Acoustic Instruments to Spice Up Electronic Music

[Analog Prophet]

Anyone using acoustic instruments to spice up electronic music? Think it it add a dimension and spice to the all-electronic-sound. It makes the synths to sound better - at least in my ears.

I write ambient electronic music touched by ethno and some times I add some hand drums (Djembe and Darbuka). I'm not a drummer or percussion player but record a minute or two and cut out some bars as a loops of the best part.

Bought recently a Didgeridoo for the same purpose. Have some more instruments such Gong and Kalimba waiting for the next electronica project.

Some times I also record different environments (in the busy city or in calm places at the country side) to spice up the synthetic sound picture with.

For the instruments I record on my Neumann mics and for the environments I bought a Zoom H4 that I'm happy with.

[Barfunkel]

Real instruments is something that I've been thinking about expanding to next. Maybe start small, with some percussion (agogo, cuica and cabasa are my favorites), then expand to others.

I don't have any mics though, nor a treated room, so getting into it is going to cost quite a bit.

Does anyone have any recommendations of mics for the percussion instruments I listed above by the way?

[jarlywarly]

I have a mini cabasa - actually a very capable white noise generator. You can get a groove going with this alone.

[GYang]

Real rooms.
Analogue synths + acoustic instruments.
Great tube mics.
Analogue mixing.

Now we talk good music

[Kaoz]

Guitar, bass and drums here.

[CaseyMartin]

I've been working on incorporating banjo and mandolin on some of my stuff. I'm still having some problems with the mixing and EQing but it's definitely a refreshing change of pace.

[Barfunkel]

Originally Posted by CaseyMartin

I've been working on incorporating banjo and mandolin on some of my stuff. I'm still having some problems with the mixing and EQing but it's definitely a refreshing change of pace.

Do you have something online that combines banjo with electronic music?

[deft_bonz]

Of course.

I've just recorded 32 finger snaps for a 16 bar loop. Gives the track a very natural feeling. Especially during breaks, when just a few tracks are playing, was a mere sample too artificial and boring.

Also recorded sax, guitars, rhodes, claps, cabasas, shakers, tambourine, everything in the studio i could hit with a drum stick, beatbox, bass, "tuned" tin can, and so on.

[Apprendista]

+1 for simple percussion instruments. Personally I'm partial to the tambourine, claves, cabasa and guiro.

[Analog Prophet]

Originally Posted by Barfunkel

Real instruments is something that I've been thinking about expanding to next. Maybe start small, with some percussion (agogo, cuica and cabasa are my favorites), then expand to others.

I don't have any mics though, nor a treated room, so getting into it is going to cost quite a bit.

Does anyone have any recommendations of mics for the percussion instruments I listed above by the way?

Shure SM57 are great and inexpensive percussion mics. The room does not need to be especial treated for that kind of percussion (actually percussion recordings need some room) and with a SM57 you can record percussion almost anywhere (it has a narrow angle and pick up the sound mainly just in front of the mic). If the room is sort of ok for your monitors when making electronic music than you don't have to concern about treatment for recording percussion with a SM57.

[deft_bonz]

SM57 is cheap, but I never really liked it for percussions, because it lacks a fast transient response and detailness. At the beginning I recorded with a Rode (don't remember the model) and like its sound better than the SM57

[cryophonik]

Yes, I add a lot of acoustic instruments, particularly to my downtempo stuff. I like to blend synths with organic sounds. Bass is my primary instrument, so I play both fretted and fretless (goes great with synth-based music IMO). Also guitar (acoustic and electric), hand percussion, and, of course, vocals. I also use a lot of piano (Kurzweil) and samples of real drums (e.g., SD2, BFD2) and strings (e.g., EWQL Gold)

[paugui]

I try to use other type of electronic instruments rather than just controlling my synths with keyboards.

For that propose I got an Eigenharps Pico which is a really cool controller, and also an Akai EWI3020 with the EWI3030m (a sample based module, but with the EWI3020 controller it really sounds "alive"), and some old electronic drumkits (so far I've gotten a Pearl DRUM-X, a Dynacord ADD One and a Simmons SDS9, and I still have a KAT set that I'm trying to get rid of).

When I want to do something different, I just use them and they perform nicely

Probably real acoustic instruments would be even nicer, but I think using those machines it's already possible to get something nicer to the usual keyboard controlled stuff...

[Rooftree]

I've added djembes and other African drums into a couple of my songs in the past. It sounded good to my ears.

A harp player is coming to my place in a couple of months to record a demo of her playing solo. I'm hoping to talk her into a structured improv session with harp+fx plus me on synths.

[ded4now]

Other than the usual guitar, bass, drums...


Mandolin
crappy old learner's violin
bowed guitar/bass
small hand drums
one of those cheap plastic penny whistles
small school recorders/crappy plastic 'flutes' (drenched in delay & verb of course)
wood block (pitched down & blended with kicks/toms/snares etc.)
ukelele through distortion/modulation
harmonica
concertina (through distortion, again)
egg shakers can provide some interesting effects with enough mangling & processing


I would say tambourine but I hate the damn things more than life itself...

[Rogue Ai]

I like using junk to record percussion samples and loops. Like buckets, pipes, etc.

[tonemaker]

hammered dulcimer can be really nice but is kind of a cliche' now. (beware of them needing constant tuning also).

[modularjack]

Yup, besides vocals I blend in bass and acoustic guitar, saxophone, flute, shakahuchi, various wooden flutes, violin, cello and random percussion instruments, depending on the project.

[msl]

I like to have small percussion lying around, if there's other people in the studio I'll almost always hand them something and tell them to make some noise. Have the usual stuff, shakers, claves, djembe, bongos, mouth harp, and general found sounds, empty beer cans can sound cool! I might run them through some effects, pedals or a vocoder. Experimentation is the name of the game, I've had some great happy accidents, especially with the vocoder.

I'll either just have them stand in front of the SE2200a I always have set up in the corner or use a Little Blondie, though I have one but I hate SM57s for that kind of stuff always sounds muddy to he no hi end.



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[Don Edgar]

I have collected some percussion instruments as well as some exotic stringed instruments (Saz, Charango). Basically everything that makes a sound can be used on music, I have made nice stuff recording a guitar pic on my teeth (instant formant filter), my cellphone clapping, etc.
I've worked a few times with foley artists and it's very inspiring, they really know how to shape sounds, adding resonant stuff (like metal plates) etc...

[cryophonik]

Originally Posted by msl

I like to have small percussion lying around, if there's other people in the studio I'll almost always hand them something and tell them to make some noise. Have the usual stuff, shakers, claves, djembe, bongos, mouth harp, and general found sounds, empty beer cans can sound cool! I might run them through some effects, pedals or a vocoder. Experimentation is the name of the game, I've had some great happy accidents, especially with the vocoder.

I have a 4-yo boy and every birthday and Christmas I head down to the local music store and pick up some new hand percussion instruments for him (& me). We bought him some cheap Fisher-Price crap early on, but they sounded terrible and fell apart quickly, so I started buying real instruments. We've amassed quite a selection and I blend them into my tracks on occasion.