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Use a decent condenser in omni, and record in a space that has the type of reverberation you want the claps to have. (Big boomy clap - Big boomy space, Dry in your face clap - Dead room)
Don't use compression to track the claps, and run your mic pre fairly conservatively.
Keep at least 3 to 5 feet away from the mic. Any closer and the claps will sound thin. The room sound is a big part of making recorded claps sound natural, and since the attack portion of a clap is much louder than the resulting room reverberation you need to use distance to balance out these elements at the mic capsule.
The best method I have found is to get a few people circled around the mic, and just clap slow quarter notes together free time. After a few seconds you will sync up, and get a few mins of tight sounding claps recorded. Then just seperate, edit, and stack the individual clap segments on seperate tracks. Pan / Mix to taste, and sample them, or fly them in on a grid. Add compression / reverb on the finished comp.
Cheers.
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