Anyone want to help?

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
I have an acoustic tune that needs some percussion. I'm thinking just a shaker, or maybe there's other things I don't know about that would/might fit. I can send a file, if anyone is interested. It's acoustic, pop/rock, and just around 3 mins long. I can't find a shaker option in SD3/Rock Warehouse/SD2.

Anyone have a homemade shaker recipe? :) let me know. thanks!
 
Get out of the Warehouse...Toontrack EZX Latin Percussion should have shakers.

If you don't want to spend the money...there's probably all kinds of stuff around the house that can be made to sound like a shaker. Try some rice (uncooked, of course) inside some kind of small container.
 
miroslav said:
Get out of the Warehouse...Toontrack EZX Latin Percussion should have shakers.

If you don't want to spend the money...there's probably all kinds of stuff around the house that can be made to sound like a shaker. Try some rice (uncooked, of course) inside some kind of small container.
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+1. Gravy granules, coffee, rice...box of tacks...Plenty of shakers around the house. :)
I have a few 'proper' ones and a few decent sample libraries if you're stuck.
 
Steenamaroo said:
+1. Gravy granules, coffee, rice...box of tacks...Plenty of shakers around the house. :)
I have a few 'proper' ones and a few decent sample libraries if you're stuck.
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Something with high end though, to balance out the low/mid freq acoustic, mid range vocals, and bass. Something up top to round it out and fit nicely. Maybe I didn't mean shaker....what I had in the past was a tambourine. I should have said that. My mistake.
 
Oh yeah, ok...Those other things would be nowhere near as bright and metallic.

I have a few tambourines and samples libraries of those, too. Hit me up if you need.
 
Here's the .wav of the song. I haven't mixed it yet, and I just unmuted a couple of the vocal files (there's 14 of them for me to edit/comp), so it's pretty rough. I might have to redo the guitars if they're too out of sync and I'm if unable to edit them into place. Basically, it's still messy. But it'll work for overdubbing of percussion.

BPM = 160

Dropbox - The Way To You - (Acoustic) roughmix1.wav.wav
 
Steenamaroo said:
Alright, cool. Any notes or requirements?
If it's just 'do whatever', i'll track a few things tomorrow. :)
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For anyone who wants to give it a shot, I posted it above.

I have it in my head, but I'd rather hear what anyone does to it first and then advise after. Let's hear what comes out naturally first, before I get nit-picky; but yeah, there are some sections/instances where it "should" be something specific. I'll wait to put it out there, though.

Thanks for anyone who is willing to lay some perc down! cool!
 
Here's a quick mix with tambourine only. Raw - no FX.
 

Attachments

  • Tambourine Mix 1.mp3
    3 MB · Views: 21
andrushkiwt said:
For anyone who wants to give it a shot, I posted it above.
Click to expand...

I've downloaded it. I enjoyed the song. I'm hoping to find time to add percussion, but before I do, I was wondering what else you planned to do with the track musically. That would influence the percussion that goes on.
 
gecko zzed said:
I've downloaded it. I enjoyed the song. I'm hoping to find time to add percussion, but before I do, I was wondering what else you planned to do with the track musically. That would influence the percussion that goes on.
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I've just rerecorded the guitars. I didn't like how they came out, and I wasn't liking their arrangement. I've just double-tracked them and hard panned the strumming rhythms hard L and R, then put that little lead guitar part down the middle with a third guitar. This sits better, I think.

What else? hmm, I guess that would depend how it sounds after some shakers and tambourine stuff. Probably a bass. I'll consider strings, but not sure yet.

Thanks for your interest. I appreciate it.
 
spantini said:
Here's a quick mix with tambourine only. Raw - no FX.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's what I had in mind, but I do appreciate the time you took to do this. I should have mentioned that although it's 160BPM, since I play live, and I have a tendency to jump the beat, it's going to be a little early on the 1's. Your addition sounded like a MIDI file that was pasted onto the line/beat, and it's lagging behind the music. Also, the tambourine I'm looking for will play/shake constantly, in time, and be slapped/hit where the snare would. thnx though, I appreciate the effort
 
andrushkiwt said:
I don't think it's what I had in mind, but I do appreciate the time you took to do this. I should have mentioned that although it's 160BPM, since I play live, and I have a tendency to jump the beat, it's going to be a little early on the 1's. Your addition sounded like a MIDI file that was pasted onto the line/beat, and it's lagging behind the music. Also, the tambourine I'm looking for will play/shake constantly, in time, and be slapped/hit where the snare would. thnx though, I appreciate the effort
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You know, I began with a full take of constant tambourine shake. I cut out the majority of it, then positioned the remaining snippets slightly off the beat - as well as a little layering to get some quick shakes. I wasn't going for a prominent tambourine, just some accents.

I know you said 160BPM, but it loaded into Reaper at 120BPM on my end and sounded great. Can't explain that.

I'm going to play around with it some more.. add some percussion. Thanks for the opportunity.
 
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spantini said:
You know, I began with a full take of constant tambourine shake. I cut out the majority of it, then positioned the remaining snippets slightly off the beat - as well as a little layering to get some quick shakes. I wasn't going for a prominent tambourine, just some accents.

I know you said 160BPM, but it loaded into Reaper at 120BPM on my end and sounded great. Can't explain that.

I'm going to play around with it some more.. add some percussion. Thanks for the opportunity.
Click to expand...

Some DAW's have the ability to slow down or speed up a wav file, from what I understand. Mine does. If I record a song at 120bpm, then I later decide it should be 130, I can set the DAW's meter to 130 and it'll speed it up without changing the pitch.
 
Here's the updated file. Re-recorded the guitars, added bass, realigned vocals and guitars, added hi-hat from SD3 (picked one that resembled a shaker, slapped a delay on it), and did some master bus EQ and comp. I don't know if I'll need real shakers now...this sounds pretty decent to me.

 
spantini said:
I know you said 160BPM, but it loaded into Reaper at 120BPM on my end and sounded great. Can't explain that.
Click to expand...
If you just drop an audio file into Reaper, it doesn't know or care what Tempo it was recorded at. Just plays the file the way it sounds. Reaper projects default to 120bpm (unless you change the default) but you won't notice that it's different from the audio file (and it won't matter at all) until you try to run the metronome, or add quantized MIDI, or try to edit to the grid or use tempo-synced FX or something else that actually follows the project tempo.

Edit - But you DO have to be a little careful trying to change the project tempo! There's a couple settings which might change the playback rate of the audio if you change project tempo after the audio is added.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Here's the updated file. Re-recorded the guitars, added bass, realigned vocals and guitars, added hi-hat from SD3 (picked one that resembled a shaker, slapped a delay on it), and did some master bus EQ and comp. I don't know if I'll need real shakers now...this sounds pretty decent to me.

Click to expand...

That was nice. What did you use for bass?
 
spantini said:
That was nice. What did you use for bass?
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My bass. :) Ran through Amplitubes Ampeg SVT Pro w matching cab. A bit of DI blended in. I'm actually not happy with the bass sound. Its kind of warbly...not very clear. Ill need to rework it soon.
 
You can get one of those plastic eggs filled with beads for like $3, and they're easy to play. They sound good and have a lot of high end if you shake it right.
 
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