Recording tambourine....

[Justsomeguy]

Yeah, snares can be pretty useful some of the time. But they're not as cool as hitting a cardboard box that's loosely sealed with gaffa tape that has been on the floor of a music venue for 10 years to hold the cables down to prevent a trip hazard, filled with live bees that may escape and attack you at any second, especially when you have a deadly allergy to bee strings, with a baseball bat tipped with dynamite

Extreme recording - because where's the fun without the risk of instant death?

It adds a real sense of urgency to your tracks

 

[Justsomeguy]

Sorry for the resurrection, but i've spent the past two days recording a shed load of percussion, including tambourines, and got around to trying my modded Apex 205 (well, Alctron HRM8-b, but for all intents and purposes it's the same thing, and the only mod was to take out the internal blast filter) and by jingo it's AWESOME!!! Finally, after nearly 10 years of trying, i've recorded some handclaps that actually sound like handclaps! My shakey egg now has this smooth high end rather than odd "spitty" high end, the tambourine is so crisp and clear without being "brash" and sits so well in the mix it's ace, and even hitting random things (mic stands, metal cup holder, house keys, back of chairs) gave exceptional results. The other big thing i tried, other than the ribbon mic, was recording in different rooms in my house which aren't treated at all. I found the sweet spot for handclaps was at the top of my stairs and tambourine sounded best just outside my music room door, whereas the rest of the stuff sounded fine in my music room.

So, if you've not tried using a ribbon mic for percussion, i strongly recommend giving it a go. As always you need a preamp with a lot of clean gain and for some things a popfilter is advised (tbf it may have been fine without one but for the handclaps especially i didn't hesitate to put up the popfilter just incase).

 

[felipenoris]

As of mic choice, definitely condenser , maybe small diaphragm.
As of technique, it´s hard to start and stop naturally. A good tip is to record a few bars and delete the first and last bars in the recording.

 

[Steenamaroo]

As of technique, it´s hard to start and stop naturally. A good tip is to record a few bars and delete the first and last bars in the recording.

That's a great tip. I almost always do a few unnecessary bars ahead of the take just to get the beat going.

 

[Justsomeguy]

As of technique, it´s hard to start and stop naturally. A good tip is to record a few bars and delete the first and last bars in the recording.

I almost always do a few unnecessary bars ahead of the take just to get the beat going.

Tbh the last two shakey egg tracks i did yesterday used this technique. Everything else seemed fine, but, as you've both said, for some reason the first couple of bars of every take i did for this shakey egg track sounded sloppy and then picked up. So, like steen suggested, i started playing a couple of bars early and voila; by the time the important part kicked in i was already in the groove. It's sods law that i didn't see these posts first as i wasted about half an hour before i tried playing a couple of bars early

 

[Steenamaroo]

LOL. We learn, but never in time.

BTW, I got a new heater on ebay. Sounds just like the last one.

 

[Justsomeguy]

LOL. We learn, but never in time.

True dat. Hopefully this will be one of those lessons that will stick in my memory, but seeing as i'm currently taking enough painkillers to sedate keith richards i'm not holding out too much hope.

i've just realised, i could write these kind of things down on post-it notes and stick them around my desk, then no matter what my mental state i will be able to remember!!! *to the stationary draw i go!!!*

Cool, is it the same brand heater as the last one or is it a chinese rebrand of your original heater? Hopefully this new one can withstand your rhythmic beatings

 

[Steenamaroo]

True dat. Hopefully this will be one of those lessons that will stick in my memory, but seeing as i'm currently taking enough painkillers to sedate keith richards i'm not holding out too much hope.

Jeez...Hope you're ok, fella!

Cool, is it the same brand heater as the last one or is it a chinese rebrand of your original heater? Hopefully this new one can withstand your rhythmic beatings

Yeah, it's a chinese copy. I'm not sure the tube even does anything.
There's a black lion mod for it though.

 

[Justsomeguy]

Jeez...Hope you're ok, fella!

Cheers man, it's a very long story, but the heavily abridged version goes - teenage arthritic condition (my spine looks like lego bricks badly stacked together to form a "S" from the side, with the lego stacked on hardened mayonnaise..... and that's not even that much of an exaggeration) that i was told at the time would cause heavy degeneration in my late 30's/ early 40's, but after ignoring all the advice which mainly said "don't play guitar" (infact, the actual quote at age 17 was "playing guitar for 30 mins will have the equivalent strain on your spine as a day on a jack hammer"), gigging my arse off for 10 years (and i mean it got to a point where i for the last three years of gigging i was gigging 5 nights a week around the uk and still getting up at 6am to go and teach) at the age of 27 my spine started the degenerate a lot so now at the ripe old age of 29 i have a sainsburys size carrier bag of painkillers which lasts three weeks before needing more. In fact, one of the big reasons i signed up to HR was because i can no longer play guitar so have shifted my focus over to recording and, mainly, mixing. Don't get me wrong, i still strum my guitar when i can but 5 mins of playing guitar feels like someone is driving a hot poker from the top of my right arse cheek into my groin whilst barbed wire is wrapped around my hip, as well as my right leg locking up, my foot going numb, and the bit of spine between my shoulder blades feel likes it's trying to claw it's way out of my skin.....

Well... that was downcast. Sorry

Yeah, it's a chinese copy. I'm not sure the tube even does anything.
There's a black lion mod for it though.

Ah the old starved plate design with a cathode follower that doesn't do anything. Did you look to see if there was a T.Bone version of it? I'm sure joly can mod it so it feels like a real open fire rather than a little heater