The downstairs ceiling sounds like it's about to cave in

Hello all I play a set of Roland V-Drums (Electric Drums) and we just moved into a new Townhouse. The V-drums are in an upstairs bedroon with standard constuction wooden floors (floor joists and plywood sub floor) with carpet. When I play the drums, the stomping of the hi-hat and kick drum really shakes the house and creates high impact noise to the floor below and I also have a 50 year old lady living on the other side of the wall. The issue is impact noise and not airborne noise. I am not in a postion to rip up the existing floors and do major re-construction. I am looking for a simple, home remedy type of fix for around $300 or so. From every thing I have read so far on the net, it seems that some sort of false floor or drum riser would be the answer. I was thinking of 2 inch polystyrene on the bottom suporting a 2x4 or 2x6 drum riser sandwished between 5/8" plywood stuffed with pink insulation with a rubber mat on top. My questions are: 1. What would you reccomend as a solution to this problem ? 2. If my suggested fix as mentioned above is an answer, what improvements would you make to the design and how dense should I pack the pink insulation ? Thank you in advance for any advice you can give Ray

Hi Ray, I don't know for sure. It seems to me you're on the right track as far as a riser idea. It needs to be decoupled though... You'd need the whole thing to bounce a little, like a shock absorber. Does Roland make anything like this? I would think they've had this complaint before... --Keith :mrgreen:

Yeah, sharward is right. You have to do a mass calculation (your body weight, the vdrums, the mass of materials you are using) and use just the right amount, based on the specs of the material, of sylomer, polystyrene or whatever material you are using. Do the math....

A simple and effective solution that I've come across several times is the "tennis ball drum riser". Here are some links with some good information: http://www.dtxpressions.com/platform/ http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread. ... ennis+ball Hope this helps. Mark

Yeah, in cases like this, I advocate trial and error, because the project is small and experimental elements can me more easily added and removed than in the case of an entire room. In other words, don't experiment with floating floors/rooms, because they're pretty much permanent... But drum risers can be played with. One idea I had (and almost posted last night) was a equipping the riser with four small wheels with air-inflated tires, trying various tire pressures. I have no idea whether or not something like that would work well, but if it didn't, there's a good chance you can get your money back on the wheel purchase if it doesn't. If you have more time and motivation than money, then experimentation, trial and error, and fine tuning is your key to success. Keep us posted with your progress, as we do sometimes get the occasional electronic drum kit impact noise sufferer in need of a solution, and it would be great to have a start-to-finish case study / build diary on that! Plus, you'll have fame and fortune! Well, maybe not the fortune part. And, well, maybe not so much the fame part either... But perhaps a little! ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:

MightyM wrote:

A simple and effective solution that I've come across several times is the "tennis ball drum riser". Here are some links with some good information: http://www.dtxpressions.com/platform/ http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread. ... ennis+ball

sharward wrote:

......... But drum risers can be played with. ....... One idea I had (and almost posted last night) was a equipping the riser with four small wheels with air-inflated tires, trying various tire pressures. I have no idea whether or not something like that would work well, but if it didn't, there's a good chance you can get your money back on the wheel purchase if it doesn't. .......

These sound both as superior ideas. Basically it's close to how professional air silencers work. They are made from rubber with a valve to inflate them. The only thing one should do is pump pressure in them until the correct deflection is obtained. This means they are easy adjustable afterwards (for the small inner tires). When using the tennis balls I should make that hole to keep them in place small or support them (keep them in place) by rings of some kind in which the whole tennis ball can go. Important is that these rings to NOT clamp the tennis balls but allow a couple of mms sideways (lateral) deflection or you destroy the principle. If you pressure the tennis balls in the top and bottom, rather than on that circle, they will adapt to the load very dynamically. Whichever solution you choose, try to get a deflection of 2 to 2.5 mm (or more) under static load (play with the number of balls you use). For me that's an original and very worthwile idea, very close to professional solutions based on air silencers, which easily allow very good mass-spring resonances, meaning good decoupling. Both ideas are worthwile trying. The tennis balls are the most flexible I feel superficially (also very mobile).

Thanks for all the advice I think Im going to try the tennis ball idea. A lot of drummers swear by it. I'll let you know how it works Thanks again Ray