block sound.

Another spot to address is the gaps around the door itself. If the seal isn’t air tight, sound will easily pass through those gaps. Fitting your doors with door seal kits that feature automatic door sweeps is the perfect solution. These kits provide acoustic seals all the way around the door, and the automatic door sweep allows you to open and close the door without dragging. When the door closes, the sweep automatically closes the gap.

Windows

Windows are another place where rooms lose a lot of sound. Single-pane windows with poor seals won’t stop much sound, so we want to make sure that there are no gaps around the perimeters and that the windows themselves are built to block sound properly.

First, sealing all the gaps and cracks around the perimeter of the window with an acoustical caulk will go a long way. Acoustical caulk is made of latex, rather than silicone, which allows it to remain flexible permanently. That means it will not shrink or crack due to temperature changes the way silicone caulking does, giving you more soundproof windows for years to come.

Second, making sure your windows feature at least two panes of glass with a gap between them will ensure they are efficient enough to block sound. If your old windows have a single pane, you could consider replacing them with a new set, but that can get expensive in a hurry. A more affordable option is to go with window inserts. Window inserts are designed to provide a custom fit in your existing window frame, providing the extra pane and air gap that will make them more energy efficient and better at blocking sound. 

Third, a set of acoustical curtains can block a substantial portion of sound waves before they ever even reach the window. These curtains are incredibly thick and absorptive, allowing them to absorb sound waves coming from either side. They also work as effective blackout curtains, meaning you can practice at all times of the day without disruption.

Acoustic Treatments

We can’t look at how to soundproof a room for drums without talking about sound absorption. Using acoustical treatments to absorb sound both eliminates acoustical issues that lead to poor sound and lowers the volume inside, making it easier for the other soundproofing measures to stop that sound from escaping. Two of the most popular acoustical treatments on the market are acoustic panels and acoustic foam. 

Acoustic Panels and Foam

Acoustic panels and foam are both made of dense, porous materials that allow sound waves to enter, but prevent a range of frequencies from escaping. Once inside, sound waves are converted from vibrational energy into a small amount of heat energy through a process called damping. Since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, this conversion is necessary to remove noise from the space.

Acoustic panels and foam can be utilized in a wide range of ways, from wall-mounted to suspended from the ceiling. Each application provides unique benefits and improves the sound in the room differently. 

Acoustic panels absorb a wider range of frequencies than acoustic foam, but neither is designed to handle the very low frequencies produced by the bass drum. For that, we turn to bass traps.

Bass Traps

Bass traps are designed to neutralize the pressure buildup associated with the bass waves that tend to linger in the corners of rooms. True bass traps neutralize that pressure similarly to the way acoustic panels neutralize high and mid frequency waves. The result is a quieter space that sounds considerably better. 

Diffusers

Another form of acoustical treatment is the sound diffuser. These redirect reflections rather than absorbing them, but this provides an equally beneficial result. If we absorb too many sound waves, the space will feel dead. If there are too many reflections, it gets overly loud. By mixing in diffusers, we allow for enough reflections that the space sounds great, but we eliminate the acoustical issues that give us trouble.

How to Soundproof a Room for Drums Cheaply

For those looking to learn how to build a soundproof room for drums without breaking the bank, there are some simple things you can do to create a drum room that won’t bother the neighbors or damage your hearing.

Choosing the Right Room

As we mentioned at the top of this article, choosing the right room can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. If you have a basement room with angled walls at your disposal, you have far less work ahead of you. Choosing the right room is free, so it doesn’t get much more affordable than that.

Seal All Gaps and Cracks

You can greatly reduce the amount of sound that escapes your room by making sure all the gaps and cracks are well sealed. A tube or two of acoustical caulk won’t cost that much, but will deliver flexible noise barriers that will last for years.

Furnish the Room with Soft Materials

A simple budget soundproofing hack that will help bring the volume down is to introduce softer, more absorptive materials to the space. Filling the room with absorptive materials adds a variety of sound insulation layers that will help soften noises and reduce the reflections that can lead to acoustical issues.

Focus on Arrangement

The placement of your drum kit can have a pretty big impact on the amount of noise it creates. Simple steps like placing the kit in the center of the wall on a drum mat can have a bigger impact than you might think.

Working with Professionals

Learning how to soundproof a room for drums with simple DIY soundproofing measures, will likely reduce the volume a little, but for a more effective solution, we need to use professional materials and techniques. Working with professionals ensures you’ll use the right materials at each step. 

Our team of audio professionals can also help us get the biggest bang for our buck, since we have worked on all kinds of projects, large and small. If you would like to learn more about how to build a soundproof drum room or tackle any kind of soundproofing project, reach out for a consultation.