How to Control Drum Noise

Noise Reduction for Loud Drums

Whether a professional drummer in a music studio, a wannabe drummer in a home studio, or the young child with the brand new drum set, controlling your drum noise will play a key role in the success of the budding musician.    Soundproofing panel systems are available to better control the excessive exposure to the impact noise a drum set will generate.  For commercial music studios, premium sound quality can be generated by capturing and converting the echoes from the live room, which in turn produces clarity to the original sound.   For home musicians, at any level, the drums will elevate the need to isolate the noise within a contained space in the home.   Here again, acoustic panels can play a key role in reducing the exposure to drum noise.

Impact noise is one of the most difficult sound sources to control, and drums can be so loud as to cause permanent hearing loss.   Acoustic panels can help.   They can be surface mounted in and around the targeted space around a drum set to capture and convert echoes generated from the impact of a drum.   This will require a thicker sound panel in order to better capture the sound wave.   Thinner panels will let the echoes release back into the room.   The thicker the soundproofing treatment for your noisy drums, the more reverberations you will be able to manage.   A stronger percentage of the echo will be caught and captured.   The key to the success of your acoustic panel treatment for a drum space lies in the amount of sound panel used, and the panel thickness you order.   Be sure to consult with a sound panel professional before placing your order.

Sound Panels for Loud Drums

Acoustic foam panels have typically been the most popular soundproofing technique for a loud drum set.   These panels should be 3″ thick and cover 50-75% of your overall perimeter wall or ceiling space inside a drum booth.   If there is no booth, and the drums sit in the middle of a room, then target 30-50% overall wall coverage throughout the room, placing the panels as you wish throughout, but ensuring that you are not undertreating the space.   The acoustic Pyramid Foam panels are the staple sound panel of choice for today’s professional drummers.

Click here to see Acoustic Pyramid Foam Panels

and then line the surfaces of the booth with acoustic panels.  But you can have both, without making the drum set mysteriously disappear during the night. While the music is probably not getting any quieter, you can control its transmission throughout the house by adding some simple soundproofing modifications to the room.

Recording Studio Acoustics

Unlike a residential home musician on drums, recording studios are purposely built with soundproofing in mind.   Not only the protection of sound bleed into and out of a live room, a drum booth, or a control room,  but also the elimination of sound wave reflections that can blur background signals and distort what is being recorded.   The sound panels of choice in this setting often upgrade to the cloth wrapped acoustic boards called Fabric Panels.   These are soundproofing panels that can be built 10′ tall and wrapped in 70 color options.   The panels can also be custom paint matched with logos and images printed on their face to brand your recording studio.  These acoustic panels work just as well as the acoustic foam option, be sure to target a 2″ thick depth for controlling drum noise.

For assistance in soundproofing your drums, for home or recording studio applications, contact NetWell Noise Control at 1-800-638-9355 or visit them online at www.controlnoise.com