'Homemade' drum sounds..?

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alexanderbeetle
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'Homemade' drum sounds..?

Post by alexanderbeetle » Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:41 am

Hi. I am going to give a short demonstration of the principles of sampling in a few days using Sound Forge as the audio editor and Ableton as the sampler. I thought that it would be a nice idea to get the group that I am tutoring actively involved, so I thought that I could take along a mic and try recording some inanimate household objects as drum hits which could be looped up and played back with a pre-existing midi file.

Does anyone have any good ideas for what I might use for the following:

Kick
Snare (harder)
Snare (softer)
Cymbal
Hihat open
Hihat closed
Other percussion

And does anyone have any other ideas (that might not have occurred to me) for ways in which I could make the presentation as dynamic/fun as poss?

Thanks in advance!

:D

Jaan
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Post by Jaan » Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:53 am

see:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JYdQwkp6lKg

It's all laid out for ya, LULZ
filthy

stonee
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Post by stonee » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:57 am

i made an intire drumset out of noises recorded out of my mouth using impulse. its acually one of my favorite sets now.

pepezabala
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Post by pepezabala » Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:44 am

Don't only listen to the things, listen to the furniture as well. Some cabinet-doors might be kicking. Listen to the drawers with the cutlery rattle. There might be some chairs squeeking nicely.

And then you can do magic with some pitching and stretching.

http://haushaltsware.blogspot.com/ has a hilarious collection of stuff made with sound from your, err, haushalt.

4.33
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Post by 4.33 » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:22 am

check this out
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GurNlRCgSZ8

and also some interviews on misique concrete might be helpful
check
- matthew herbert
- matmos

also, on youtube check bjork LIVE @ ROYAL OPERA HOUSE series
if you can still breath after her music look up matmos guys doin live sampling and mangling

vanheusen
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Post by vanheusen » Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:06 am

Sounds can be very transformed just pitching them up or down. Not allways in a predictable way. Pitch the sound and then use filters to remove any frequencies or artifacts that you dont like. I made a drumkit out of a guitar string sample once, and the kick was actually one of the coolest kickdrum sounds i've heard.

alexanderbeetle
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Post by alexanderbeetle » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:54 am

Cheers for the replies! All very useful stuff.

Re: pitching/filtering - I'd rather not have to do a great deal of this if it can be avoided, I have a 20 minute slot in which to introduce the subject/record the sounds/play them back. I want people who have no experience of things music tech to be able to hear and identify the sounds as they have been recorded. This is why it's quite important to get them as close (frequency-wise) to actual usable drum sounds from the off.

I should clarify that this will be conducted in a classroom environment, so stuff like cutlery and bubblewrap may not be available. This is why I am in great need of source inspiration, I want the sounds (if possible) to be a spontaneous as possible (slam the door, whack a bag, drop a bunch of keys etc), if I have to bring in a load of props I thought it might loose some of the excitement. But then it might also be a little safer.

Re: Matmos et al, yeah I am familiar/fond of all of these guys, and had thought that I would try and squeeze a teeny bit of concrete history in there. 20 mins is just so short to go into this stuff in any depth.

Machinate
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Post by Machinate » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:03 am

alexanderbeetle wrote:Cheers for the replies! All very useful stuff.

Re: pitching/filtering - I'd rather not have to do a great deal of this if it can be avoided, I have a 20 minute slot in which to introduce the subject/record the sounds/play them back. I want people who have no experience of things music tech to be able to hear and identify the sounds as they have been recorded. This is why it's quite important to get them as close (frequency-wise) to actual usable drum sounds from the off.
beat box the whole thing, man. What it may lack in crowd-pleasing hoohah it gains in to-the-point no-nonsense action.
alexanderbeetle wrote: I should clarify that this will be conducted in a classroom environment, so stuff like cutlery and bubblewrap may not be available. This is why I am in great need of source inspiration, I want the sounds (if possible) to be a spontaneous as possible (slam the door, whack a bag, drop a bunch of keys etc), if I have to bring in a load of props I thought it might loose some of the excitement. But then it might also be a little safer.
So you are both asking for pre-planning, yet want spontaneity? kick a desk, clap your hands, bang a glass, and you have a usable 3-piece kit. that should do it :)

alexanderbeetle
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Post by alexanderbeetle » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:22 am

Machinate wrote:beat box the whole thing, man. What it may lack in crowd-pleasing hoohah it gains in to-the-point no-nonsense action.
Hehe, I may suggest that if anyone feels confident enough that they might produce a vocal hihat. But frankly I'm no Justin Timberlake when it comes to human beatboxing. :wink:
Machinate wrote:So you are both asking for pre-planning, yet want spontaneity? kick a desk, clap your hands, bang a glass, and you have a usable 3-piece kit. that should do it Smile
I think you'll find that all the best examples of "spontaneous" performance (comedy, public speaking, etc) are in fact meticulously pre-planned. Making them seem effortless is alas quite a skill.

Machinate
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Post by Machinate » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:42 am

alexanderbeetle wrote:
Machinate wrote:beat box the whole thing, man. What it may lack in crowd-pleasing hoohah it gains in to-the-point no-nonsense action.
Hehe, I may suggest that if anyone feels confident enough that they might produce a vocal hihat. But frankly I'm no Justin Timberlake when it comes to human beatboxing. :wink:
Honestly, does it really matter? You need to make three sounds. Not rhythmically. Just sounds. The topic is the principles of sampling, not found-sound recording techniques, right?
alexanderbeetle wrote:
Machinate wrote:So you are both asking for pre-planning, yet want spontaneity? kick a desk, clap your hands, bang a glass, and you have a usable 3-piece kit. that should do it Smile
I think you'll find that all the best examples of "spontaneous" performance (comedy, public speaking, etc) are in fact meticulously pre-planned. Making them seem effortless is alas quite a skill.
It might be down to personal teaching style, but since both the process of pre-planning this AND making it seem effortless is (ironically) quite an effort, is it really worth doing? I mean, if you are going to sample found sounds in real life it is *never* scripted, *always* improvised.

As a student I would be the most impressed by an off-the-cuff "sampling performance" than anything. Mind you with sample munging these days almost all sound sources can be musically meaningful. It's what happens *after* you've sampled that really matters to me.

my two cents anyway,

Andreas.

alexanderbeetle
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Post by alexanderbeetle » Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:26 pm

Machinate wrote:Honestly, does it really matter? You need to make three sounds. Not rhythmically. Just sounds. The topic is the principles of sampling, not found-sound recording techniques, right?
Well I actually need more like about six (my idea was to use a pre-existing midi pattern, and ideally a familiar one like the amen break or some such) so I would need a pretty full kit. I agree that making the sounds with my mouth/my students mouths would be easier, but I guess I thought it might be a bit more fun to do it with struck objects etc. Plus I would like to tie it in with a music concrete and the idea of found-sounds and referential sampling to a minor degree anyway, so I guess that there is a little more to it than just 'the principles of sampling'.
Machinate wrote:Mind you with sample munging these days almost all sound sources can be musically meaningful. It's what happens *after* you've sampled that really matters to me.
Well as much as this tends to be my working maxim, I think that traditionally speaking (and technically speaking) this is the the wrong way to approach studio recording. The idea of 'polishing a turd' is not one that most professional studios relish, thus they go to great efforts to make sure that the original sound is a perfect as possible/need as little adjustment in the mix as possible. From a personal point of view, I enjoy 'weirder' sounds and more leftfield and experimental musics so I agree the processing in part (to me) is also more important. But it would be inappropriate, even in an informal introductory session, to teach it this way.

Thanks for the input though, this has actually helped me to think a bit more clearly about what I want to get across. :D

Machinate
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Post by Machinate » Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:33 pm

alexanderbeetle wrote:Thanks for the input though, this has actually helped me to think a bit more clearly about what I want to get across. :D
good, that was kind of the point of it all - I hope I didn't come off as a spoil-sport :)

tjwett
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Post by tjwett » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:54 pm

i have a sick ass drum roll that i made by sticking a contact mic on my cats belly years ago. does that count? if i can find the file i put it up.

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