Recording tambourine....

S

sausy1981

New member
Hi guys,
So I was recording a Tambo track for one of my songs and couldnt get the sound I wanted, I was a couple of feet away from my LDC, with heavy compression on the preamp. Tried a few different positions and settings, then as a last idea I placed an sm57 overhead as in an overhead mic, the tambourine was roughly 2 ft under the mic, I set the compressor with a fast attack and fast release and made sure it was catching the clap of the tambo and not the rattle, There was 12db of gain reduction. This worked out fantastic for me, it was a lot drier, my room doesn't sound bad it just didn't suit the tambo, but the dynamic mic didn't pic up much of the ambience. Anyway I just wanted to share that technique that worked so well for me... how do you guys record tambourine?
 
Tambourine seems kinda hard to record. I struggle with this too, but i got a good result lately with a ribbon mic not too close
 
Hey.
I've never actually recorded a tamba but for shakers, hand claps, footstomps etc I tend to place myself between the instrument and the mic.
I found that direct sound tends to suck and ambient sound seems to be what we want to hear, so putting the mic behind me works out well.
I generally record several tracks and make sure I move around the room for each one.

You're probably talking at least 3 foot distance.
 
When I record a tambourine, I always do it from a distance. What I usually do is I'll just open the door between my control room and drum room and turn on the drum over head mics and play the tambourine (can you "play" a tambourine??) from the control room. The distance takes the edge off of the "chink".
 
I normally record tambourine with an LDC at about 4 or 5 foot back. I move around from side to side a bit to try and help tame some of the "chink" until i find a sweetish spot and go for it. Space between the mic and tambourine really do make a big difference.

Saying that i've always had success recording with an LDC about 1 foot or so away and then using a tape saturation plugin in the mix to tame the attack.

After listening to a clip from the producer who recorded Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" going on about using ribbon mics to record all the hand percussion on that track i'm definitely gonna try it the next time i get a chance :)
 
Justsomeguy said:
After listening to a clip from the producer who recorded Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" going on about using ribbon mics to record all the hand percussion on that track i'm definitely gonna try it the next time i get a chance :)
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Spent the last week doing hand percussion : Should have tried that. :facepalm:
 
Steenamaroo said:
Spent the last week doing hand percussion : Should have tried that. :facepalm:
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Tbf i'd never even thought of it until i heard the "Bruce Swedien on ribbon microphones" clip on the royer website and instantly youtubed "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and was blown away by 1) how much percussion was on the track and 2) how flippin' awesome it sounded! I did the song as a project for college years ago and must've heard it about 1000 times at the time and never once did i pay any attention to the percussion :facepalm: (in my defence i was just doing the guitar parts so was very focussed on the guitar on the track)
 
sausy1981 said:
.. I set the compressor with a fast attack and fast release and made sure it was catching the clap of the tambo and not the rattle, There was 12db of gain reduction. ..
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Interesting description. I'd tend to thing 'fast attack/release would tame the smack' and bring up the rattle. Probably just comes down to the meanings attached.:guitar:
 
I've recorded tambourine in a large, tiled bathroom and really liked the ambient sound. Used an SM57 up close (although maybe a ribbon with a reflection filter would work as well) and a LDC for the room. The SM57 captures a lot more of the "clap" and the room mic captures more of the "rattle". The ambient "rattle" somehow helps it stand out in the mix better, without being abrasive...
 
It really depends on the song, what other instruments are in it, the prominence that the tambourine will have and the kind of tambourine. Sometimes I go close up, but most times I'm a few feet from the mic or under it. I take off some high end so that it's not too bright. To be honest though, I don't sweat it.
As for mikes, I'll use whatever, dynamics, condensers....I've even used a headphone. That really takes the brightness off.
 
Wow. Very interesting. I just put up an LDC in a good room. Never felt like I needed anything other than that.
 
I tried recording some percussion layers (tamborurine, shaker and bongos) for a recent tune with a fig 8 ribbon mic through a neve emu pre for the first time and it sounded f-ing fantastic. It was in an untreated room with hardwood floors outside my control room. Mic was up about 3 feet and angled diagonally towards the source with the low-cut engaged. Used some fairly generous compression (well actually an 1176 at 12:1 or 20:1 I believe) and everything just had that right coloration with barely any eq or verb at all. When you're really pushing a compressor on a percussive source recorded with some ambiance in the signal, it does some marvelous things, as many know! The fig 8 pattern was the perfect blend of direct sound with the ambience being picked up from behind, plus rejection on the sides from too many off-axis reflections in an untreated room.

But at the end of the day if you're spending too much time recording/thinking/talking about a tambo track, chances are you could be using your time more wisely! :p

Thanks for sharing your experience! :)
 
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Getting a quality tambourine is crucial to getting a good sound as well. I went to the local music store and tried out all of them and came out with the best sounding one. I actually use tambourine on about half my tracks.
 
Magnawolf said:
Getting a quality tambourine is crucial to getting a good sound as well. I went to the local music store and tried out all of them and came out with the best sounding one. I actually use tambourine on about half my tracks.
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I honestly think this i something that gets overlooked sometimes. As i've said before, i'm a HUUUGGGGEEEE fan of percussion on tracks and as such have picked up a variety of different tambourines/shakers/bells/"janglies" and usually try a couple of different ones out to see what suits the song.

I think on our bands first album we had the choice of four different tambourines and i think we used three of them in the end on different tracks :thumbs up:
 
Justsomeguy said:
try a couple of different ones out to see what suits the song.
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True that.
I auditioned every box of nails or screws in my garage before I found the sound I wanted.
I'm not even joking. :facepalm:

I hit a 2 bar electric heater with a stick last week for a kind of snappy snare roll sound.
Heater broke at some point (funny that) and I threw it out without thinking. Now I'm wondering how I'm gona record the rest of the parts.

You can hear it here towards the end of the buildup.
It's the fast paced wide stereo roll.
 
Steenamaroo said:
I auditioned every box of nails or screws in my garage before I found the sound I wanted.
I'm not even joking. :facepalm:
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That sir is true dedication to finding the perfect sound, and i for one salute you :thumbs up: (*insert salute emoticon*)

We went through 6 peoples sets of keys to find a decent jangle for the last album but they all sucked and ended up digging some jingle bells outta our singers wives schools percussion box, and we did use drum sticks on a mic stand and then ping pong delay for a cool stereo effect on the stuff we're working on atm.

lol, heaters - not built to same standards as SM58's :D

I'm gonna have a listen to your track when i'm upstairs in front of proper speakers but after i'm looking forward to heater based percussion. does it warm the track up :p
 
I'm sure if you ask Shure and ***** nicely they'll custom build you a heater made out of SM58's and ***** 3310's. Then you can hit it with a stick to your hearts content :)

EDIT: *gasp* it blanked out the name of a well known phone!? I'm guessing it's an anti-spam bot filter thing. You all know what i mean
 
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