hand clap/smash sound generator

[celebutante]

I have to preface this by saying that I'm a little more obsessed with sound of analog handclaps/"smashes" than most average humans. This is probably because I grew up in 80's listening to Yaz/Devo/Human League, etc. Lucky for me, Logic has the Ultrabeat drum synth which is optimized for this kind of nonsense. I have a favorite "handclap smash" sound that I use all the time. It started as one of their 808 clap emulations, but I tweaked it... the biggest thing I did was remove the three cycles of LFO amplitude mod that give it the "multiple hands clapping" sound; so it now it's a bit more like whipcrack. Blah blah, get to the point... bear with me.

I'd like to DIY a module to make this sound. Instead of making a module for my modular synth, I'd actually like to mount it inside my Pearl DRX-1 drum module. It's an obscure beast much like a Simmons SDS-V with kick, snare, and three tom voices, drum pad/trigger inputs, no MIDI (not for long!), and eight kit memories. The reason I want to build it into the DRX-1 is that I'd like to use it live.

So with all that established, I went ahead and reverse engineered the sound from Logic Ultrabeat (block diagram attached). I then set about recreating this "for real" on my modular. I used my Ken Stone digital noise> .com state-variable high pass>.com ladder filter with no res in 12/db oct mode >VCA. I also plugged the out of the modular into a Boss GE-7 graphic EQ stomp box for the boost (the freq wasn't right on, but it was close enough).

It doesn't sound exactly like Ultrabeat... as usual in real analog world, it sounds even better! And there's a fair amount of tweaking options with the filters and env settings. Gotta love modulars. Love using about $1500 worth of synth to make a clap!

But back to my point (I'm pretty sure I had one...).

Anyone think there's an easy way to build such a creature in a somewhat small and simple package? Roland must have, right? I'm just not sure what could be trimmed down. I tried using a single bandpass filter in place of the highpass/lowpass combo, both in Logic Ultrabeat world and on my modular, but in both cases, it didn't sound nearly as good (made it too middy, and lost lots of impact as a result)... maybe this could improved upon with the right bandpass filter.

I don't want this to be the kind of thing with a million controls; I was thinking just to have trimmers for cutoff/res and maybe it'd be cool to bring the env releases out to the front panel. Maybe trims for the EQ....

Any suggestions? Think this is too nutty for a small and simple thing?

cheers,

Mitchell

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[danielwarner]

You could probably save about $1500 worth of synth and get a Boss Hand Clapper:
http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/boss_hc-2.cfm

[ickystay]

I'm not familiar with the Logic Ultrabeat sound. Would a stand alone clapper (Boss HC-2, Simmons Clap Trap, Tama TS204, Electro Harmonix Claptrack, Coron DC-890) get you there? In the neighborhood?

Perhaps one of those circuits could be the starting point to add and subtract features to get your sound.

[andrewF]

The Boss DR-110 is famed for it`s handclaps (and not much else)
The handclap cct, with mods is easy enough to build. I have one and reckon it is very good.
Lots of info here -
http://www.hoohahrecords.com/resfreq/mods/dr110/index.html

[celebutante]

[synth_ollie]

here´s the amdek/boss schemo if it could be of any help,
posted it to matixsynth some time ago...

[ickystay]

Thanks, synth_ollie!

Here's the Tama:

(Part of the circuit is for presets. I never took the time to figure out how they worked when I had mine.)

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[ickystay]

and the EH:

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[ian-s]

[celebutante]

You guys frickin' rule!

Since you're so accommodating... can you also send me a '72 Lamborghini Miura SV? (purple or orange is fine!)



mitchell

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[creatorlars]

I've got an 808 hand-clap clone module on my desk right now I'm putting together. It's based on the modular PCB layouts on microLARGE's 808 clone site (http://xlargex.xl.funpic.de/). I'll definitely post when/if I get it working.

100% there with you on the clap/crack, by the way. What I do is electronic percussion + live (and very loud) guitar and bass. So claps tend to punch thru the mix waaay better than typical electronic snares. I'd be very interested to see what you end up deciding on here. I need more than one clap.

[celebutante]

[creatorlars]

Sexy tunes. You can check my shit out here:

http://www.myspace.com/theundoingofdavidwright

Kinda like Gang of Four in a haunted house? Hah. We dig no wave, performance art and 70's noise/progpunk. A few kinda weird tracks there right now, not really representational. Need to get stuff from the new album up. No DIY synths in those recordings yet (have used Alesis SR-16, MPC1000 and software, in the past).

[etaoin]

[StephenGiles]

Many thanks for the EH circuit - has anyone spotted the CA3094s ? Personally, any form of music that employs hand claps is to be avoided at all costs, with the exception of early Gene Vincent and Elvis!

[celebutante]