hand claps and finger snaps

[JohnJ]

I'm really having a hard time getting a good sound with these. It's a curious thing as well that my finger snaps are pretty dull sounding and my wife's are truly "snappy."

I'm hoping someone here can give me some tips on the type of mic that works best, where to position it, placing them in the mix and EQ.

Thanks in advance.

John

[cardell]

I'm really having a hard time getting a good sound with these. It's a curious thing as well that my finger snaps are pretty dull sounding and my wife's are truly "snappy."

I'm hoping someone here can give me some tips on the type of mic that works best, where to position it, placing them in the mix and EQ.

Thanks in advance.

John

I always use samples for these (why re-invent the wheel?) then EQ as required. Also, they can both sound great with a little reverb.

I use these free handclaps:
http://rekkerd.org/90-free-clap-samples-by-funkybot/

Stuart

[Silversun]

If your using a mic try not to get to close. Hand claps and finger snaps are very 'transient' Tends to work best if you back off a tad. Also try and find a nice space to do it in. If you have a room with wooden floors try and take up the rugs and use the room as natural ambience. Do a few passes and layer them up for crowd effect.

If using compression try something with a fast attack. Something that models an 1176 for example. For eq theres not usually a lot going on at the bottom so put a high pass filter at say 100hz to get rid of and rumble etc and just brighten them up a bit if needed.

Good luck !

[jonathansorensen]

I'm really having a hard time getting a good sound with these. It's a curious thing as well that my finger snaps are pretty dull sounding and my wife's are truly "snappy."

I'm hoping someone here can give me some tips on the type of mic that works best, where to position it, placing them in the mix and EQ.

Thanks in advance.

John

Stay off the mic about a foot and a half. You don't want the soft fleshy sound just the transient. If you have a highpass filter throw that on. Do 5-10 passes and move around the room, closer and further from the mic. Then line them up so they are pretty tight and make copies of each track so you get about 20 people clapping(snapping). Then use your DAW to bend the pitch of some of the copies higher and lower. Throw a very slight delay (5-20 miliseconds) on some of them . . .at that point you should have a pretty good crowd going. I usually render it as a stereo track so you aren't mixing with 20 tracks of clapping sucking up CPU. You can also mix in a clap (snap) sample. By themselves, they can sound quite fake but they've already been engineered to sit in a mix and do their job.

If you get too much ambience, put a gate on some of them so all you get is the transient and not the room sound.

Have fun . . . personally, tracking percussion is often the most fun.

Best,
Jon

[Len911]

I would try freesound.org. It has everything from animal sounds, to God only knows.


http://www.freesound.org/search/?q=finger+snaps

[ernstinen]

I agree, back way off the mic(s) in a live room. In a dead room they'll sound, er, dead. And sampled claps/snaps coupled with real ones work well.

Percussion IS fun to experiment with! I once had a loft studio in a cabin in the mountains and recorded tambourine in the downstairs room of the A-frame, about 30 feet away from the mic upstairs. Great sound on that one!

Enjoy!

Ern

[mojobone]

Handy hand EQ tip: the bassiest handclap sound is palm hitting palm. the midrange is fingers in palm, and highs are produced by letting the fingers hit the fingers. More tracks is better than harder claps; you can get a pretty serious burn going, if you're not careful. Yes to the lo-cut filter, yes to the bright-sounding room with lots of hard surfaces. (kitchens and bathrooms, or anyplace with tile, marble or granite floor and walls) To speed things up, place your (seated) clappers around an omni condenser, have them drop trou and slap their thighs; this doubles the number of claps in a single pass, jes' make sure everyone is wearin' undies. (o'course you could have 'em all wear shorts, but where's the fun in THAT?)

[cardell]

Handy hand EQ tip: the bassiest handclap sound is palm hitting palm. the midrange is fingers in palm, and highs are produced by letting the fingers hit the fingers. More tracks is better than harder claps; you can get a pretty serious burn going, if you're not careful. Yes to the lo-cut filter, yes to the bright-sounding room with lots of hard surfaces. (kitchens and bathrooms, or anyplace with tile, marble or granite floor and walls) To speed things up, place your (seated) clappers around an omni condenser, have them drop trou and slap their thighs; this doubles the number of claps in a single pass, jes' make sure everyone is wearin' undies. (o'course you could have 'em all wear shorts, but where's the fun in THAT?)

Man that made me laugh!

Thanks Mojo.

Stuart

[JohnJ]

You guys are great!! And funny! Thanks for all the great tips and links.