Need help building drum risers?

My post wasn't intended to make any specific point - just what I did and how well it worked out :D

ok, you've totally lost me here. If you we're considering pouring a concrete slab, why not just put carpet down on the concrete floor? What difference does the riser make?

I could have put the drums on the concrete floor & I'm sure it would have been ok, but the riser has several purposes : - Further isolates the drums from the building to add increased sound reduction to the outside and between rooms - remember the riser is sitting on neoprene pucks - Raises the drummer so he is closer to eye level with the other people playing - Looks cool

Hey andrew i knew your point was not as I stated, However, I used your findings to point out the point I was attempting to make. (Not that in the grand scheme of things that it matters) but it illustrates what I was after. with regards to the TONE you get in your kick drum. Which bottom line was my point. :) But then again who cares as long as the final result is the same, a great recording environment. :) Peace and hair grease.....

So does this help the sound of the drums at all?

Totally it does. That's why I like it. I've cut on various surfaces. and decided that the way Andrew did it and I suggested gives the nicer drum sound.

So if i floated it on pucks, plywood top and bottom and filled it with insulation, would i get a better drum sound than just having them on the floor on carpet?

Not sure how it would sound if the riser was filled with insulation - it may sound a bit boomy - maybe the riser would become an extension of the kick drum? Probably worth to try to make the frame as ridgid as possible. Certainly with sand in the space - the kit sounds like a whole new kit - the kick is tight and punchy without any boominess at all. The kit did not sound as good as this before.

Just make sure you double layer the platoform top and stuff it with the Mineral wool. You will be pleased. I can understand your apprenhension. Been there done that. This will work for yah.

Brian, you might consider that the sand-filled version is really a single mass (with 3 layers) resting on neoprene blocks which are surrounded with insulation for some damping - so technically that version is a 2-leaf system; sort of a "poor-man's floated slab", from a physics standpoint. If you replace the sand with insulation, you will raise the m-a-m frequency, create a triple leaf, and introduce resonances that would not have been there with the sand fill. I'm sure there are many ways of getting "likable" sounds, some of them depending on the personal tastes of the listener; but the fact remains that when you use anything as porous as insulation between layers, you create another air gap. This might (or might NOT) sound good in the room, but won't have as good isolation to the lower floor (if there is one) as either the floated concrete or the floated (triple LAYER) sandbox... Steve