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some of you might know about the advantages of having a riser to put a drumset, a bass or a guitar amp on. it’s mostly about getting a clearer sound with less standing waves. huh? ok, i’ll point you to a thread in some forum right here, which i think explains it nicely. i found this through a search engine though, so i have no idea if the forum itself is any good. yes, this thread is about subwoofers in a home theater, but the basics about sound waves are quite the same…

now, a little over two years ago i found a tutorial for building a cheap but great drumriser in a german drum magazine called Drums & Percussion, so i built it, loved it and now am sharing this with you

you need 4 things:

1. oriented strand boards or osb. i used 18 mm thick ones, how many depends on how big you want the whole thing to be, obviously :-)
2. thingies to connect the osbs. i used small metal-plates with lots of holes in them, no idea how those are called in english – any diy-store should have them. don’t forget the screws and a screwdriver.
3. a bunch of pipe-isolators. those are made out of foam and are used to isolate heating or water pipes. the bigger the diameter, the better.
4. some contact-glue if that is the right term for it. you need it to attach the foam-thingies to the osbs.

first, cut the osbs to size, if necessary. then, cut the pipe isolators in even pieces of about 10 cm length – but no longer than the diameter is or they’re not stable enough. turn the osbs around and glue the isolator pieces to them. don’t be cheap, that foam things don’t cost much and you want it to be strong and solid in the end. if it’s meant for a drumset, use more foamies where you will sit and at the corners of the riser. as soon as the glue dried out, turn the osbs around again, lay them on the floor, assemble them (careful, the foamies don’t glide very well on some surfaces) and that’s it.

this whole thing cost me less than 40 euros, was built in no time and it’s surprisingly robust – carrying a 6 piece drumkit for over two years now without any problems and providing a good sound.

now, here’s a link to the tutorial i was using. it’s written in german (that’s why i explained it all above), but the pictures (about half way down) are very informative. and here is one more picture (again about half way down) that shows a complete riser lying on the back so you can get the idea how this should look like when finished.

one more thing, you might not even know there’s a problem with your sound until you use a riser. maybe you know someone who has such a thing a lets you check it out…