teach me how to do hand claps

[trashy]

Claps are awesome. What Dave said usually works for me. Its all about the claps in "Penelopy" on Pinback's Blue Screens Life.

I forgot to say, "AMEN!" to this. Notice how there's nothing in the same frequency range of the handclaps in that song?

That song is great, gets me dancing...

Here's a shoutout for the handclaps on "We Suck Young Blood."

[tiger vomitt]

i hear that on motown tracks they used a couple of 2x4's and knocked em together for clap tracks.

i alwyas use samples, but i do a lot of party music

[wing]

i got it! get an 808.



hope you love makin miami bass.

[tiger vomitt]

just the look of that thing puts a smile on my face.

[xonlocust]

another "motown legend" that i picked up from someone on this board is have one guy clapping, and another guy with a drumstick hitting a phone book. it looks retarded, but sounds pretty awesome and really fattens up the clap. could be a totaly myth about the motown usage, but it sounds great, i've used it on a couple different recordings.

[coniferouspine]

Goofiest post in the thread:

You know that scene in "The Kids Are Alright" where they're recording hand claps on "Who Are You" and Moon is screwing around making faces and twirling his hands and stuff? I did that with my band one time when we recorded handclaps around a mic and the results were fabulous. People were trying so hard not to laugh that it made that "one guy who's slightly off" effect come out even better. I'm serious. If you're going to do a handclap overdub, try and make it as much fun as possible. It's clapping, fer cryin' out loud! Make it a contest to see who can make the other guy laugh and screw up, while making it to the fadeout without cracking up yourself.

[Slider]

if you plan on compressing claps ALOT, keep in mind your distance from the mic if you do not want to bring up a lot of room with them. I usually get my best results by getting a few friends and making sure one of them isnt a musician at all. IF you have three or four drumers clapping perfectly in time, it sucks, you get that thin loud clap that doesnt imply four people. But when you get your neighbor to come over who will always slightly lag behind because he's so nervous, that lag spreads out the clap and gives you that 80's drum machine type of clap that is SUPER fat, sorta like three claps nudged apart a bit. Thats what I like. The single big clap sounds too much like a snare drum and a lot of the time will disappear completely behind a snare, but the fat nervous neighbor group clap is really easy to mix with.

Real men dont fly in claps.... Clap 'em all...dave

That's so true. the few out of time claps make it sound cool.
I like to stack em a few times and put an 1176 on em.
I like the way the compressor brings up the room.
If i want really dry claps I Gobo them or put them in an iso booth.
If i want them to sound smaller I use a 160a comp instead of the 1176.

I also use an omni LDC mic and get people in a circle around it.
Watch out for headphone bleed. It's tough to get that many headphones going at once. you can not give a couple people phones and let them clap to the small amount of headphone bleed.
That will give you the fat neighbor effect, cause they're guessing where the claps are by watching everybody else.
avoid loud click tracks if possible.

[tyson]

I believe it was in the DFA interview in TapeOp where they talked about recording claps and tambourines in some sort of elevator-mechanism? I was slightly impaired when i was reading it and the whole thing seemed incredibly odd at the time. My roomate has misplaced that issue; can anyone clarify what the fuck they were talking about?

[spiral]

The best way to record handclaps is not at all.








j/k.

I've heard xonlocut's handclap recordings and i actually commented on how good they sounded before he told me his secret.

[xonlocust]

thanks spiral-

well then, here's a link to one of the aforementioned handclap-intensive songs (pre-mastered):

http://www.sleevestar.com/momn/momn_gotta_get_out.mp3

2 real clappers. 1 phone book hitter. small bit of plate reverb. simmer for 30 min.

and that DFA article was talking about http://www.silophone.net/ i believe

[kRza.]

i've had great results with claps:
Usually get one drummer and two other people - random or band members. Give only ONE person a set of headphones (usually the drummer first) and make the other two follow the one person without hearing the track. THe results push and pull but it sounds great. Three tracks of three people clapping, alternating who gets the headphones is a sure fire way to get good klapz!

[soundguy]

hey nick

cool tune, digging the jazzmasterish guitar sound on the first and third guitar there.

dave

[heylow]

Yeah, word, Nick....

Cool sounding song....I dig the tight dry sound of the guitars.

Oh...and I am officially stealing the phonebook thing....can't argue!



heylow

[joeysimms]

I seem to remember Marshall Chess saying Chuck Berry used to overdub a pounding phone book to get a lil' more ooomf to the beat.. I hear stuff sounding like 2 X 4's on Barbara Lewis' "Make Me Belong to You", also on George's most excellent "Don't Bother Me" - you really hear it on the fade, but they're clanging all the way through.

It's all good, I love claps, tambourines, 2 x 4's, water bottles (Hal Blaine), cardboard boxes (Jerry Allison - Peggy Sue)..

I do 3 passes of at least 2 people clapping, and I change the pitch of 1 or 2 passes by recording it fast. I mix them with lot's of reverb, most of the track is the effect return. On another track, I overdubbed a tracked-way-fast floor tom, then mixed it with claps and foot stomps.

I used a phone book on a track once, only it was to approximate the effect on some 50's Japanese pop song, where there is this huge fwaaaap!, then it trails off, like when I bird flaps out and away from a pool of water.

Yee hah.

[junomat]

thanks spiral-

well then, here's a link to one of the aforementioned handclap-intensive songs (pre-mastered):

http://www.sleevestar.com/momn/momn_gotta_get_out.mp3

2 real clappers. 1 phone book hitter. small bit of plate reverb. simmer for 30 min.

and that DFA article was talking about http://www.silophone.net/ i believe

very cool song....

can you buy this cd?