Bass Vibration Suppression

[dr_groove]

I'm using the Pintech Concert Kik (the pad, NOT the trigger), and just as other Kick triggers do; it bothers the downstairs neighbors (don't they know the genius they're suppressing?! HA!). Here's a cheap alternative that should be quite painless if it works. I wanted to run it across some of you folks to see what you think. Has anyone ever used the cone-shaped, stainless-steel absorbers that are sometimes placed under stereo speakers to absorb vibrations?

Thanks for any response,

George

[dr_groove]

Hey Folks,

It didn't work. I was going for simplicity by simply screwing some 2" Lag bolts with pts. thru a 3/4" pc. of high-grade plywood in the hopes of creating as little contact with the actual floor that it would eliminate the problem. Within 5 min. of trying to groove with Donald ***en my downstairs neighbors were banging on their ceiling.

This is VERY frustrating. Here I've spent $2,500 on this setup and no way to play them to my heart's content. Somebody like Roland, Gibraltar, or Pintech...SOMEBODY...GOOD GRIEF as the late Charlie Brown would exclaim.

Originally posted by dr_groove:
I'm using the Pintech Concert Kik (the pad, NOT the trigger), and just as other Kick triggers do; it bothers the downstairs neighbors (don't they know the genius they're suppressing?! HA!). Here's a cheap alternative that should be quite painless if it works. I wanted to run it across some of you folks to see what you think. Has anyone ever used the cone-shaped, stainless-steel absorbers that are sometimes placed under stereo speakers to absorb vibrations?

Thanks for any response,

George

[rpg]

Hi,

Had a friend with a similar problem (practice pads, not Edrums). I think in your case, the lag bolts are serving as "sound posts" are in a violin, and are actually conducting sound through the floor (especially the low freqs.). I think the set-up was (from the wood floor up): carpet padding-carpet (these two layers were already in the apartment)-egg cartons (12" x 12" you can get at an egg packing plant cheap, and yes, they do get crushed)-carpet-egg cartons-plywood (to support your drums)-carpet-Edrums or practice pads. It worked for him. You can try variations of the layers, but the idea is to transfer the sound on the plywood and create dead layers beneath it as thick as possible with material that doesn't conduct sound (eg, corkboard, rugs, egg cartons, etc.). Eventually your thumps are no greater than someone walking across the floor.

One more thing, we also moved his set to another location (in the same room), since we knew his neighbors were particularly tuned into hearing sound coming from the previous spot

Hope this helps,

Rick

[This message has been edited by rpg (edited February 15, 2000).]

[BtnkBndt]

Sounds to me like it's time to put you're request in for a transfer to a first floor apartment. Or try hanging you're kit from the ceiling joists and see what they say upstairs .

Why don't you try making somekind of floorboard for just you're pedals(with holes for the rack to still sit to the floor) and experiment with that. At least then you won't be having to deal with the whole kit. Isolate the problem area.

Best of Luck.

[bwherry]

Hey guys,

I've got the Hart Acupad kick. I've tried two different things so far to keep my girlfriend from leaving me. I knew the kick was going to make some noise downstairs (studio is upstairs, directly above master bedroom -- Doh!), so I got a 4'x6' sheet of 3/4" plywood, covered in some extra carpeting, to function as my impact-spreader-outer and velcro anchor. *Below* the carpeted plywood I put some extra carpet padding strips. This worked okay for casual bass drum playing, but when I started going for the heavy-duty 16th note double bass patterns, the gf was not pleased.

So I got a roll of 5/16" bubble wrap from Staples. I took out the carpet padding and put down bubblewrap, completely covering the bottom of the plywood. I think it's better. But I'm going to wait a few days before I do the Mike Portnoy double bass grooves again...

Oh, another thing: I noticed that the base of the Acupad kick was rocking around a bit. So I got five patio cement blocks (they're
the shallow, square ones) and stacked them on the kick pad stand's "feet". I think adding mass to the cause of the impact (adding a DC component) probably helped out, too. When the gf complained last night it was about all the cymbal/pad tapping, not the bass thumping on the ceiling above. So that's a good sign, right?

Hope this helps...

Brian

ps- If the bubble wrap/cement block route still doesn't allow me to go nuts on the double bass, I may go the tire route as mentioned in one of the other forums....

[Shaun]

best thing I have ever heard of (strictly talking bass frum through flood problems)is about 4 or 5 layers of carpet. No plywood are any hard substances.
Also I have never tried this but what if you switched to a fuzzy beater and just turned the sencitivity up?

[wolfereeno]

Has anyone ever used the cone-shaped, stainless-steel absorbers that are sometimes placed under stereo speakers to absorb vibrations? [/B]

Those little cones don't isolate speakers from the floor - they COUPLE them to it!! The idea is that the speaker can vibrate better while being steadied.

[Boingo]

Originally posted by wolfereeno:
Those little cones don't isolate speakers from the floor - they COUPLE them to it!! The idea is that the speaker can vibrate better while being steadied.

They have Vibrapods, www.vibrapod.com and (Marc. supplied) Sorbothane, http://www.sorbothane.com/. Do a web search for suppliers. They supply different types for various weight classes. Investment looks like $30-$60. I looked into them, but didn't think they were going to do the job.

Just this morning something came across my desk: see http://www.800nonoise.com/dbproducts.htm . Maybe something here can help. I think a platform of some sort is a great idea. But the idea of tires, etc would not exactly work in my house. So if you can find good barrier materials for your platform, the height and appearance can be improved upon and it could be made "wife friendly". Acoustic materials are not cheap, but these are for industrial situations and sound like they would be better suited for our purpose.

[rus]

I've seen something like this: http://www.800nonoise.com/dB201c.htm in machine shops... The stuff I saw was under like a 10 tom machine and itabsorbed vibration from the machine so that the concreet floor did not rattle to pieces under it... I don't think it was the same product but, the way it was explained to me was that it was actually two seperate pieces that float on top of each other keeping any vibration from passing through to the lower layer... looked like a single piece to me though.

science rules

------------------
\oo/_ _\oo/

[This message has been edited by rus (edited January 24, 2001).]