Shaker Programming

Zer0PointEnergY

Zer0PointEnergY

New member
I am looking for some help in programming my shakers, cuz frankly they suck, and sounds waAay to perfect.

Just wondering about some of your techniques used when programming shakers...besides stuff like changin velocity, etc. I do that and it doesn't help much.

I'm wanting a more natural feel to it.

ThX!
 
ZPE - what is "too perfect" ? You mean you want to give them a more "human touch", isn't it ?

Did you try shuffle or swing or groove quantize or whatever in that way ?

Do you own Spectrasonics Stylus ? In Stylus there are a lot great loops - as well using the STylus sounds itself as MIDI-loops to use with your own sounds.
 
THM said:
ZPE - what is "too perfect"
Click to expand...


I mean it just sounds to mechanical.

Yeah, I want that human feeling to it, more natural. I find it very hard to get that feeling with shakers. I'm not trying to match a human perfectly or anything like that. Just a bit more human sounding.

I've added swing to it, still sounds not as good as I would like though.

I need to get Spectrasonics Stylus...:(
 
zero, i find the following things work for my shakers:

1.
depending on desired feel, set velocities like

High Medium Low

H M L H M L H M

(maybe use different shaker samples for H M L)


2.
I open them in the midi notes editor, loop 8 notes (like a bar or so) and tinker with them manually (disable Quantize / Snap / Raster) by shifting them around ever so slightly ---
Pull them BEFORE other drum hits / beats / bars for a pushing feel. Push them behind those for a laidback feel. (of course)


Conclusion...
I feel my shakers have improved since I listened to all that brazilian stuff, like antonio carlos jobim, marcos valle, anything with the gilbertos / stan getz.
However a sampled groove by somebody who knew what they were doing on the shakers is much better though, i agree with the previous post

cheers
 
Hey ZPE,

I've taken to playing in my shakers & hats and programming just about everything else. Before that, I had problems with them just being too precise and present all the time.

They're still not great but I can hear them getting better, and they're definately a lot more interesting rhythmically than I managed just programming.
 
One thing I do: I record a shaker track first thing, and then use that instead of the click track as a timing reference. It makes subsequent recording feel more human and groovy. I record the shaker like this:

I like to put shaker samples on 4 keys: 2 white and 2 black. (say, aB, A, Bb, B). I put different samples on the black keys - maybe a bit darker-sounding. Then I play the part in: it's so much more easy when you can play it on four keyw (WwBbWwBb...). You get the natural accents from your fingers, and you're not trying to hit the same note too quickly. But the notes are very close together, so your rhythm doesn't get off.

If necessary, I'll quantize with maybe 50% strength after I've recorded. The idea of shakers is to give you a good push/pull, rather than a straight click, right?

If that fails, I'v got a nice library of myself and friends playing shakers and tambourines. I'll use them as the click-track for initial recording, then use them as comparison when programming the new shaker/tambourine track.

-Hoax
 
Try layering three or four sets of somewhat similar (Ballpark range, at least) shaker samples, and add an amp/filter LFO to each with a relatively fast speed (Every 16th note, or so), each one different than the other, and compress them together.

Each shaker hit will have characteristics more or less like each individual sample, depending on which set is loudest at the time.
 
You might want to use velocity to vary the shaker's attack. If you listen to a real shaker, a light shake is more of a "swoosh" and a hard shake is more of a "hit" similar to a brushed snare. So your light shakes, grace notes and such will sound more like someone gearing up for a hard shake then simply a lower-volume hard shake.

Grace notes are important here as well. If you look at a human being playing a shaker or a tamborine, you'll notice that they are always "keeping time", so even when they are not "playing" they are lightly moving the shaker or tamborine, so fill up your pattern with almost-imperceptable hits. A method I use is the lower the hits velocity until it disappears, and then bring it up until it's barely noticable in the mix. This subtlety will really add interest to your pattern. These grace hits you'll find usually occur after the hardest hits. This works well on snares, hats, and anything for that matter.

Also, subtle pitch variations, either controlled by velocity as well or by a LFO locked to tempo can also create a more naturalistic feel.
 
When I program shakers (I make beats with an MPC2000XL) I turn the 'Timing' off and play the pads live without the timing (1/8, 1/16, 1/32 etc...). That makes it sound more 'human' as you say. Hope that helps.
 
Realness said:
When I program shakers (I make beats with an MPC2000XL) I turn the 'Timing' off and play the pads live without the timing (1/8, 1/16, 1/32 etc...). That makes it sound more 'human' as you say. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that sounds pretty good. I'm gonna try that too.

ThX
 
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