Portable sound absorbtion Panels

Hello, I'm new around here. I'm a drummer, and I play at a lot of my friend's churches. One thing that I've come to notice is that nearly all of them have: 1. Drums in a blank walled corner 2. Drum shield in front of the set 3. Terrible sound quality from the drum kit I guess I should preface this with the question: Would putting sound absorption panels exclusively behind a drum kit (not in front or above) significantly improve the drum's sound quality in the typical small church? If Yes: What would be the best way to make portable Panels? My thought is to use 4" or 6" insulation (703 is it?) to construct three (framed and cloth wrapped) panels. Then using some easily removed hinges or nylon straps, attach the panels together, allowing them to be freestanding. But I'm not the expert, though it's rumored that most of them hang around here.

I run live sound a lot for churches, and what you describe is a universal problem: acoustic drums in a small hall usually sound lousy, not to mention overwhelming. Usually the problem isn't just the wall behind the drums, or even just the stage area, but the entire hall! I rarely come across small church halls with good enough acoustics that an acoustic kit can be made to sound really good, and in my experience most churches just aren't willing to invest the money needed to treat to hall properly. I hate to admit it, but in those cases what I usually recommend for small churches is to forget acoustic drums, and go with electronic drums. That helps in several ways, but of course can never give the same sound as a great acoustic kit in a well treated hall. The treatment, of course, depends on the hall! There is no such thing as "one size fits all" in acoustic treatment. So to answer your question: putting a thick layer of 703 over a large surface area behind the drum kit might help somewhat, but how much it helps depends on the rest of the hall: It might make a big difference if that wall was the only remaining culprit in an otherwise reasonable room. Or it might make practically no difference at all if the room is basically a concrete cave with the drum kit sitting on a hollow stage with a thin wooden floor. Shape, dimensions and construction materials are the issues here. ( Of course, having the right drummer can go a long way towards improving the sound of the drum kit! :) ) If you describe better exactly what you have around your drum kit, in terms of construction, and more about the hall itself, then folks here might be able to give you some suggestions to improve the situation. And hopefully you'll be able to get the pastor / elders / deacons / musicians / congregation on board with whatever plan you come up with. That will probably be just as hard as coming up with a good plan in the first place, if not harder! - Stuart -

I'll try to describe it the best I can. It's a tall 'A' frame santuary. High ceilings, I think they're wood with large A frame supports. The front is vertical wall with stained glass. the back is straight at the top, then has a normal height room along the back (connected to the sanctuary). I would say there are about 15 rows of pews. The Stage is somewhat inset. It's not the whole width of the structure, but is straddled by two storage closets, the walls of which go to the ceiling. All the floors are carpetted. I know the stage is a thicker 'spongier' carpet, I can't recall what what the rest is. I really don't think they have the budget or desire to acoustically treat the whole space though. Which is why I was wondering about the panels.

( Of course, having the right drummer can go a long way towards improving the sound of the drum kit! :) )

This is true, I did a bit of fiddling with the house kit, and they came back to me the next week saying it sounded a lot better. :D

You might think about putting isolation around your mics. While this is not a GREAT solution for the problem it will limit the reflections from entering from certain directions. Kind of like gobo for the mic.

slowjay wrote:

You might think about putting isolation around your mics. While this is not a GREAT solution for the problem it will limit the reflections from entering from certain directions. Kind of like gobo for the mic.

Unfortunately most don't mic the kit.