John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi to everyone here, I’ve finally posted after being an interested onlooker for quite a while

A little bit of info about me:
I’m a drumming tragic who many years ago spent all his practice time converting his acoustic drum set into an electronic kit to keep the neighbours happy. I’m now in a position to spend all my practice time building a drum rehearsal room so I can once again have an acoustic drum set. More missed practice sessions ahead so I guess I’ll have to suck at drumming for a little longer! I am however, extremely passionate about drumming and would love nothing more than a nice little area to bash away on the drums without upsetting the neighbours or those in the house.

A little bit of info regarding the situation:
I’ve got a few things to ponder. I recently purchased a small block of land in Bendigo, Australia and for several different reasons want/need to build my house ASAP. The room I’m most excited about is the drum rehearsal room but up until a few months ago I didn’t realise how in-depth the process was.
I suspect it would be favourable to design the room and then have the rest of the house designed afterwards but would it matter much if I didn’t?
From my research here it seems most people haven’t been afforded that option and have had to build in existing homes, basements etc. I’m just wondering if it is far more difficult, time consuming and costly to do so.
One house plan that I like has a room with the dimensions of 9ft (H), 11’6” (W), 13’6” (L). I could potentially make this section of the concrete slab lower to get more height and also change the other dimensions slightly.
It has a spare bedroom above it.

The type of room I want/
Drum Rehearsal Room which will also sound acoustically pleasing
The neighbours property is 10 metres (30 feet) away
I drum around 115Db (on my mates kit) and would really like to lower that figure by 60Db. The land is in a courtyard in a quiet neighbourhood.

So the main reason for reaching out here is to get some expert advice on whether I should have all plans of the rehearsal room designed first or can I simply go ahead with the house plans/build which gives me extra time to think about how to build the drum room in the allocated area described above. What would you guys do?

If it was suggested that I should definitely design the drum room first it would push the house build back many months/year, I would therefore attempt to get the services of a sound designer to speed up the process.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Nathan

Greetings,

If your plot is large enough, you should absolutely consider a separate space, pour a concrete slab, and build. You could certainly modify a prefab shed/garage (this is what I'm doing). Much easier to deal with the isolation (soundproofing) issues that way. Your sound-designer budget will go much further with a ground-up build.

All the best,

Paul

Cheers for the reply and nice advice. Unfortunately its a small block of land and so I’ll be building a double storey home to utilise the land better. I’ll discuss with my draftsman the possibility of a separate build but I think I’ll really struggle for space. If I can’t find the extra space I think my best option is to hire a sound engineer to draw up the necessary plans so that I can then finish my house plans. If I had 3, 6, 12 months to plan this I would design it myself (with the help of the many awesome people here) but I can’t wait that long.

Does anyone offer designing services here?

Greetings Nathan,

Understood.

Probably best to post your question in the "Studio Design" section.

All the best,

Paul

Thanks for the heads up Paul

I replied to your shifted post. 115-60 = 55dB. That is not going to cut it in a quiet courtyard.
Plus such numbers with a Spectrum are unrealistic to the point of meaningless. 60dB Isolation at Kick Drum frequencies is extremely difficult to achieve.

Thanks to those that have replied. For anyone that might be interested in following this topic I have continued on from this in the Studio Design section, under the subject: Sound Designer/Engineer services required