Reducing Noise and Vibrations of Congas

[vxla]

My neighbor below me in a vintage 1920s-style apartment building mentioned that there's a lot of vibration going through to her apartment when I practice congas. I have the LP rubber feet that reduce some, but I'm wonder if anyone has other ideas on how I can sound-proof the drums more. I was thinking of getting a thick carpet with maybe a rubber mat underneath, but if there's other ideas I would certainly appreciate them.

Cursed apartment dwelling!

[KING CONGA]

Put some foam inside. This is something that I have tried and it works pretty well. You might end up needing a good chunk of it to effectively muffle the sound.
Good luck.

[jorge]

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.

[bongosnotbombs]

I have a very dense rubber mat made for drums, my old neaigbors downstairs never heard me. It's about 1" thick and quite dense, but now hard. Big enough for a whole set of three. The density of the rubber doesn't affect or change the sound from the drums, just stops the noise and vibration from going through the floor. I'll post pictures later.

[vxla]

Thanks for all these ideas so far! I was looking around and found this "drum platform"

http://www.dtxpressions.com/platform/

I may venture off to find some rubber mats to start... perhaps the local mega home depot place sells them.

[Jerry Bembe]

Sport's Authority sells modular rubber floor mats made of 1 foot squares that interlock together. This packs up nicely when not in use.

[Anonimo]

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[tigre77]

I can't help myself to respond to this since I live in an apartment myself. When I practice in my apartment during workdays afterhours it is mostly minimal touch open skin for movement but I laugh at myself because I am not all in to the routine and it robs me of the mojo I want to disperse onto the drum. I usually settle for multiple layers of folded t-shirt with a light sweater folder four-ways and do rudiment exercises. I let loose at a short list of friend house's on the weekend to satisfy my 'let-loose-on-the-drum' needs. The point I want to make is that the nuisance of worrying about noise reduction arrests the mechanical & spiritual inspiration of a session. Of course if you are an inconsiderate bastard you can torment your neighbors (apartment-wise) but that is no foundation to live in harmony and I would not like that upon me after certain hours. Of course if you live in an apartment building who's tenants are waiters and musicians that is a different story. Apartment dwellers are handicapped, period!

[pavloconga]

I've been getting complaints from a new neighbour recently so I've had to go back to playing with either towel or t shirt over the congas after hours.
I even saw people having to do the same thing in Cuba sometimes.

[Jerry Bembe]

I use a thin rubber "sound off" pad on my congas for this. The pad is about 1/4" thick. This still allows for slap, bass and open tones. This really lowers the tone significantly, almost like an effect.

[Derbeno]

Previous discussion and suggestions on this subject

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2027&hilit=+foam&start=0