Egg Cartons Are Bad For Acoustics. But why exactly…? - AcousticsInsider.com

►► Download the FREE Home Studio Treatment Framework and get everything out of your room and speakers → www.acousticsinsider.com/home...
Learn how to build your own professional-looking broadband bass trap that works down to 40Hz and a diffusor front that keeps your high-end lively:
→ www.acousticsinsider.com/bbt-...
I thought I’d cover an acoustic treatment topic that is omnipresent, but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about before.
The gloom and doom of…
Egg cartons!
I think we are all in agreement that egg cartons aren’t acoustic treatment. (right…!?)
And if asked why exactly, I’m pretty sure we all come up with something along the lines of:
“Well.. it looks like a diffusor…but that doesn’t mean it WORKS like a diffusor..!
Yeeaaaahh. But.. but.. but why!?
Well. Let’s figure this out!
In my opinion it comes down to three main things.
And it’s a great little exercise to put together some acoustics fundamentals that we should all be familiar with.
Related blog post on Acoustics Insider:
www.acousticsinsider.com/blog...
Acoustics Insider on Social Media:
/ acousticsinsider

[@S.T.G.]

Oh, I don't think a lot of people using egg cartons would think that those are diffusers. They use them in the hope that they work as absorbers or even as sound proofing material. I am not sure they know about diffusion at all.

[@unclemick-synths]

I agree. It's just child-like mimicry due to a slight visual similarity to the wedges in anechoic chambers but they have no idea how those work.

[@seanb3303]

Here is some information and testing from the book "Acoustics of small rooms" by Jiri Tichy and Mendel Kleiner. "All diffusers are not created equal, however, the differences in acoustic properties between different surface irregularities can be heard. In an auralization study that used a 1:10 scale modeling five types of diffusers was compared using a listening test [30]. Linear arrays of 10 diffusers such as pyramids, polycylindrical, quadratic residue, wedges, and spheres were used. The arrays filled the same area. Sample drawings of single diffuser elements are as shown in Figure 9.19. Wedges and pyramids affected the sound quality in a very negative way due to their selective specular reflection of high-frequency sound, while a series of polycylinders resulted in coloration because of grating effects. Figure 9.20 shows partial results for the scale model frequency response of QRD diffusers versus a random arrangement of spheres used in the tests. The results showed clearly that the frequency response and its resulting timbre and coloration were decisive for the sound quality of the diffuse reflected sound. The spheres turned out to be the most pleasant sounding because of their smooth frequency response. Note that caps and inverted caps (cavities into the wall) will work similarly well for scattering. In old-style control rooms, it was common to see polycylindrical diffusers, on walls and in corners. Particularly, arrays of polycylindrical diffusers on walls may cause unpleasant repetitive grating effects. They should have different radii of curvature and be placed at different angles or at random. Any orderly array should be avoided".

[@iandeegrees1509]

After watching this I have more boundaries in my head than my room before. I guess i have to rewatch it with an absorber in mind 😅

[@NickNeblo]

I understand your reasoning. However, I have recorded vocals, guitar and drums in rooms panelled with egg cartons, in rooms with pyramidal foam absorbers, in rooms with rugs on the walls and in rooms with nothing in it (maybe a sofa, or just instruments). Between egg cartons and pyramidal foam there's little difference, they both sound dry enough. If the room has no treatment at all, there's a lot of room reverb which you don't want in your recordings. With rugs on the walls, there's a warmer reverb. Egg cartons remove the unwanted reverb almost as much as pyramidal foam absorbers. They do not remove standing waves, but those frequencies aren't removed by foam absorbers either, you need bass traps or something else. Nor do they soundproof a room, you need a totally different treatment for that. So, saying that they are useless is a lie and you perfectly know they make a room dry. Perhaps talking about what they do and what they don't do would be more instructional than slagging them off altogether. If you want a room to record vocals or instruments which frequencies below 100hz would be cut anyway, they give you a decent dry sound. A friend of mine is now recording drums in room with egg cartons and rugs. The result is pretty good, I was surprised. If you are talking about your listening experience, it's a different story. If you do not believe me, I can send you some recordings, you would not know which is the treated room and which has egg cartons, but you would immediately spot the room with rugs or nothing. I'm not saying it's the best choice, but they do work better than rugs on the wall to make your sound drier. They might look ridiculous, but it's no reason to say they are useless. A band with no budget playing in a small basement room would definitely have an advantage if they can get hold of a lot of them for free, or someone who have a small room, no money and wants to record dry vocals for example. They've been used for years by loads of musicians, they can't be all deaf.

[@facundosimonetti5203]

you just gave me a little bit of hope man. its a hard days night and the last thing i wanted to hear was that all my work with extremely low budget is worthless. So... thanks

[@ruthgamble]

Love your thoughtful, honest comment so much! Tired of being deceived by click bait. My friend who is a professional sound editor said basically what you said. I was coming to KZbin for tips and surprised by the title of the video because it’s in contrast to reality. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences 🙌

[@davidzoller9617]

I've seen photos of acoustic designed rooms having wedges on the wall pointing to the room, and it looked very sophisticated and expensive, and it was done in a strictly regular, repetitive fashion, not irregular. My thought was that one could form wedges like that with pairs of square egg-cartons. So they would stand out the wall 1 foot and this could make a valid and hilariously cheap diffusor.

[@ericschulze5641]

Someone who has actually done it ,thank you because I was planning on using a rug/carpet & possibly egg crates, I will now continue with my plan, these guys are full of bs ,just go into an empty room with hardwood floors & hear the echo, now carpet it hmm, echos gone ,now add carpet to the walls, gee I wonder what would happen

[@trustcottmmatli9634]

I used to work at a huge recording studio that was treated very well. I used egg trays at my studio and the sound difference was not that much. They do work.

[@davidzoller9617]

I've seen photos of acoustic designed rooms having wedges on the wall pointing to the room, and it looked very sophisticated and expensive, and it was done in a strictly regular, repetitive fashion, not irregular. My thought was that one could form wedges like that with pairs of square egg-cartons. So they would stand out the wall 1 foot.

[@pecacartun]

One common misconception is that the depth is in relation with frequency response. It is not. Just Size! eg. 2x2, 5x5, ... The larger - the lower. Depth is PHASE correlated.

[@CleanCutAudio]

So tired of hearing about egg cartons on the wall. Let this video be seen by millions and get rid of them once and for all!

[@dougleydorite]

It’ll never reach the egg carton audience: 23 second tiktok video

[@Quant-Beat]

A friend of mine produced a whole album with egg cartons. It was a yellow album to the Happy Easter…

[@jurajpolakovic5118]

hi Jesco, please what's the measurable effect of acoustic diffusers? I understand they make a room sound "larger", but how does e.g. a REW chart look like for an untreated room vs. after we install diffusers there?

[@GMG0479]

Hi, Could you explain if there is some sort of dependency between listening levels and certain room acoustic issues? Maybe at lower levels some issues/frequencies are not so much of a concern?

[@patrickb3376]

Thanks for the content! Would a Schroeder diffuser constructed entirely of 1/6” (40mm) lauan plywood be hard enough to effectively reflect and diffuse? Thanks!

[@jmacgronau]

wood is always the material to go for with diffusors. but the overall usage strongly depends on the distance to your listening position. and the smaller your room, the less effective and useful diffusion will be.

[@rubenstrandberg6797]

So im stuck in a corner with my speakers, but atleast symmetry was possible. However my desk is very reflective and I've had problems with my stereo image due to its reflectiveness. Putting acoustic foam on it isnt really an option either, but what I could do is put a desk mat (high density rubber foam) on it, covering the entire desk surface. Now, I'm aware rubber isn't ideal for absorbing sound, but will it help reduce reflections to atleast some extent? :/

[@eddiexx]

8:02 save yourselves the time. :)

[@JanPanCygan]

There is no working link you sent me. Does anyone experience that?

[@sam24bit]

Been waiting for your next youtube comments addressing video. Because I have a ton. One is : Is stacking 2 inch foam panels to reach the 6 inch depth a good solution? Since I cant find 6 inch foams anywhere here. Also in that case, does air gap between the individual foam panels good or bad? Two is : Does the foam panels need a hard surface behind them to work ?. What happens in the case I hang foams on to a make shift booth made of blankets spread all over a PVC pipe frame😢 and the booth is slightly away from a hard wall. phew!

[@sudd3660]

that is a good question, and i got a good deal on a large amounts of acoustic foam and want to use it to full potential. as far as i have learned about it: you benefit from stacking them, and stick them together so they are not layers with air in between and a flimsy. solid thickness as their were one helps since foam is light and good absorbing material are heavy. then adding air gap equal to foam total thickness is a general rule, it almost double how low they can absorb. any kind of wall behind it works. i think they works best, and especially lower down in frequency is they are somewhat solidly mounted, not just hanging free. hope this helps and are somewhat accurate information.

[@Espresso101]

You can certainly stack 2 inch panels together to reach 6 inches given there's no hard surface behind each 2 inch panel.

[@fredygump5578]

Simple answer is yes, you can layer foam. But it may be cheaper and more effective to make absorbers out of something like mineral wool. I just built a few from mineral wool, and they made a big difference.

[@thenoisesimake]

What if you left the Eggs in the Carton? They would be much more reflective. Mixing different bird species (Ostrich, Turkey, Finch) would also give a much wider range of frequencies. Feathers could be added for absorption. Ostrich nests are also useful for frequencies in the lower midrange.

[@kstetler8508]

Been using egg cartons free YES MUSICIAN AN FRIEND'S AGES!.

[@yesthatsam]

As usual, crystal clear ! You can’t beat that German efficiency ;) thanks a lot !

[@zootook3422]

Yet another great video! To put the final nail in the carton coffin would be to have a bare room, measure it and then cover all the walls and ceiling with egg cartons and compare the measurements.

[@unclemick-synths]

One of the great old-wives tales of recording. It refuses to die because egg cartons are cheap (if you like eggs) and they have a slight similarity to the shapes found in anechoic chambers. As usual, ill-informed reasoning creates and perpetuates common NONsense.

[@ericschulze5641]

You can get them from any restaurant for free, big ones ! Spray them with undercoating if you want better results

[@djhmax09]

Ahh, thank you for the video. I hope more audiophiles would become more aware of this. lol

[@lairdkilbarchan]

Everybody knows eggs hate noise.

[@gastontulis1518]

░p░r░o░m░o░s░m░ 😒