Dubstepforum.com

Maaaan I love homemade shakers. My top recent discovery is lots of plectrums in a glasses case -> sounds wicked
Don't be afraid to pitch them about as well! Really low shakers can sound proper (dare I say it) emotional

Yeah homemade shakers are the shiz, i made one with a box of tic-tacs, i think i used them in a tune in my sig


But if you're doing it within DAW usually turning off the grid and placing them by hand is a good way of getting a human feel and a bit of swing, same goes for percussion in general

My home made shaker is a plastic bottle full of rice . I also got a real metal tube shaker for about 5 quid. Recording your own is definitely the way forward.

alphacat wrote:You can make shakers from shit in your kitchen.

In fact, you can use existing stuff there as shakers... box of oatmeal, jar of spices, cup with some seeds or pasta, etc.

And you'd be surprised at how good certain combinations sound...

my fav shakers are when i rustled around the silverware in my drawer

I have had amazing results recording my own shakers with something as simple as a SM57 mic. I've collected all sorts of little percussion instruments and it's fun to record them.

I have shakers all the way from some Meinl ones that I picked up in Amsterdam



to some African ones that I picked up at a drum festival.



I even have these bean pods that I picked from a plant in Mexico that sound great! They look exactly like these:

Making and recording shakers is fun and sounds good... Sometimes sounds so good you've got to step up all of your synthesized sounds!

using several different samples can sound good. Also, sometimes if my shakers aren't sounding spot on it's because they're too loud - that can really change my perception of them because at a lower volume they dominate less and instead contribute to the overall groove.

ha i've used those same bean-pod shakers on tons of stuff. they record like a dream.

don't forget to hipass...

Find a really good sample first. this is key unless your recording it yourself.
a little reverb and a simple delay can really add space to make them sound more authentic. Ping pong effects as well
Run a Spectrum anal on your shakers and boost the EQ that is needed.

DiRTyHAiRy wrote: Run a Spectrum anal on your shakers and boost the EQ that is needed.

Spectrum Anal VST?

Sorry I couldn't resist... that's one of those words you usually don't want to abbreviate.

i trick i used in my most recent tune is to lay out your shaker rhythym be it 1/8 or 1/16's across the bar, and sidechain compress the shaker to the rest of your drum kit. from there you can play with compression AMT, attack and release for some awesome results. i picked up this trick from the kryptic minds masterclass.

Ableton's Built-In shakers.

Compression, proper EQing, I like to side chain my shakers to my kicks. ;P