Recording hand claps

[Hussalonia]

It may sound obvious (put a mic in front of your hands), but if you've ever recorded them, you learn to really appreciate a set of well recorded hands (see: The Beatles 1964 era). Done not so well, they can just cheapen the sound of your snare drum, or sound like someone rhythmically ripping celery stalks. Lots of knocking or cracking ("Is that a whip?"). There are many styles of hand clapping. (palm to palm VS. fingers to palms) Move your hands just a little and the clapping sounds different. Which is best to record? How hard should I clap? Is that someone at the door? Why are my hands sweating? What's wrong with me? Perhaps the real problem is deciding where they belong in a mix. How to EQ? What sort of, if any, reverb to use? Compression? Readers, share your hand clapping experiences. Because if you have indeed ever recorded hand claps, you know that your red-handed percussionists will not be happy when you say, "Can we take that again?".

Bonus Question: One clapper multi-tracking his/her hand claps to simulate a group of hands clapping (rhythmically, not applause)...can it be done? Do tell!

[Liv Pooleside]

My latest clap experience involved placing a large-diaphram condensor about three feet away from the two clappers, who were about 9 feet away from a concrete wall beyond the mic. As you can imagine, there was lots of ambient here, but the track called for it. They did sound very "real" this way, and we didn't get fancy with it- just comfortable clapping, not worrying much about the tone.

Two is much better than one. I've never found a good way to double a single handclap track, unless it's for an '80's sounding pop thing where it's supposed to sound fake- and then, why not use an old 8-bit drum box if you've got one?

Two people clapping together, if they're relaxed and having fun, can really move the rhythmic center of a beat into a good spot. Each sort of corrects for the other when they get out of time, and there is no substitute for that.

I've gone as far as tracking two people twice and then mixing that together- never tried getting really big and stupid with it- although that could be a lot of fun! And I've tried more than two people clapping together. There is usually too much pull in too many different directions that way to really be tight- hell, try to get four people to play their instruments in time and you know what I mean!

Liv

[mrhawkinson]

I overdubbed some claps onto a song recently - used an Octava MC012 about 4 feet away from two people clapping. I 'rehearsed' them a little bit before the recording and got them to stagger their claps very slightly (one person dragging the beat by a hair).

We recorded two passes for a total of 4 clappers in the mix, which sounded great with a little compression. I didn't need to EQ because there was no other percussion on the song.

-p

[Meriphew]

Good question Hussalonia - i have a new song that calls for 'real' handclaps. I'm planning on using either a Neumann KM184, or a BLUE Baby Bottle.

[heylow]

I cant really give any better advice than slight variants of what is already being said but I WILL make these 2 points:

a) In answer to the bonus question of how to make one guy sound like a few guys......I can never make it happen. I mean....yeah...you can overdub a few tracks of your clapping but somehow the finer points always get lost when I've tried that.....I dont know why.

b) Someone here....and I wish I could remember who to give props to....said once that they thought 3 was the magic number for these things. I would have to agree...get 3 people clapping at one time and then do it again.



heylow

[inverseroom]

I recorded six or seven tracks of myself clapping once and bounced them down to two. I stood in a different place in the room each time & used an Oktava MK319. Sometimes I clapped with the hands cupped, sometimes I did just the tips, sometimes I hit them flat together. It sounded great!

Did you know that Boss actually made a HANDCLAPPER stomp box? You hit the pad and it claps. That's it. It isn't even an interesting sounding clap. But imagine pulling it out at a gig and stomping it a few times during an 8-bar break. Expensive joke!

John.

[cassembler]

I've only dubbed hand claps once, but a *tinge* of slap-back delay, a dab of limiting, and three guys tracked twice, panned to taste, yielded nice results. I'd image some chorus with little or no feedback could sub for the delay...

[joel hamilton]

I always cut the high end almost all the way off, and compress the crap out of the tracks (2 minimum) with a really fast release. IT pulls some room around the claps but decays fast. I love the sound of destroyed claps, like a 909 clap, but with three real people doing it...

Try driving the pre really hot and compressing to tape, then a fast comp with the attack set really late, but with a fast release. You will get the leading edge smack of the clap, with a grainy, driven aftershock of sorts.

I was just doing that tonight on a cool RnB thing.

More tomorrow, handclap mania.

[deadair]

i recently had my best go at hand claps yet using the ol' behringer ecm8000, about 4-5 feet away from the clappers and positioned right next to a wall. lotta compression (depending on the particular clap 8-15db) with a fast release. 4 people clapping. two tracks. everytime i've used a LD condensor, or my mxl603 for that matter, its sounded not quite right.

[drew w]

I was in a band recording an acoustic break w/hand claps in a song. I was playing acoustic and there were 3 of my band mates doing hand claps along with me. With everyone in headphones, the claps were just way too on and it was ruining the loose feel were going for. We whittled it down to just one or 2 sets of headphones (for me and either 1 other person or no one) and we did it again...much better this time. The feel was looser and just felt and sounded better since we were focusing on each other and the sound in the (big) room we were in instead of the music already on tape (to a click track).
I'll be using the group of clappers with just one set of phones technique again next time I need real sounding claps with a human feel.

[d franko]

This one band I was recording was going for that huge stadium kind of crowd clapping thing... i digress. So, 5 of us went into a smaller (12ft X 16ft) room, that was completely concrete and almost empty and clapped away. The mic was an atm 4033 about 8 ft away. We did 8 tracks of us clapping to make it really "big." What we discovered at around 4 tracks though was that the clapping wasn't getting bigger. Being that we were all musicians, and all clapping at exactly the sam time, it just ended up sounding small. So we ended up having one or two of us on each track clapping slightly ahead or behind the beat, and presto, huge stadium handclapping.

[eeldip]

trick: 2 minimum real clappers in a room, cardiod mic, compressed to hell. mix with 8 bit clap. this is the only way i have been happy with a clap track i have recorded.

has anyone heard the simmons clap trap? a whole 80's drum machine dedicated to claps! i have always wanted one...

[dbc]

The key issue here seem to be imperfection rather than perfection. I agree, if the clabs are out of sync a little, it makes the claps sound bigger. I haven't tried this but wouldn't if be a good idea to have one person stand back 3 or 4 feet away from everyone else to create a natural delay?