How effective are egg cartons?

Emmett Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 132

Super-cheap, ghetto fabulous bass traps...

Along the lines of egg cartons, except that it actually works.

Take medium-sized cardboard boxes. Crumple up old newspaper and fill them, then use packing tape to cover all edges to make them as airtight as a cardboard box can be. Stick it in the corner and you have an instant broadband bass trap!

Just like a nice panel trap, the low waves will vibrate the newspaper...The semi-airtight box will trap the waves and the box will disperse the energy as heat. And they really do work very well, but they're ugly and bulky. Of course, to trap the room takes much more space than if you use panel traps, but nonetheless, if appearance isn't important, it's a good way to add some control to your room for virtually no money.

Emmett

Deby Cedars · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 1482

I don't think I have room to try this.....but let me see if I got this right.....The low sound waves penetrate the "air tight" yet porous cardboard box.....They then somehow change inside to heat due to the newspaper....yet they don't rattle the newspaper bad enough to hear it?

I actually have drawers that are made of decorative cardboard (wallmart $5) in my recording space....but right now they hold massage sheets and they are not taped up to be air tight....(I use them as drawers)

My biggest problem is right around the air conditioning unit though...... Rolling Eyes

Emmett Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 132

Deby Cedars · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 1482

Does it matter whether the box is square or rectangular???? Is there a perfect size for this? I just got a UPS package that was really hard to open due to the tape. It's not square though.

Greg Houser · **Voice Talent** Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 174

Yes it does, but for the size you're talking about, probably not enough to worry about it.

Emmett Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 132

It makes a difference, but I don't know that you could say one is "better" than the other. Size, in this case, is more important than specific dimensions. And, within reason, the bigger, the better. Nothing is as effective as panel traps, but cardboard boxes can help to flatten out the lows. One isn't going to be enough...Several moving boxes will make a decent difference though. Shoe boxes aren't big enough to do much of anything.

Emmett

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Cardboard boxes filled with crumpled newspaper is too much of a fire hazard for my tastes.

Emmett Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 132

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008, 19:21 (GMT) Post subject: hmmmmm

Well, among other things, I now have a frightening vision of what the inside of Deby's house might look like.

retrofitting home environments to work properly for recording is a difficult task. Most recording studios can not only substantiate the budget, but also allow for things like floating floors and using rubber grommets to work as offsets or building studs that alternate and have "sound breaks" established to minimize in carrying vibrational noise and other issues.

I recommend a combination of using blankets and the mic thing to provide yourself with a vey quiet and suitable environment.

Any Salvation Army type store is bound to have a number of blankets that are affordable. I might alos recommend getting a rubber fatigue mat to stand on and a seperate one to place your mic stand on to help alleviate vibrational noise.

The mic thing will both support sounds from absorbing transient noise (as in bouncing off walls and such) as well as keep out quite abit of extraneous noise.

good luck