Atypical/non-instruments used in a mix

[rasputin1963]

I was listening last night to the great old Motown record "Jimmy Mack" by Martha & The Vandellas.

For the life of me, I can't figure out what non-standard "percussion instrument" is being used as the backbeat strike, mixed in with the handclaps...

It sounds simply like a metal bar being slapped with a leather crop. Can you identify it? (most audible at 1:35 on out)



Have YOU ever used a non-standard instrument in one of your mixes?

Wasn't there a Beatles number which simply featured Ringo slapping one of his empty drumcases?

[tremolounge]

You may know that the incredible backbeat on the Vandella's "Dancing in the Streets" was not only snare drum, but also a length of chain slammed against the floor. So fitting for a coded civil rights anthem in a summer when the movement was really building up a head of steam.

Edit: Looking around the webs, some say tire chains, some say a crowbar or tire iron. Chains are more poetic.

[UstadKhanAli]

If "atypical instruments" can include non-Western instruments, then yes, I use them all the time. Tingshas, Tibetan bowls, two-headed Asian percussion instruments, Indonesian gamelan instruments, etc. They're all things that make sounds to me.

I also bow metallic objects, such as bowls and such.

[blue2blue]

What's typical?

You should see the crazy extended percussion kit that Steve Hodges (drummer/percussionist studio sideman for Tom Waits among others) has. Anvils are just one element.


It's always been kind of amusing to me that two of (my adopted hometown) Long Beach's arguably best known, currently working drummers -- boho/outsider Hodges and the ubiquitous and quite mainstream Josh Freese -- are so radically different in approach.

[UstadKhanAli]

I guess for most people here, "typical" is bass, guitar, drums, and keyboards. To me, everything is a musical instrument, so I don't tend to think in terms of "typical" and "atypical" music instruments. Then again, people think I'm a weirdo, so there's that.

[Phil O'Keefe]

My policy is "I'll mic up anything, anytime... if it sounds good (or appropriately jarring, annoying, disturbing, etc. etc. ), we'll use it in the song / mix. Whaddaya got?"

I've recorded my share of "unusual" instruments and objects over the years, and all sorts of "noisemakers" / random objects. I've used clocks, phone books, leather straps striking the side of rack cases, chains, kitchen utensils, children's toys, exotic (non-Western) instruments, stun guns, large canisters of compressed CO2 (both as a noise source when releasing gas through a valve, and as well as struck percussion - a large, half empty cylinder sounds a lot like a bell when struck; with a very definite pitch that you can "tune", depending on how much gas is in the tank), garbage cans and lids... all kinds of stuff. And I've placed some of them into some unusual "non-studio" spaces when recording them too... again - "whatever works".

[UstadKhanAli]

Stuff around the kitchen often seem to be great sound sources. You can use quite a lot of different things for shakers, too, or make stuff really quick, like putting beans in a container, etc. I know someone who had a great sounding kick drum, which ended up being him thumping his thumb on a 57.

[MarkZ]

From the Flight of the Conchords finale:

[rasputin1963]

Originally Posted by MarkZ

From the Flight of the Conchords finale:

Very kewl... It almost sounds like they're riffing on Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly".





Of course, in the world of sampling, the sky's the limit for possible sonorities...


One of us here at SSS---- Who was it?---- was told by his music prof that tonal music (melody + harmony) was "used up" basically, and the song-form had been done to death, and that the only real fertile avenue for innovation was in creating new timbres with sampling?

[Jimbroni]

I love gettin creative like that. A couple of things that come to mind that I've recorded.

Hard Heeled sunday church shoes on a wooden stage stomping to the beat.

3 beer bottles filled with water "tuned to I IV V" then blow over the lip for a solo in a Bluegrass/Blues bit.

Sound of cars driving down my street on a rainy day.

Oh yeah. There is one very consistent oddball that gets recorded in some of my projects. The Drummer I work with has a stand up kit. One of his cymbals is not a cymbal but the spoke ring from the bottom of a roto tom mounted on a cymbal stand. Has this killer bell sound. Whenever, we record the stand up kit, that thing gets in there somewhere.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Originally Posted by rasputin1963

One of us here at SSS---- Who was it?---- was told by his music prof that tonal music (melody + harmony) was "used up" basically, and the song-form had been done to death, and that the only real fertile avenue for innovation was in creating new timbres with sampling?

Academics are basically all knuckleheads.


Pianoforte

a) Number of keys: 88

b) Two possibilities to create a tone:

1st possibility = pushing one the key down and creating a tone.
2nd possibility = pushing down 2 to 88 keys simultanous in any combination.

c) One possibilitiy to rest; pushing none of the key down.

d) Total possibilities to play different interval and chords: Two by the power of eighty-eight = 309485009821345068724781056

e) 309485009821345068724781056 multiplied by all rhythmical possibilities = n

f) n multiplied by possible micro and macro forms.


and this is only the pianoforte...

[fretwizz]

With the proliferation of sample libraries of instruments from all
countries... found sounds, "ethnic" percussion and sound FX,
it has never been easier to add "atypical/non-instruments" to a mix.

Add to that the proliferation of digital recorders, such as the Zoom H2,
which make it a snap to grab sounds from just about anywhere, anytime,
and the possibilities are endless.

[fretwizz]

Originally Posted by Rudolf von Hagenwil

"...Academics are basically all knuckleheads..".

But ... er... mmm ... er ... you're an academic aren't you Rudolph?

[rasputin1963]

Originally Posted by Jimbroni

I love gettin creative like that. A couple of things that come to mind that I've recorded.

Hard Heeled sunday church shoes on a wooden stage stomping to the beat.
.

Hey, Jim, I made a Soundfont exactly like this. Borrowed a female friend's stiletto heeled shoes, sampled their "clack" sound against wood. Added a chorus and reverb effect. Playing a major triad on your keyboard delivers the sound of three girls clacking their heels in unison.

This sonority is an absolute must if you're trying to emulate a Motown Supremes groove, viz.:



P.S. This video is kinda funny to watch.... These English kids on a 1963 airing of TOP OF THE POPS are finding it hard to discern "Baby Love's" strict "four-on-the-floor" groove. I can't see that any dancer here has really gotten it "right".

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Originally Posted by fretwizz

But ... er... mmm ... er ... you're an academic aren't you Rudolph?

No.

I use the terminology of music, as every composer does. Musical academism is a purely theoretical science, and also a genre of music I do not compose. Okay, I often borrowed academic attitudes with no thought of concealing the pleasure I found in them.


When I read something like:

"was told by his music prof that tonal music (melody + harmony) was "used up" basically, and the song-form had been done to death"

then I know that this statement is a pure brain fart, and the professor bloke who made it is not worth his salary. Such a statement simply expresses that the person who made it is not a creative character.

.

[Lee Knight]

I've mentioned this one before but it sounds so good I'll bring it up again.

A 5 gallon plastic water bottle. If you suspend it without dampening it (either by holding at the mouth or drilling a small hole at the neck and hanging from wire...

Then you lightly tap it. At the mouth of the Sparkletts bottle is the most wonderful, woody, Booooooom. Like a giant log drum. Put a mic right up to the hole and your good. You won't hear it until you put your ear, or mic, right up at the opening. It's soft. But not only boom sounds. You can slap and spank it too getting decidedly non-woody tones as well but with a unique ambiance. I've created the most natural sounding loops by playing a pattern in the left then panning another complimentary pattern on the right. Jungley.

Or put it in front of a kick and mic the mouth of the bottle. It sympathetically resonates. Better than syncing an 808 sample to your kick.

[rasputin1963]

Originally Posted by Lee Knight

A 5 gallon plastic water bottle. If you suspend it without dampening it (either by holding at the mouth or drilling a small hole at the neck and hanging from wire...

Then you lightly tap it.

I have to try this. Thanks for the tip, Lee!

[offramp]

This one's been around for a while. Always a favorite of mine.
Can't tell if YouTube tags are working, so I gave the URL too.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7h8qkMBE_E

[Phil O'Keefe]

Offy, you only need to insert the characters that follow the "=" sign in the YouTube URL. I edited / fixed it for you so it would display properly.

[Hard Truth]

In this very cool video from 1981 David Van Tieghem (best known for work with Laurie Anderson) "plays" the streets of New York City as if it were a giant musical instrument.