DIY Bass Traps? Yes or no?

QuietRock is great for cutting down basically all frequencies except low end and including your wallet. Its efficacy with low end is minimal. I don't mean to be a Debbie downer, here, but low-end freqs are the hardest to keep from escaping a room. Keep in mind, STC ratings are based around the frequencies of human conversation.

I only say this to try to save you work, heartache, and $$: you're fighting a losing battle trying to treat that room to keep low-end from getting out. Just turn down your speakers or get some badass drum headphones. Both are a lot cheaper.
 
Last edited:
QuietRock is great for cutting down basically all frequencies except low end and including your wallet. Its efficacy with low end is minimal. I don't mean to be a Debbie downer, here, but low-end freqs are the hardest to keep from escaping a room. Keep in mind, STC ratings are based around the frequencies of human conversation.

I only say this to try to save you work, heartache, and $$: you're fighting a losing battle trying to treat that room to keep low-end from getting out. Just turn down your speakers or get some badass drum headphones. Both are a lot cheaper.

Amen! The result that is expected or desired is just not going to happen. Don’t waste any more time or money. A 10% perceived reduction won’t do anything to please a cranky neighbor.
 
Thanks for info. :)

I put two layers of pad, carpet, and then 8" of safesound in the subfloor via the crawlspace.
It's resting on a concrete foundation. I am not going to be able to achieve the isolation that
so many keep telling me I would need. I am not looking for that level of reduction. Just not
feasible, for many reasons.

I am going to try and think of ways to decouple the biggest low-end generators from the floor,
and hopefully, a bunch of incremental gains will add up and be enough to allow me to continue
to enjoy playing/creating music here at a volume I enjoy. :)_
The simplest way is a acoustic floor underlayment (say 2x2 meter), than a wood layer (2x2 meter, I suggest OSB). Put your drums on this floating platform, and enjoy. Be sure the wood layer is not touching wall or floor (make the underlayment an inch wider). You can put a carper on top, even better. If your floor has already a carpet, try to put a 2x2 meter wood layer upon it directly.
I say 2x2 because it is the smaller area that can be useful for a drum set, drummer included. If you want to cover wider area, go for it. I suggest to cover the entire floor, leaving a gap (half inch, an inch... it up to you) between the floating wood and the walls: in case you need to build an isolated room, use this floor as the "floating" foundation.

After the floor is decouple, check noise level outside, see if it helps. Then look for any outside air leakage as second source of long range noise.
 
Yeah, the Police didn't seem too bothered. They were actually very friendly. Said they
were obligated to stop because a complaint was made, but that if they could not hear
it from the road they wouldn't have to come and knock. :)

I am already using an electronic drumset sent to my DAW via MIDI and then monitored
live through dual 15" speakers on each side. I like to feel it when I play.

Maybe I am the problem. ;)
Oh shit, e-drums! Than decoupling the drums has little to no effect. But the principle apply to any impact source: your PA, cabs, so on. Try some rubber (or similar) pads under the sources. Look for leakege around doors & windows. Sometimes built a simple decoupled counter door or window will get rid of the problem. The simplest is a foam that cover the door/windos area.

The real problem here is that we have no actual noise level and expected reduction. If your neighborhood want absolute quiet, for yor bass you need to consider a professional service. No DIY can tame down the lows... and you need to sacrifice plenty of rooom and money... if they enjoy a bit a music, than minor DIY work will do!
 
The suggestion of pairing a ButtKicker with your speakers at a lower volume (or even headphones) is a great one. That may give you much of the physical force you're hoping not to lose.
 
You own the home. If this is your music room I''d suggest applying a secind layer of drywayy with an air between the two. You have to try to not let the two drywall's touch. It's more effort and money but the dividends will seriously pay off.
 
You own the home. If this is your music room I''d suggest applying a secind layer of drywayy with an air between the two. You have to try to not let the two drywall's touch. It's more effort and money but the dividends will seriously pay off.

This will not be as effective as you want it to be against the kind of low end frequencies that are making their way to his neighbors.

I've posted the same advice multiple times, now, so... At the end of the day, it's your time and money.

But I say again, from multiple builds resulting in detailed, hard won, (sometimes) regrettable experience:

Please do not waste your time and money adding drywall, GreenGlue, QuietRock, etc. to this room. Unless you plan to build an entire, decoupled room within a room (don't), the vast majority of the offending low end will still get out.
 
Last edited:
This will not be as effective as you want it to be against the kind of low end frequencies that are making their way to his neighbors.

I've posted the same advice multiple times, now, so... At the end of the day, it's your time and money.

But I say again, from multiple builds resulting in detailed, hard won, (sometimes) regrettable experience:

Please do not waste your time and money adding drywall, GreenGlue, QuietRock, etc. to this room. Unless you plan to build an entire, decoupled room within a room (don't), the vast majority of the offending low end will still get out.
Well no. Frequencies are handled with bass traps. But it will do little for sounds overall abatement. GreenGlue is useless AFAIC. I don't know about QuietRock. But to lessen sound escaping you need to trap the sound waves with an airgap. There are other ways but at the end of the day it might be LESS expensive and more effective. Sound waves get arrested in the gap. Nothing will be 100%. And the more rules you break the less effective it will be. Sound escapes through air. Also vibrations by connection through walls. Nails, posts, windows. Double pane works very well.

I built a three of recording studios, two of them in my home. I've never had a complaint EVER from nieghbors. And I rehearse full bands weekly with drums. DIY for sure. I depends on what you're going for.
 
Well no. Frequencies are handled with bass traps. But it will do little for sounds overall abatement. GreenGlue is useless AFAIC. I don't know about QuietRock. But to lessen sound escaping you need to trap the sound waves with an airgap. There are other ways but at the end of the day it might be LESS expensive and more effective. Sound waves get arrested in the gap. Nothing will be 100%. And the more rules you break the less effective it will be. Sound escapes through air. Also vibrations by connection through walls. Nails, posts, windows. Double pane works very well.

I built a three of recording studios, two of them in my home. I've never had a complaint EVER from nieghbors. And I rehearse full bands weekly with drums. DIY for sure. I depends on what you're going for.

Sooooo, then we agree? 🤷🏼‍♂️
Unless he's going to do a large amount of additonal work, he's better off turning the speakers down or getting a Butt Kicker. Again, this is an electric drumset.
 
QuietRock is great for cutting down basically all frequencies except low end and including your wallet. Its efficacy with low end is minimal. I don't mean to be a Debbie downer, here, but low-end freqs are the hardest to keep from escaping a room. Keep in mind, STC ratings are based around the frequencies of human conversation.

I only say this to try to save you work, heartache, and $$: you're fighting a losing battle trying to treat that room to keep low-end from getting out. Just turn down your speakers or get some badass drum headphones. Both are a lot cheaper.

Thanks, Cooper. I appreciate your insight and expertise. May have to resort to bribing/massaging the neighbour
with something other than music. :)
 
he's better off turning the speakers down or getting a Butt Kicker. Again, this is an electric drumset.

To be honest, this thread has been kind of a "Butt Kicker." ;)

I get that I may not be able to mitigate ALL the low end, but I am going to work on some things
I learned in this thread to alleviate/absorb/disperse as much of that energy as I can within the house.

I guess I'll find out if it helps in the long run or not.

I figure 5 things that mitigate 1 or 2 percent of those most offensive of frequencies will add up to a
net 5 to 10 percent reduction. I know that I don't have to eliminate/isolate all the low-end. Nor could I.

My goals/needs are smaller than a professional studio space. Sadly. :)
 
Amen! The result that is expected or desired is just not going to happen. Don’t waste any more time or money. A 10% perceived reduction won’t do anything to please a cranky neighbor.

Maybe it is my denial kicking in, but I have to disagree. If the sound of a kick drum is negligible at 100 yards,
then a 5 to 10 percent reduction can make the difference that makes all the difference for my life. And my
neighbour's. :)
 
Oh shit, e-drums! Than decoupling the drums has little to no effect. But the principle apply to any impact source: your PA, cabs, so on. Try some rubber (or similar) pads under the sources. Look for leakege around doors & windows. Sometimes built a simple decoupled counter door or window will get rid of the problem. The simplest is a foam that cover the door/windos area.

The real problem here is that we have no actual noise level and expected reduction. If your neighborhood want absolute quiet, for yor bass you need to consider a professional service. No DIY can tame down the lows... and you need to sacrifice plenty of rooom and money... if they enjoy a bit a music, than minor DIY work will do!

Thanks for the great advice. I like solutions even if there isn't one widely accepted by everyone. :)

That highlighted sentence is also a problem for me. I had zero complaints in 5 years until last week.
I actually had to have my son play drums while I walked around the neighborhood trying to get a feel
for how loud the drums were beyond my own residence. I can say they were not that loud, all things
considered. This is why I think some slight improvements that others imagine are not going to help
are actually worth the effort.

I can't imagine what "noise" I make would bother the neighbours. But I also know some people lay
in bed at night, or in the morning, just looking for a reason to be offended and have a reason to get
out of bed. That means even the slightest perceived repetitive thump is an issue.

Oh, and I moved to an E-kit because I thought I could control volume better, and it is easier to track
to a DAW via MIDI and then uses sample libraries. Or so I assumed. :)

Thanks again for the advice. It's helpful.
 
Hi again @la noise
Have you considered quality in ear monitors? You could probably get a number of pairs for the money you’re about to spend on walls etc. that way you could use the in ears at “sensitive” times, and blast away during the day.
Thanks
Pauly

Thanks for the great advice. I like solutions even if there isn't one widely accepted by everyone. :)

That highlighted sentence is also a problem for me. I had zero complaints in 5 years until last week.
I actually had to have my son play drums while I walked around the neighborhood trying to get a feel
for how loud the drums were beyond my own residence. I can say they were not that loud, all things
considered. This is why I think some slight improvements that others imagine are not going to help
are actually worth the effort.

I can't imagine what "noise" I make would bother the neighbours. But I also know some people lay
in bed at night, or in the morning, just looking for a reason to be offended and have a reason to get
out of bed. That means even the slightest perceived repetitive thump is an issue.

Oh, and I moved to an E-kit because I thought I could control volume better, and it is easier to track
to a DAW via MIDI and then uses sample libraries. Or so I assumed. :)

Thanks again for the advice. It's helpful.
 
Thanks! I kind of understood this going in. I am not looking for isolation so much as a reduction
in perceived volume outside the home

That's what Isolation is.

Thanks, Cooper. I appreciate your insight and expertise. May have to resort to bribing/massaging the neighbour
with something other than music. :)

That would be the inexpensive way to do it.

So....everyone has pretty much told you that acoustic treatments won't do what you need, at least directly, and the full on, expensive room-airgap-room thing is the only way to actually isolate the sounds you're making from the outside world.

And you're using a e-drums with monitors (or PA speakers, doesn't actually matter) and your goal is to be able to feel it (which I assume means the sound kicking you in the chest) without having too much leak out. Some of that comes from the crack of drums, which can significantly be around 1k; some of it is an octave or 2 lower...some of it is flat-out sub-bass.

They're not cheap, but there are "treatment"-like things that could help with that....indirectly.

I don't think you've said how big this room is or where it is in your house, so I'll assume it's not in a basement (which you don't seem to have) and that it's a relatively normal room inside a house, rather than a freaking huge (many hundred square feet) room with huge vaulted ceilings. That is a NIGHTMARE for accurate bass and sub-bass. If you actually bother to measure it, you're probably going to find 40dB swings in nearby sub-bass frequencies....but to a great degree, the level the speakers are producing (before the room effects take 20-40dB off some of them and reinforce others) is what's escaping.

The "problem" is that below some critical frequency (in my well-treated and essentially GiK-designed room, within the constraints of what I had to work with, it's actually up around 100Hz) the sound inside the room is mostly the result of big woofers changing the air pressure inside the room, which then makes the whole room act like an acoustic drum or subwoofer cabinet. Inside the room, you can't just think of sub-bass as standing waves....it's more complex than that.

So, what I would suggest is to take advantage of return policies and at least try a 2 or 4-subwoofer setup according to these guidelines: (had to remove the link; something about spam) Search for GiK Acoustics, speaker placement 201 part 2: using subwoofers or something like that. I am not trying to get you to buy their products and neither is that article. It's about physics and subwoofer placement.

To answer some obvious questions:
Yes, you're going to have to move heavy subwoofers around to try the different options.
No, where you put them has absolutely no impact on stereo imaging.
Yes, it's a lot more power going to sub-bass....but you're taking advantage of them cancelling each other out.
No, more subwoofers does not necessarily mean louder sub-bass.
Yes, you need a tunable crossover that's more detailed than anything that comes built-in to any sub on the market....that's the complex part.

FWIW, all of my sound goes through my computer anyway, so I use 2 instances of FabFilter Pro-Q 3 for my XOs. I have 2 versions of my monitor control Reaper session...one set to "zero latency" mode for everything for low-latency monitoring, the other set to "Linear Phase - Maximum" because it sounds noticeably better, but the monitor path adds about a full second of latency...which is what I use for mastering projects because in that context the accuracy matters heaps more than the latency.

Your goal would be to even out the sub-bass response so you get the rumble/thump that you want at a lower overall volume level. Better sub-bass does generally mean that you need less overall sound, which means the room itself acting as a drum/subwoofer can be quieter from outside.

If the track is good, my system will rattle your bones and smack you in the chest at 85dB SPL....and at that level, very little leaks to outside. Some still does, but not as much. In the living room, which is much less treated and doesn't have the subs....you flat out can't get the same feeling. But to get close means the in-room level is closer to 100dB and a lot more leaks outside....because it's almost 3x louder.

It might not work. But, you can't really return construction supplies after you've used them. You can return a pile of subwoofers if they don't work for you.

I'd still look at decoupling the subs from the floor and putting your tops on stands where you want them for detailed drum sound in the playing position....and I'd probably still put bass traps in the room corners (floor to ceiling) and at the first reflection points for the drum tops from the drummer's position (assuming that's your biggest goal for the room) just so the rest of the sound is more accurate.

But...that's what I would do.

It's neither simple, nor quick. And it's not guaranteed to work. And my thoughts come mostly from a LOT of experimentation over the course of about a year building my mastering room and deciding on speakers, which obviously has different overall needs. But, that's what I would try first.

Literally none of the easy "just put this on your walls" isolation things actually work. They're like the egg-crate looking sound "treatments" that a lot of youtubers use....they do something, but it's never something you want. Unfortunately, unless you cover all of your walls with them, they're so ineffective at what they actually do accomplish, that most people don't notice and think that because they did something, it's better (literally all they do is reduce flutter echo).

So....take all that for what it's worth.

But, a bottle of whiskey every month or so is going to be cheaper than any form of "doing it right".
 
That's what Isolation is.



That would be the inexpensive way to do it.

So....everyone has pretty much told you that acoustic treatments won't do what you need, at least directly, and the full on, expensive room-airgap-room thing is the only way to actually isolate the sounds you're making from the outside world.

And you're using a e-drums with monitors (or PA speakers, doesn't actually matter) and your goal is to be able to feel it (which I assume means the sound kicking you in the chest) without having too much leak out. Some of that comes from the crack of drums, which can significantly be around 1k; some of it is an octave or 2 lower...some of it is flat-out sub-bass.

They're not cheap, but there are "treatment"-like things that could help with that....indirectly.

I don't think you've said how big this room is or where it is in your house, so I'll assume it's not in a basement (which you don't seem to have) and that it's a relatively normal room inside a house, rather than a freaking huge (many hundred square feet) room with huge vaulted ceilings. That is a NIGHTMARE for accurate bass and sub-bass. If you actually bother to measure it, you're probably going to find 40dB swings in nearby sub-bass frequencies....but to a great degree, the level the speakers are producing (before the room effects take 20-40dB off some of them and reinforce others) is what's escaping.

The "problem" is that below some critical frequency (in my well-treated and essentially GiK-designed room, within the constraints of what I had to work with, it's actually up around 100Hz) the sound inside the room is mostly the result of big woofers changing the air pressure inside the room, which then makes the whole room act like an acoustic drum or subwoofer cabinet. Inside the room, you can't just think of sub-bass as standing waves....it's more complex than that.

So, what I would suggest is to take advantage of return policies and at least try a 2 or 4-subwoofer setup according to these guidelines: (had to remove the link; something about spam) Search for GiK Acoustics, speaker placement 201 part 2: using subwoofers or something like that. I am not trying to get you to buy their products and neither is that article. It's about physics and subwoofer placement.

To answer some obvious questions:
Yes, you're going to have to move heavy subwoofers around to try the different options.
No, where you put them has absolutely no impact on stereo imaging.
Yes, it's a lot more power going to sub-bass....but you're taking advantage of them cancelling each other out.
No, more subwoofers does not necessarily mean louder sub-bass.
Yes, you need a tunable crossover that's more detailed than anything that comes built-in to any sub on the market....that's the complex part.

FWIW, all of my sound goes through my computer anyway, so I use 2 instances of FabFilter Pro-Q 3 for my XOs. I have 2 versions of my monitor control Reaper session...one set to "zero latency" mode for everything for low-latency monitoring, the other set to "Linear Phase - Maximum" because it sounds noticeably better, but the monitor path adds about a full second of latency...which is what I use for mastering projects because in that context the accuracy matters heaps more than the latency.

Your goal would be to even out the sub-bass response so you get the rumble/thump that you want at a lower overall volume level. Better sub-bass does generally mean that you need less overall sound, which means the room itself acting as a drum/subwoofer can be quieter from outside.

If the track is good, my system will rattle your bones and smack you in the chest at 85dB SPL....and at that level, very little leaks to outside. Some still does, but not as much. In the living room, which is much less treated and doesn't have the subs....you flat out can't get the same feeling. But to get close means the in-room level is closer to 100dB and a lot more leaks outside....because it's almost 3x louder.

It might not work. But, you can't really return construction supplies after you've used them. You can return a pile of subwoofers if they don't work for you.

I'd still look at decoupling the subs from the floor and putting your tops on stands where you want them for detailed drum sound in the playing position....and I'd probably still put bass traps in the room corners (floor to ceiling) and at the first reflection points for the drum tops from the drummer's position (assuming that's your biggest goal for the room) just so the rest of the sound is more accurate.

But...that's what I would do.

It's neither simple, nor quick. And it's not guaranteed to work. And my thoughts come mostly from a LOT of experimentation over the course of about a year building my mastering room and deciding on speakers, which obviously has different overall needs. But, that's what I would try first.

Literally none of the easy "just put this on your walls" isolation things actually work. They're like the egg-crate looking sound "treatments" that a lot of youtubers use....they do something, but it's never something you want. Unfortunately, unless you cover all of your walls with them, they're so ineffective at what they actually do accomplish, that most people don't notice and think that because they did something, it's better (literally all they do is reduce flutter echo).

So....take all that for what it's worth.

But, a bottle of whiskey every month or so is going to be cheaper than any form of "doing it right".

Dude! Woow, gonna take me a few times to read through this and digest it all. Thanks for taking the time. Truly appreciated. :)
 
Hi again @la noise
Have you considered quality in ear monitors? You could probably get a number of pairs for the money you’re about to spend on walls etc. that way you could use the in ears at “sensitive” times, and blast away during the day.
Thanks
Pauly

I don't know. I am kind of old, grew up playing live in a room with other people, and hate headphones with a passion.

I know it would cut down on my in home "stage" volume, but not sure that would work for me. I am going to try the
other measures first and see if that does the trick. I have already tweaked a few things here and there based on the
replies I have received and played/tracked drums with no issues a few nights now. So, knock on wood, maybe all will
be well without building a cement bunker around my home. :)
 
Back
Top Bottom