sound proofing a small room?

Hey Black,

Most of the noise that your neighbours are going to hear is escaping through your window. Hanging thick drapes will reduce the sound enormously but this can be tricky to put up and not very attractive.

Laying carpet on the floor especially under your drum kit will also help as the sound travels through the floor boards really easily. Perhaps you could place a thick rug under the drum kit.

Try placing some insulation tape or weather strips around the door and window frames as sealing up any cracks in the room will also help. Again around the door and especially the window is where most of the noise pollution will escape.

What I used to do when I was younger was place cut pillow cases over each drum when I played. Of course, this is not ideal and did affect the feel and sound of the drums but it reduced the noise by half. You could also practice with Rod sticks or brushes, not ideal but it works.

Unless you're willing to spend a lot of money on installing hung ceilings or secondary walls there aren't many other affective ways of doing this. Hopefully someone else reading this will be able to make some further suggestions as this is such a common problem it would be great to get some further advice and suggestions on it.

Rob