by jorge » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:15 pm
This is an age old urban problem that has driven some of us to rent or build music studios or move out of old apartments to individual houses or to apartments with concrete floors.
First find out if the problem is the sound of the conga tones, by air conduction, or the sound of the impact of hitting the drum, by direct conduction from the conga to the floor to the joists to the ceiling of her apartment below. Get a friend to play your drum while you go downstairs into her apartment to hear what it sounds like. Getting your neighbor to work with you so she sees that you are making a sincere effort is half the battle. If the problem is mainly the conga tones via air conduction, then foam, pillows, towels, rags, old clothes, almost any soft material inside the drum, and a carpet under the drum, will help by killing the tones. If the problem is the pounding from your hands to the shell to the floor etc, you will hear mainly thumping downstairs and stuffing your drum won't help much. A really thick carpet under your drum might be good enough. If not, get thick (3/4" or 1" or 2 layers of 1/2") dense closed cell foam that will compress no more than about half its thickness from the weight of the drum, and put it under your drum. That will help isolate the pounding of the drum so it won't be conducted to the floor. If that is not enough, playing on top of a drum platform built up from wood and filled with sand will help more, but that is a lot more work. Or give her a really nice iPod she can use while you are playing.