I’m in the process of making a clap plugin. I know that sounds kind of lame, but the idea is that you can tell it exactly how many people you want, and how tight you want them, and it will create randomized clap samples. I have it basically working, but the claps I have now were recorded in my living room. I’ve heard these clap samples so many times, I’m numb to the sound, so I need some feedback.
Does the space sound ok? or should I go rent a space with a bigger room and record claps there?
Obviously the tricky part is that the space used to hold 150 people is going to sound different from a space that can hold 5, so the room should grow with the number of clappers.
Here’s a few clips. Of course it’s hard to tell if they sound ok out of context, I just need feedback on whether I should get a better room or not.
1 Clap Close:
1 Clap Room:
3 Clapper close mic:
3 Clap Room:
3 Clap Room looser:
10 Clap Close:
10 Clap Room:
50 Clap Room tighter
50 Clap Room Looser
The dynamics start to get a little funky when the crowd size gets bigger. I don’t think a crowd of 50 people will have much dynamic variation, so it sounds a little awkward to hear.
Sounds good through the laptop speakers. I kind of laughed at the thought of a clapping plugin, but it could be useful for some people, I’m sure. I don’t think you need to rent a space. I’ll check these claps out later on my headphones and studio speakers so that I can confirm that they sound good.
I’ve found it surprisingly hard to find a decent one. All the ones I’ve seen are so pre-baked you don’t really have any choice in what it sounds like. And most of them either sound like drum machines or were recorded in massive halls, neither of which sound like a clap track I ever need.
Up to 10 people sound good. 50, not so much. The ambience works for me. Usually you have to adjust ambience to taste. Compression is a big part of getting claps to work in a mix - to get them not to just sound like little “clicks” you really need to get some sustain happening on them.
I don’t know if this is of any help, but here is a “before & after” “out of, then in context” example of some claps I recorded for my last album. These were just recorded by me and my wife, and moving the a condenser mic and ourselves around the room to give the impression of more people.
Here is the raw stereo clap stem:
and here it is mixed into the song:
It was a fairly small household timber room with floating timber flooring over concrete - roughly 9ft ceiling.
Yeah, things get a bit funky when the size gets big. With the right settings it can sound ok in context, but on it’s own it sounds odd.
I don’t know if this is of any help, but here is a “before & after” “out of, then in context” example of some claps I recorded for my last album.
Yep, it’s helpful. I’ve been messing with all sorts of settings playing along to songs trying to get it to sound right, and what sounds good in a song sounds very different on its own, so it’s good to hear other examples in different spaces.
This is definitely not going to be a high priced plugin. I will be doing snaps and stomps as well. My original plan was to make it 3 separate plugins, because of the way it builds the samples it would quickly get bogged down with too many samples in one plugin.
I just listen to them all, and the cost single claps were quite weak sounding to me. As soon as the room was involved it sounded a tad better. The 10 clap room was good, I would definitely use that, but I thought the 50 claps were quite overpowering. Myself, I’m not really reaching for the clap plugins out there, it just doesn’t fit my music. I had a student once who spent a day just recording snaps, and then when I heard the result it blew me away. Basically 2 bars of synths and finger snaps, and it was one of the nicest things I’d ever heard. So I guess if somebody needs claps in their music they would definitely think of getting a clap plugin.
I guess I’ll add one more sound clip. Compression make a huge difference in the sound. This is 50 claps with close/room blended and some compression. Also, I took out any dynamics because dynamics sound strange on a group this size.
The “Heys & Hoes” that Andrew mentioned might be a good addition to the claps. Usually wherever you get a hoe, you’ll also get the clap. They tend to be paired together.
Seriously though, I have a song that I’m trying to slap together a group of "Heys!"together. So far I’ve overdubbed 3 “Heys!” but I would like to have a few more different voices layered in there. I’ll try to get my girlfriend to add her voice on a few more tracks and have her “Hey!” in different vocal registers.
Yeah, these sound great! Very usable. Compression is excellent for bringing out the room. Distortion is great too. Soundtoys Decapitator works fantastically to really dirty up and add some room and girth to these type of sounds.
Love the idea of a clapping plug-in… i would definitely use that!
I preferred the dryer sounds that I could play around with myself. I have used pre-recorded synth claps and also made my own, I tend to use them quite a bit for various things so it would be really useful to have a set of say little medium and big claps. I’d rather sort the room stuff myself. O so many name puns come to mind… this will go like the clappers!
Get the clap here!
You clap me up!
I have also used claps in theatre stuff… there are a bunch floating around on the net for download but in one handy package (o… see what I did there?) would be great!
