Other than (obviously) playing quieter, what can one do to tame the loudness in a small practice area? My main concern is being able to tone down the ring of the cymbals and high end on the guitars.

I'll be playing in a small concrete box, so I'm just looking to keep things form getting too instense, but still at a level where we can actually play with some volume.

Thanks in advance.

Put something on the walls to absorb some of the sound. something like sheets of foam a couple/few inches thick, or blankets, or something else mushy. It'll help somewhat.

Make sure whatever it is, it's not especially flammable, just for safety's sake and all.

That's the cheap and easy way to do it. If you wanna get fancy, build some proper acoustical panels using fibreglass insulation enclosed in containers of some sort.

4 inch fiberglass insulation wrapped in muslin. place panels where you think it performs the absorption the room needs.

lean a couch in the corner of the room (instant bass trap).

cotton insulation
http://www.homegreenhome.biz/ultratouchinsulation.html

Hang whatever your hanging a few inches from the wall and it will greatly increase the materials absorbent ability.

otisroom wrote:Hang whatever your hanging a few inches from the wall and it will greatly increase the materials absorbent ability.

Quilts/etc. work very well for this. You can overdo it, though...it will absorb a lot of highs, but the low and low-mids will make things muddy.

I have always had good luck with moving blankets. I found a place that had really cheap ones a few years ago. I have no idea what brand they were, but it was from some place I googled and found them for like $7 each.

The above advice about leaving a few inches between the blankets and the wall is definitely true.

Mounting the insulating material with separation from the wall is good advice. It extends the the absorptive properties down to lower frequencies, but won't really do anything (additional) to the high frequency absorption. 1" of rigid fiberglass mounted 1" off the wall is almost as good as having 2" flush mounted and significantly cheaper, assuming you find a cheap way to mount it.

Check out:

http://www.johnlsayers.com/

There's plenty of good information in the forum, and also a section to see where you can get materials in your part of the world.