Weird/Makeshift Percussion Sounds

surf's up · Post by **surf's up** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:59 pm

What are some of the unusual percussion sounds you've been able to get with ordinary objects or instruments used in unorthodox ways? It can be either things you've "invented" yourself or clever techniques reputed to have been used on recordings you like. What were the results?

I recently tried the tapping on a matchbox thing on a mostly acoustic track. It sounded okay, though its surprisingly hard to accent the notes you want on a matchbox while keeping the groove. I ended up doing a separate track with me tapping on the head of a cu?ca in a complimentary rhythm and panning those to tracks hard L and hard R. It sounded pretty cool. I probably could have gotten a better or similar result with bongos and a matchbox.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:45 pm

Eh, all sorts of stuff. Seems we have a thread like this every few months, they're always fun.

I've made shakers out of two paper plates gaff-taped together with coffee beans in between them, I've pounded on PVC pipes with mallets, I've gotten a bunch of use out of this great big metal bowling locker in my control room--just bang on the doors! I've used that on a bunch of stuff. For the Pink Floyd cover I did when Rick Wright died, I used soft orchestral mallets on two plastic tubs and a road case to play a tom-tom part. Once I used an oven door slam as a "kick drum" and a stick hitting the oven's grille as a "snare."

Basically the rule is "hit whatever's near you until you hit something that sounds good."

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:25 pm

The kitchen.

Bring in a live mic or two, roll DAW or tape, start opening those drawers, cupboards, get the pans and bowls and spoons and forks out, run the sink, toss stuff in there as well.

Bathroom a not so close second, but often great acoustics if enough tile.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:41 pm

Television as bass drum
Box of cereal as shaker
Pringles as shaker
Spoons, forks, and knives, in the drawer as snare drum
Parts of the physical structure as whatever
Bottles as whatever (with and without liquid)
Soda can tops
The air vents on top of a CBS Volumax compressor as guiro
A blank rack panel as guiro
Empty boxes as bass drum
Rubbing a Super Ball across various objects for eerie sound effects
Car keys, house keys, etc.
Paper-- torn, rubbed, or played with brushes, sticks, or fingers
Two paperback books rubbed together in various rhythms

One time, I was hired as a co-producer on a record with another engineer when the artist realized that he had intended to put a drum loop on a four-bar section of a song, which never got done. He brought this up at the mix. It was an out of town session and we decided to put something together in the hotel that night and get started mixing another tune until we got the loop together. The keyboard player had his laptop with him, but didn't have any stock loops that were acceptable, so we decided to record one in the hotel room using a few things I had in the car, a few things we found, and the built-in mic on the side of his laptop. I played a kind of shaker-type subdivision with brushes on the open pages of the hotel bible, right next to the laptop mic. Then, I added a "bass drum" part by playing an 8" tom I had in the car, tuned as low as possible VERY LIGHTLY with my finger, again, right next to the laptop mic. Then, we added a snare drum in a similar manner and the resulting "loop" was quite exciting-sounding. I've got pictures of it somewhere. I'll try to post them.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:34 pm

acoustic stringed instruments are my favorite drums. also a 2 litre soda bottle mic'd right at the spout can produce some cool sounds.

oh and, i haven't recorded it yet but i was walking around my studio space (which is actually a huge basement storage space/scene shop, with tons of really great random stuff in it (do you want a tablesaw in your song?)) with drumsticks one night, and found that this huge industrial fan that i have down here has the most incredible sounds depending on where you hit it, it's resonance creates this really awesome reverby effect to it. i plan on using it as the rhythmic basis for a song somewhere down the line but now that i'm thinking about it i'll have to go mic it up for a test this week and see what happens. stay tuned!

go beat on shit!

kingtoad · Post by **kingtoad** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:13 am

The record I'm mixing at the moment has loads of this stuff on. We recorded it in an old church with a great reverby sound. We (me and the artist) just recorded ourselves walking around the church, hitting things, clapping, whatever came to mind. What was recorded has been cut up into loops/percussion parts.

The song I'm mixing right now has 4 tracks of me and the artist continually pounding bibles into the floor of the church as a kind of galloping rhythm for the chorus. A bit sacrilegious but it sounds cool!

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:06 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR1DvekvmdA

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:37 am

BB's can be good for sounds. I've put them in mixing bowls with saran wrap over and then kept them rotating. I've put them in those big tins that a nice bottle of scotch comes in. That's a little hard to control as a maraca but has a very cool sound.

blackdiscoball · Post by **blackdiscoball** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:55 am

A socket wrench with a socket on it. Just grab the socket and move the handle and you get a creeeeccckkkk sound.

oldguitars · Post by **oldguitars** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:54 am

made a drum kit out of pillows, close mic'd each one. VERY COOL
Exacto knife tapped on a table, little tiny ping.
scratching on mic grill...

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:13 am

I'm working on something now that's going to have a lot of this kind of thing. I always love how it sounds drumming along to the radio in the car, so I'm going to mic the car floor as a bass drum, hand hitting leg as snare, etc. I've used a pick hitting completely muted strings through a gated reverb and distortion for a really weird snare sound. I also worked on an electronic song for a video where I miced a cup of ice in water being stirred really slowly..it added a really strange sound that sounds 100% not electronic.

firesine · Post by **firesine** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:52 pm

A bag of Doritos as a shaker.
On one session I ended up sampling the "clunk" from an upright piano's pedals. It was more useful than the actual piano part.

richierichie · Post by **richierichie** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:21 am

Holding a frying pan above a large basin of water, hitting the back of it with a wooden spoon and submerging the pan as the "note" rings. A nice weird pitch bend!

psinglet · Post by **psinglet** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:46 am

I did a project once where we used various sized books played with mallets as drum parts.

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:00 pm

firesine wrote:A bag of Doritos as a shaker.

ha! I know pringles were suggested but for some reason this is funnier to me.

I wanna see a percussion set made of nothing but junk food and deli meats.

Message Board

Weird/Makeshift Percussion Sounds

Weird/Makeshift Percussion Sounds

Who is online