Drum Cage Ventilation

[BrianL]

I have recently built a full isolation system at my church. I am going to be fully enclosing the drums in a cage, but I need to put in some kind of ventilation that will not show up in the mix, which pretty much precludes a simple fan in the cage. What I'm thinking, is that I could buy a simple window a/c unit and set the unit itself outside, and run ducting into the cage through the wall. Does anyone here have any other ideas or examples of a fix done at your location?

[ntravis]

If an A/C unit was pumping air into the cage from a separate location, it could get pretty chilly since the drummer wouldn't be able to access the temp controls. Also the thermometer built into the A/C which controls when it turns on and off would be ineffective since it wouldn't be in the area being conditioned by the air. You could rig up some complicated bypass to remedy this solutions but it certainly wouldn't be convenient. One thing that comes to mind is an inline ventilation fan. Like this one. amazon.com/Air-King-AIK16X-Exhaust-190-CFM/dp/B002PU9Q8K If you place the fan someplace away from the cage, you'd get the airflow but not the noise. Also the air flowing into the cage could come from where ever you run the ducting to. Hope this helps.

[andrewc2]

what about one of those cool dyson air multipliers? dyson.com/fans/ I'm not confident on their noise level but that might be the kind of thing that you could mount inline for a vent.

[poolvibe]

I know it seems like a good idea but as a musician one can feel disconnected from the rest of the band. Is good sheilding and absorption not enough?

[BrianL]

Thanks everyone for those suggestions! I will definitely check those out!

The reason I need to go with a fully enclosed cage is that we have three different drummers that play at three different volume levels ranging from normal, to loud, to really loud. I and our sound engineer want the ability to fully control the sound coming from the set because our sanctuary is pretty small and I would rather the drummers be able to concentrate on timing and the sound of the beats rather than how loud they are playing.

[poolvibe]

That makes sense. What I find hard to do is give the band enough of the drums in the monitors to feel connected. You end up where you started and have and extra complication of mixing a drum monitor mix now. I am tearing down our isolation room and going shield and massive absorption behind the kit. This gives us flexibility on location too.

[tallorderaudio]

I understand why you want to isolate the fan noise from the booth as much as possible, but I think you are over thinking this. With a fairly quiet fan and proper gating and/or mic technique, a quiet fan placed correctly will cause so little noise that you would have to listen for it closely in headphones to even know is there. Chances are, the fan noise is equivalent to the ambient noise anyways so it doesn't matter.

And fwiw on the Dyson fan: engadget.com/2009/10/12/dysons-air-multiplier-is-the-overpriced-bladeless-fan-you-never/

I have seen several drummers use this fan (or similar) in their "drum houses". google.com/products/catalog?client=firefox-a&hl=en&q=fan&cid=6225880849020247525&sa=title#p

They are very quiet and fire air from the bottom (cooler air) directly onto the drummer. Moving air will always make the ambient temperature seem less than it is (typically about 3 degrees). So a relatively small amount of air moving directly onto the drummers face will keep him comfortable and will be much easier than piping in AC. Their small footprint and low CG makes them ideal for this. Go ahead and try one. You can always take it back...

Unless your booth is air tight, I don't think you need outside ventilation. If it is (or close to it) a simple 2"h x 2'w air-gap at the top and bottom facing rearward will provide more than enough outside air circulation and not let enough sound escape to kill you.

-Paul

[TechPastor]

If you make the enclosure air tight you won't have to worry about drum noise for long.

[tallorderaudio]

Originally Posted by TechPastor

If you make the enclosure air tight you won't have to worry about drum noise for long.

HA! Maybe we need more air tight drum enclosures...

[reid]

jlgacoustics.com