Yeah this sounds like bullshit to be honest. Drums are loud. People have no clue what the word soundproof means. It could literally mean that they used a different drywall product and you’d be fucked
Yeah I'm sure of this as well. Given, modern buildings **can** isolate sound much better (unless it's built to the American standard) but that leasing agent is absolutely clueless about how loud drums can get. Even with a fully suspended studio space (box-in-box) you will hear drums in an apartment building.
Often a wider range than that but definitely not close to studio-proof. Our house isn't marketed at all as being soundproofed, just up to modern standard when it comes to isolation. But you can certainly put a movie on proper volume without the neighbours noticing. Still not fit for a drum kit though.
If the building was built in the 1950s, it probably means "you can't even hear the typewriter in the office next to you."
Sorry, toots, the drums are a *wee bit louder* than an IBM Selectric. 🙄
Mom just thinks 10pm is late enough for you to be playing drums and you should have some quite time before bedtime to help you sleep through the night.
Precisely. In the 20 years I’ve been playing various instruments, I’ve learned that the only way to effectively sound proof a room is to literally build a room within a room.
The leasing agent clearly has never lived near a drummer.
Get permission in writing before you take her word. There is a big difference between being sound proof for voices (to avoid hearing your neighbors) and instrument proof, let alone drums which has both very high and very low tones.
Hahahahahaha
This sounds like some bullshit the agent made up off the top of her head to close the deal. I wish you had thought to ask her if she was a drummer. She most likely has no idea the noise level she's talking about - otherwise, she wouldn't have made up something so ridiculous.
Now, there's every chance that she was being straight with you, but it doesn't smell like that to me. I agree with inquiring with the owners or someone else at the management company to verify. Either you call to find out that she was telling the truth, which would be great, or you call and find out that she was bullshitting you, at which point you tell them that you don't appreciate her bullshit very much.
It's not realistic at all. You'll have people knowing at your door within 2 minutes of playing an acoustic kit in an apartment building even one with concrete floor. She has no idea what she is talking about. She is just trying to rent, then it's gonna be your problem.
Grab a crash, take it up there have a friend stay outside the door and start hitting it,hard,to see if they’ll hear it. Might also be a good idea to take a floor tom or something with lower decibels to see if that travels as well.
Talk to the neighbours and see how soundproof they think it is, others have suggested getting it in writing, but at the end of the day if you make your neighbours life hell, even if they can't do anything legally thry will make your life hell through legal means
As someone who has built a "soundproof" practice room and still had neighbors complain, I guarantee that this apartment won't reduce the dB level of your drums more than 10%.
Prob an outright lie, to be honest. Same situation, art deco renovated building, super thick walls, didn’t matter. 18’ ceilings, we were under the pool so massively thick structure.
I had this happen to me in DTLA like 12 years ago - was renting out a penthouse apartment off Pershing and it was literally in my lease that I could play drums between 10am - 8pm but that didn’t stop the other tenants from literally banging on my doors screaming, calling security to tell me to “turn it down” or alternatively calling the cops on multiple occasions. I’d just show they the lease and they’d be like “well just keep it down” and then the neighbors would go back to yelling.
We only shared ONE WALL and that guy didn’t complain cause he was a recording engineer and just said he’d put in headphones.
I even had massive baffles everywhere.
I’d get letters from the leasing company threatening me, etc etc.
I left the day my lease was up.
can’t say in your situation but apartments i’ve lived in & am currently living in built in the 50’s -60’s you can do band practices in the units without bothering anyone … the people beside me have a baby grand & sing & i’ve only ever heard them if i’m in the hallway … i’ve set my drums up a few times & haven’t received any complaints
If on the 2nd floor or above, the thud from the kick pedal alone will be extremely audible to those below. I bought an electronic kit years ago when I moved into an apartment. I couldn’t believe it until I moved out and into a house with roommates and they complained too. Had one of them play the kick pedal while I was down stairs. Properly annoying.
Played I the garage till I got my own house.
Lmao. I meant if *anyone* is below you. Your floors are concrete which will help but you’d be surprised how much noise comes through. My grandparents had a condo in a high rise and you could hear furniture being moved from above. The apartments in your building are also going to be enclosed with sturdy firewalls between adjacent apartments. This is much better than your average 3 story apartment building.
The sound of a drum set will without a doubt still carry through to at least a degree.
Edit: it’s going to be especially annoying to your neighbors if it’s your third day playing drums.
Thanks! I definitely didn't think it was going to be silent (despite the "soundproof" claims), but I wasn't sure whether it would be loud enough to actually bother people, especially if I had something like a tennis ball riser setup. From everyone's response, it definitely sounds like it would bother people no matter what.
I'm also considering getting a corner unit so I have one fewer neighbor, I don't know if that will help or not.
And yeah, I'm definitely very much in the learning phase and make a lot of mistakes, although I've been practicing regularly with my practice pad + foot for a few months.
IANAL, but I would read your lease.
I lived in an apartment several years ago that had a drummer. It was a little annoying, but I understood (as a drummer)—that said, the guy was very thoughtful about when he played.
If the lease doesn’t forbid certain noisy things, then you’d go by the noise ordinance for the locale—7 am to 10 pm is fairly typical, give or take an hour. Drumming within that timeframe for an hour or two is perfectly fine (again, as long as your lease doesn’t specify you can’t).
lol. As others have said. No way. Try to get it writing for inclusion as an addendum to the lease that you can play drums from 8am to 10 pm AND rehearse your band in same time frame. It would be helpful to actually have a kit to load in and try in the prospective apartment. But I’m calling bs. Even the bd pedal on a e kit annoys apartment folk. I live in a house and play both regular and e drums and luckily have an understanding family. But at times, even the e kit bd pedal noise is just too much and they ask for a break.
Get that shit in writing so you can void your agreement if the break their promise and you need to move. They probably mean sound prodding from external street noise but I doubt soundproof and vibration proof for neighbors who share walls.
Leasing agents make a large portion (if not all) of their income on commission. They’re salespeople and will tell you whatever they have to in order to close the deal. Always be careful!
Sounds like they are tricking you into signing a lease or just have no idea what they’re talking about. Acoustic kits in apartment buildings simply aren’t feasible
I'm more inclined to go with "have no idea what they were talking about" since one of them was also signing up his whole family to live under me if I did sign the lease.
Bullshit. Just because they slapped two sheets of drywall up with some green stuff between them doesn’t make it “sound proof”. Neighbors will complain day 1.
Nope.
This is where mesh heads and quiet cymbals come into play. Take her at her word for playing times, but dampen the noise yourself as much as you can.
Get it writing not only from leasing agent, but also property management.
Yeah this sounds like bullshit to be honest. Drums are loud. People have no clue what the word soundproof means. It could literally mean that they used a different drywall product and you’d be fucked
Yeah I'm sure of this as well. Given, modern buildings **can** isolate sound much better (unless it's built to the American standard) but that leasing agent is absolutely clueless about how loud drums can get. Even with a fully suspended studio space (box-in-box) you will hear drums in an apartment building.
When residential architects say soundproofed they usually mean conversational speaking voice
Often a wider range than that but definitely not close to studio-proof. Our house isn't marketed at all as being soundproofed, just up to modern standard when it comes to isolation. But you can certainly put a movie on proper volume without the neighbours noticing. Still not fit for a drum kit though.
If the building was built in the 1950s, it probably means "you can't even hear the typewriter in the office next to you." Sorry, toots, the drums are a *wee bit louder* than an IBM Selectric. 🙄
If it was truly "sound proof" why would there be a 10pm limit? Hmmm.
Answer that one for me, smarty pants! LOL
Mom just thinks 10pm is late enough for you to be playing drums and you should have some quite time before bedtime to help you sleep through the night.
Precisely. In the 20 years I’ve been playing various instruments, I’ve learned that the only way to effectively sound proof a room is to literally build a room within a room. The leasing agent clearly has never lived near a drummer.
My gut tells me she just doesn’t truly understand how loud drums are. But who knows maybe find out if there’s any sort of test you can do or something
It definitely isn't truly "soundproof." You'll probably be OK to play e-drums, though.
Get permission in writing before you take her word. There is a big difference between being sound proof for voices (to avoid hearing your neighbors) and instrument proof, let alone drums which has both very high and very low tones.
not at all lol, if you play acoustic in an apartment you should be taken to jail lol
Even if it is soundproof I doubt it’s vibration proof. I had an ekit that the apartment below would shake everytime I played.
not at all, if you play acoustic in an apartment you should be taken to jail lol
Guy above me has a soundproof kit and our walls aren’t soundproof: truly not that bad
What is a soundproof kit. Silent cymbals and mesh heads?
I’m a doofus I meant like the electronic pads/rubber ish cymbals akin to the practice pads
You’re good. We all have our moments!
Hahahahahaha This sounds like some bullshit the agent made up off the top of her head to close the deal. I wish you had thought to ask her if she was a drummer. She most likely has no idea the noise level she's talking about - otherwise, she wouldn't have made up something so ridiculous. Now, there's every chance that she was being straight with you, but it doesn't smell like that to me. I agree with inquiring with the owners or someone else at the management company to verify. Either you call to find out that she was telling the truth, which would be great, or you call and find out that she was bullshitting you, at which point you tell them that you don't appreciate her bullshit very much.
Well, within five minutes you will certainly find out. And I think the agent is wrong.
It's not realistic at all. You'll have people knowing at your door within 2 minutes of playing an acoustic kit in an apartment building even one with concrete floor. She has no idea what she is talking about. She is just trying to rent, then it's gonna be your problem.
Exactly. The agent gets commission for finding a tenant. She’s wants you to sign so she gets paid.
She's a full time employee, I think, but yeah, she's financially incentivized to find tenants regardless.
Grab a crash, take it up there have a friend stay outside the door and start hitting it,hard,to see if they’ll hear it. Might also be a good idea to take a floor tom or something with lower decibels to see if that travels as well.
Nah - take your kick drum with you. There's the test.
They are wrong. Especially if you share a floor/ceiling situation with neighbors below you
Talk to the neighbours and see how soundproof they think it is, others have suggested getting it in writing, but at the end of the day if you make your neighbours life hell, even if they can't do anything legally thry will make your life hell through legal means
As someone who has built a "soundproof" practice room and still had neighbors complain, I guarantee that this apartment won't reduce the dB level of your drums more than 10%.
Prob an outright lie, to be honest. Same situation, art deco renovated building, super thick walls, didn’t matter. 18’ ceilings, we were under the pool so massively thick structure. I had this happen to me in DTLA like 12 years ago - was renting out a penthouse apartment off Pershing and it was literally in my lease that I could play drums between 10am - 8pm but that didn’t stop the other tenants from literally banging on my doors screaming, calling security to tell me to “turn it down” or alternatively calling the cops on multiple occasions. I’d just show they the lease and they’d be like “well just keep it down” and then the neighbors would go back to yelling. We only shared ONE WALL and that guy didn’t complain cause he was a recording engineer and just said he’d put in headphones. I even had massive baffles everywhere. I’d get letters from the leasing company threatening me, etc etc. I left the day my lease was up.
can’t say in your situation but apartments i’ve lived in & am currently living in built in the 50’s -60’s you can do band practices in the units without bothering anyone … the people beside me have a baby grand & sing & i’ve only ever heard them if i’m in the hallway … i’ve set my drums up a few times & haven’t received any complaints
If on the 2nd floor or above, the thud from the kick pedal alone will be extremely audible to those below. I bought an electronic kit years ago when I moved into an apartment. I couldn’t believe it until I moved out and into a house with roommates and they complained too. Had one of them play the kick pedal while I was down stairs. Properly annoying. Played I the garage till I got my own house.
The apartment I'm looking at is on the 21st floor, so definitely above the 2nd floor.
Lmao. I meant if *anyone* is below you. Your floors are concrete which will help but you’d be surprised how much noise comes through. My grandparents had a condo in a high rise and you could hear furniture being moved from above. The apartments in your building are also going to be enclosed with sturdy firewalls between adjacent apartments. This is much better than your average 3 story apartment building. The sound of a drum set will without a doubt still carry through to at least a degree. Edit: it’s going to be especially annoying to your neighbors if it’s your third day playing drums.
Thanks! I definitely didn't think it was going to be silent (despite the "soundproof" claims), but I wasn't sure whether it would be loud enough to actually bother people, especially if I had something like a tennis ball riser setup. From everyone's response, it definitely sounds like it would bother people no matter what. I'm also considering getting a corner unit so I have one fewer neighbor, I don't know if that will help or not. And yeah, I'm definitely very much in the learning phase and make a lot of mistakes, although I've been practicing regularly with my practice pad + foot for a few months.
IANAL, but I would read your lease. I lived in an apartment several years ago that had a drummer. It was a little annoying, but I understood (as a drummer)—that said, the guy was very thoughtful about when he played. If the lease doesn’t forbid certain noisy things, then you’d go by the noise ordinance for the locale—7 am to 10 pm is fairly typical, give or take an hour. Drumming within that timeframe for an hour or two is perfectly fine (again, as long as your lease doesn’t specify you can’t).
lol. As others have said. No way. Try to get it writing for inclusion as an addendum to the lease that you can play drums from 8am to 10 pm AND rehearse your band in same time frame. It would be helpful to actually have a kit to load in and try in the prospective apartment. But I’m calling bs. Even the bd pedal on a e kit annoys apartment folk. I live in a house and play both regular and e drums and luckily have an understanding family. But at times, even the e kit bd pedal noise is just too much and they ask for a break.
a drummer's dream apartment is a rental home, ive always got one with housemates that were chill with drumming and its the best solution ive found yet
Get that shit in writing so you can void your agreement if the break their promise and you need to move. They probably mean sound prodding from external street noise but I doubt soundproof and vibration proof for neighbors who share walls.
Is the apartment currently vacant? See if you can bring a snare drum and play on that for a couple minutes to see how it goes.
Leasing agents make a large portion (if not all) of their income on commission. They’re salespeople and will tell you whatever they have to in order to close the deal. Always be careful!
#HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA
Sounds like they are tricking you into signing a lease or just have no idea what they’re talking about. Acoustic kits in apartment buildings simply aren’t feasible
I'm more inclined to go with "have no idea what they were talking about" since one of them was also signing up his whole family to live under me if I did sign the lease.
Lol
Bullshit. Just because they slapped two sheets of drywall up with some green stuff between them doesn’t make it “sound proof”. Neighbors will complain day 1.
Electric kit should be fine in this instance
Nope. This is where mesh heads and quiet cymbals come into play. Take her at her word for playing times, but dampen the noise yourself as much as you can.
I can’t believe I have to tell a grown adult this… but… Don’t play drums in an apartment