Spice up your Studio

[AC Long]

As engineers, we get so caught up with mics and preamps, etc. Lately I've been adding some fairly low cost items to my studio to give my recordings some "character". The following is a list of things that I think every studio should have lying around. They are "classics" that can really spice up recordings if used well.

1. Cowbell (in case the song needs more cowbell)
2. Tambourine
3. E bow
4. Wah Wah pedal
5. Slide
6. Capo
7. 6-pack of bottled beer (to boost self esteem)
8. Empty beer bottles (ever hit one with a drum stick? cool sound)
9. Shakers
10. Talk box

Please post your studio "spice rack".

Cheers
AC

[Unclenny]

Old salt-water lure (found on the beach).....has things inside that rattle gently.

Slender driftwood stick.....nice muted sound on a triangle.

Triangle.

Kalimba.

Large conch shell (with hole).........

Beer cans (full).....tastes great, less spilling.

Mother's Day

[Newcleardaze]

My drummer used 12" fuzzy paint rollers to get a very soft cymbal swell on a song recently....
Also used an old 7" saw blade as a bell.
An upside-down 5 gallon bucket can make an interesting sound too...
Also get a small fan and place a mic on the back side of it and have the singer sing from the front (something with a grill so they dont cut their lips off). It's an interesting effect, noisy, but cool.

What can I say... I work construction.

[LeMauce]

Bought a 100+year old hand horn for a car in Portugal for about 10bucks. The squizrubber part was broken and I ripped it off. After that I use it like:
1. putt a sm57 mic on the small part and let sing somebody on the larg dia side. Fricking great hall effect/radio mix!
2. Butt the same combo as above infront of my Messaboogie amp and hell its sounds like more metal then metal. I can say...TRY this!
3. Let a friend do a beatbox with his mouth on the small side and a cond.mic on the large openside and boy o boy with psp 84 on the track its lot of fun!

4. Putt a plastic cup on your mic and get back to the 1920's radio talking sound!
5. A cooking pan behind a sm57 thats aimed on a git.amp. |pan|mic|amp| and you got hellmetal sounds feedbacks with open gain.
6. Used beerbottle's for slidding git.strings to get banjo effects.

[boothnavy]

cheap tape decks from goodwill.

[LeMauce]

Originally Posted by boothnavy

cheap tape decks from goodwill.

Indeed, completly forgot. Old otari 2tracks for drums and hard/gits. Under 500bucks a bargain. Repairing them self is a easyjob.

[Stiff]

Great post.

I have started picking up some odd instrument with every new project. This has two ups. First you can flavor your entire project by just adding this oddball a little here and there, and second you'll build up an interesting setup. This could be harmonicas (if you aren't a blues player, then you should have a belt full of them), etno string instruments, odd percussion etc, etc.

Also, don't be afraid to build your own shit, especially percussion like maracas, shakers etc, etc.

[SyncSailor]

newcleardaze: the fuzzy paint roller... what a great idea.

[hethrir]

assorted stomp boxes: octave, vibrato, big muff pi, phase, ehx delay.
you can get some really crazy sounds/combos.
playing kit with whisks? has an 'interesting' result.
MELODICA!
cheap bongos.
also ocean drums sound great, esp, as old school downsampled snare.
tieing things to cymbals like small chains or playing the with a bow on their edge. dont use rosin though or you'll ruin the cymbals! oh ya, placing small hi hats/splashes on various drums for a DnB style effect.
better still, splash cymbals as hi hats!
ooh and try using a phaser going into a guitar amp with the front and rear of the speaker miked the get a wierd stereo effect. doesnt sound amazing, but its interesting.
one last thing, sand paper stapled on to two blocks of wood

[erosconpollo]

Kazoos. I keep a box full of cheap plastic ones, as they have a tendency to disappear.

[Ironklad Audio]

how about a good bong??

[Rautio]

Thunder drum with tons of effects can create some interesting stuff...

always have a slide on hand for some non-synthesized pad sounds

[Let it burn...]

a violin bow. Awesome on guitars with a bit of delay