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Duane, on a zero budget your only option is to play zero drums; unfortunately, absorption (even using the BEST quality urine-stained used mattresses :? ) doesn't kill the sound that escapes the room, it only changes which parts of it are heard (and how loud, somewhat) INSIDE the room. Soundproofing takes mass and insulated air gaps; either LOTS of mass in one area, or (better) almost as much mass, but in TWO leaves with open-celled (like fiberglass) insulation between the two leaves (centers) of mass. Add to this the almost CERTAIN hard connections in framing between any two rooms in a typical house, and flanking noise needs to be taken care of; this can only be fixed (once a place is built) by separate, floated construction; anything else will just be an excercise in frustration and a way to spend $$ for nothing. Don't shoot me, I didn't write or cause these laws of physics, only study them... Steve

duanechew wrote:

...Can anyone shed some light on how to quiet down these drums without spending much money, preferably no money?...

First of all, I agree with Steve -- there is no $0 solution. However, there might be some things you can do to quiet your drums down somewhat, and you'll be out less than $100. Cool Rods are specialty sticks made of thin bound dowels. They're often used in acoustic gigs because the impact on drums and cymbals are much lighter. Also, Moongel is a great product... You stick these little Jell-O type pads, a little larger than a postage stamp, on your drum heads and/or cymbals. They dramatically cut down on resonance/ring. Finally, practice pad inserts are little mousepad type things that you can lay on top of your drum heads and/or cymbals that eliminate nearly all noise. These products are listed in order of least effective to most, which also translates to being listed in order from most fun to least. I have used all of these products on my own drums. My frustration with the "un funness" of them prompted me to literally buy another house, with a garage large enough to build a room-within-a-room solution. Of course, that's going to cost me big $, but it's a 20-year-old dream that's finally coming true in 2005. Good luck to you.

Something that may help is to build a small platform to put your kit on. This will serve to decouple your kit from the concrete of your basement and take away one of the transmission paths for sound to get upstairs. It's certainly not a final solution, but every little bit helps.