Son has an acoustic kit in the spare room, what is the best way to sound proof or at least reduce the noise emitted, spare room is on corner of house so 2 walls brick, has stairs bulkhead in one corner next to the door and the fourth wall is studded wall to his brothers room. This has been the situation for several years but as I get older I find it more wearing, other than the practice pads, what can I do to quieten things down?

Set fire to the drums? or try aerodrums this Christmas. Hopefully Santa brings me a set 🙂

[video]http://youtu.be/dXyohgT8oD8[/video]

Is there any way to shift the kit downstairs? IME it is harder to reduce noise upstairs.

http://www.soundproofing101.com/

Electronic set and headphones. Junior loves cranking up his guitar connected to a 100w amp but when we’re in the house it’s Sennheiser time.

The problem with drums in the low frequencies. We’ve got triple glazing and lots of insulation but I can still hear him as I walk along the road because the low frequencies shake the whole house which makes the shutters rattle. He’s fine, he uses -20db ear plugs. :-/

Mesh heads if you can’t afford an electronic kit. Check out http://www.drumwright.co.uk > Shop > Heads > Mesh Heads
Won’t do anything for cymbals but you can get damping for those too

do you have a garden?

When i was a kid I learned to play drums in the shed. One half had my kit, the other half had my dad’s mancave area (radios and electronics projects). Worked great.

Otherwise, that soundproofing101 site covers it pretty well. You don’t have much option but to add mass to the walls; if you want some DIY fun then build some large frames (i.e. the size of the whole wall) with 2×4, fill with loft insulation, cover with plasterboard, cover that with carpet. Not perfect but it’ll be a start…