handclaps

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dobro

dobro

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I want handclaps on a song. Hey, *I* know how to overdub, I thought. So, I started, tracking two mics at a time. Each take, standing in a different position in the room. Eight or ten tracks later, with a file approaching a gigabyte in size, the handclaps still sound anemic.

Okay, my 'how do you do it' question has two parts:

1 How do you do it? LOL

2 My mixer has one out for headphones. I'm going to have to get a group of people in the studio for the handclaps, which means more than one set of cans in use. Can I use a splitter cable on that single headphone out? How many times can I split it?
 
I have recorded a band clapping (all at once) while I splitted the headphone out in 3 pairs. This worked for some decent monitoring.

Never tried the overdub0thing.
 
Yo Dobro:

I'm not really sure on this one but: could you not use a sampling keyboard, incorporate the "claps," and then put them on the tracks?

I have a couple of stereo splitters and they work fine out of the headphone plug. But, I do have a Peavey can amp and I can plug in 4 sets of cans, which is more than I need for my work.

Green Hornet :D :cool: :rolleyes:
 
I think indeed to get a truer picture you'll have to clap in different pitches. Think of an audience; they haven't all got the same size hands and strenght.
 
I would try the same trick I use to beef up drums. Run some heavily compressed hand claps along with the raw tracks. On an analog mixer you just use an extra buss for the compressed tracks. On a DAW you can copy a submix of all the claps over to a new track and compress the hell out of that. Use a fast attack and decay so it really pumps. Add in the compressed track to taste and use some EQ to really bring out the frequencies you like.

Some other ways to beef up anything are a fast slap back delay, gated reverb or compressed room reverb.
 
Why are you tracking two mics at once? Sounds like all that will do is introduce phase problems. If it is just you clapping alone, just go 1 mono mic at once and see what happens.
 
dobro said:
I want handclaps on a song. Hey, *I* know how to overdub, I thought. So, I started, tracking two mics at a time. Each take, standing in a different position in the room. Eight or ten tracks later, with a file approaching a gigabyte in size, the handclaps still sound anemic.

Okay, my 'how do you do it' question has two parts:

1 How do you do it? LOL

2 My mixer has one out for headphones. I'm going to have to get a group of people in the studio for the handclaps, which means more than one set of cans in use. Can I use a splitter cable on that single headphone out? How many times can I split it?
Click to expand...
 
Hey dobro, I would use a DAW to nudge a sample of like five claps and copy it to a seperate track. Do that like twenty times and make a mix of the whole thing. Then use that sample or couple of samples to paste into the clap spots.
If that is not thick enough you can repeat the process using the combined sample as a starting point.

It's a lot of work but it should sound right. Stereo has little to do with the thickness of the clap sound in my experience, mono seems to work fine.
 
dobro said:


2 My mixer has one out for headphones. I'm going to have to get a group of people in the studio for the handclaps, which means more than one set of cans in use. Can I use a splitter cable on that single headphone out? How many times can I split it?
Click to expand...

Depends on waht you want of course, but I recorded handclaps of 8 ppl with only 2 headphones. The other 6 had to watch the two with the headphones, resulting in the effect that not everybody clapped at the same time. That really gave it a much bigger feel.
 
Okay, here's what I've done in the past. You record hand clapping on one track for about 30 seconds. (Just yourself, nobody else.)

Then you cut up your one track and line up various claps on about six different tracks, nudging them to make sure they are all just about perfectly lined up with the required measure. (8ths, sixteenths, whatever.) Do this until you have two or four measures of clapping.

Then bounce these six tracks to one track.

Voila! You have two or four measures of perfect handclapping. If this is not thick enough sounding, just repeat the process with the bounced track.
 
Hey, I thought this thread had died, but loads of people have responded.

Tex - I'll try the compression trick after I get the claps. LOL

Chibi Nappa - you're probably right - I was clapping right between the two mics, so I don't think the 3:1 rule was at work.

outlaw - I don't need the applause of 5000 LOL, just a few people clapping in time :D

jake - I think that's the way to go, yeah - mic a bit right, and then multiply and loop it. It's worth the work if I can use the result more than once. I've never learned how to loop things either, so it'll be worth it for that too. Good idea, thanks.

C7 - damn, I haven't listened to that album for ages - what an excellent recording. They were on such a roll around then. And yeah, the power of popping fingers.

Brett - I love it. :D

Aleeyen - yeah, I think that's what jake's talking about as well - cut and paste.

Cheers, everyone. Good stuff.
 
Hey, screw handclaps. C7 referred (reefered?) me to a Dead tune on an album that I've been listening to since then, and what I want to know now is how'd they get that bass sound. It's full and low and clear AND IT DOESN'T IMPINGE ON THE REST OF THE MIX. I'm light years away from that still.

What do I have to do? Get a recording contract that will gain me access to a pro studio with a real engineer?

Furphuxache. This gig just sets you up for heartache.
 
Check out the song "dodge" on here: www.earcandyonline.com

We did this with a SP C-1 in the middle of the room with three people. I think the claps came out great.

BTW, we did the harmonica through one of those little battery powered mini-amps into the C-1 as well. Came out real gritty and small, but goes well with the song, no?

Scott
 
Have a listen to Bye Bye Love at the end of the Bridge Over Troubled Water album and marvel. Am I the only person who's ever noticed how astonishing the hand claps are? I'd love to know what trick was used.
It's totally convincing. Except I've never heard an audience clap that well in time. How about "Let's just get 30,000 people in and overdub them" I don't think so. As an engineer in the 70s and 80s I must have recorded more clapping than you'd ever want to hear. I have to tell you that it was one of the hardest things to make sound any good. It was best achieved by just a few people who really have good time grouped around one mic, often set up in an ambient place. Just outside the loos at Rak studios was a favourite of mine, it's like a marble cave. Tracked to death and the socks compressed off it. It just starts to sound like it might stand a fighting chance then. You didn't imagine all this was easy did you?
Gregg Jackman
 
I always loved the way Geoff Emerick achieved recorded hand claps. On many Beatles albums and I believe he worked with Simon and Garfunkel as well.
 
Wow. Very dead thread walking..

Since it's back though, i did hand claps this week.
I've only done em once before and they sound far too upfront and dry.
Reverb just made them suck so this time i recorded them with my back to the mic.

Two copies panned apart; Worked a treat (I think).
 
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