Found drums

[blipndub]

Hey mad drummers,

I've been going crazy with drum loops because i don't have the patience to really program them correctly.

So I've been experimenting with recording drums with midi and also playing some live beats. I don't have a drum set, nor do i have space or money (or talent).

I've been using plastic barrels and bits of wood.

What other "found" drums have you all had luck with?

[ZEKE SAYER]

never tried druming on wood before and i mostly record acoustic drums, but i have used a program called "smartloops" you don't have to program them. all you do is find the loop that you like, select the tempo and click: "insert" from there all you do is just drag the loops where you want them using your mouse. you can by this program at:

www.cakewalk.com

the name of it is: "drumatic" by smartloops

also look at www.smartloops.com

this cd-rom will work with any software that imports .wav files.

but if you don't have a computer, there's always the old trash can!

(just joking!)


good luck,

zeke

[vaughn]

I've done a bit of that, not quality recordings but I've played with people while drumming on lots of stuff.

kids percussion toys are great, sleighbells, playground equipment. they make some cool sounds. one time we used pieces of garden hose and pounded on the metal pipes. the hose gave some interesting resonation and the pipe was just kind of pipey :-). you can whack a pile of tire chains for a good sound too, piles of broken glass in a bag, car parts like brake drums and rims make some good sounds. I used to spend a lot of late nights in "drum circles" after creative brainstorming on what we could pound. a bit of the ol' psychedelia and some percussion and you've got yourself an all-nighter.

peace~

[mikeh]

I used to fill in with a "Cajun Band" that used almost all "home made" instuments (washtub bass, wash boards, a "slide guitar" made out of a guitar neck attached to a hubcap, glass jugs, etc. etc.

The "concept" or the "show" was a "back porch Hillbilly band". We wore overalls, suspenders, staw hats, etc. Ironically, all the cats were talented players and the band actually kicked ass - and paid well.

The drum set was pots and pans and other strange stuff. But they got a great kick drum sound out of a plastic grey waste basket (like your would see in an office or in a ware house), The floor tom was a orange plastic milk crate with about a half inch of duct tape as the "drum head" - this provided a huge deep sound. The snare drum was a round metal beer tray which was sealed with BB's inside (played with brushes) - sounded very cool.

The "drums" sounded good and were fun to play for short periods (although it required both a different technique and a very different mindset).

It wasn't a gig I would want to do steady, but a few gigs here and there were always fun. I probably did about 30 fill in gigs over a three year span. They used a lot of subs cause they couldn't get a steady drummer to commit to the "drum kit" long term.

[tmix]

I have gotten an absolutely wonderful kick sound out of a large Guinness cardboard box. I put a Beta 52 inside flaps down, roll up one box flap so I can clamp my pedal to it and smack away!

tmix

[blipndub]

These ideas are totally cool! you guys are like stomp meets the big bear jug band, awesome.

I've been inspired and have been putting my pzm into anything i can think of in my studio (file cabinets, chairs, under the rug, in wooden boxes) and then just banging the shit out of anything and seeing what picks up. Trying to get good sounds acoustically and not just try to fix them up in cakewalk, although i have been running the mics through a compressor on the way.