SOUND ON SOUND

[Stefan Silver]

The Weeknd - Starboy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na4j8AVgA

Sia - The Greatest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKSRyLdjsPA

Daft Punk - Get Lucky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

There is only a few things i could think of to get this sound.

Record my own claps, snaps whatever...not so easy to get that electronic sound.

Get some sample library...but i don't know any containing random sounds.

Could there be some effect plugin in use?

Maybe layer different samples and automate the volume?

The subtle randomness makes the songs feel more alive.

Any recommendations/techniques?

Im not sure anybody notice it besides me. :D

[siderealxxx]

Not quite sure what the question is but if you mean getting natural sounding finger clicks and hand claps the best and easiest way is to record them for real, even if its just 8-16 bars on loop. If you want them to sound electronic, just quantize them and possibly layer with a sample with a complimentary attack then compress etc as normal.

[BJG145]

Not quite sure what the question is but if you mean getting natural sounding finger clicks and hand claps the best and easiest way is to record them for real

...yeah, listening to the Daft Punk, they simply sounded real. Listening to the Sia track I couldn't hear much variation except an FX boost on the chorus. In general, the term "round robin" is often used with sample libraries to indicate variation. Googling "snaps and claps" turns up various cheap sample libraries; eg

http://www.audio-wiesel.com/snaps-and-claps/
http://99sounds.org/hands-make-sounds/
http://www.loopsdelacreme.com/clap-pack-deluxe-2/

[Stefan Silver]

Okay so there is no secret recipe to make cool claps and stuff :D

I guess recording my own would be the coolest way.

The Sia example was not that great, but i have heard more random claps in some other pop/radio songs.

Just wanted to know if there is some common recording/layering technique that the top producers use.

Round Robin was what i was thinking of but didn't know what it was called.
Its like virtual drums where you have different samples of the same sound.

Thank you!

[Dr. Duce]

Yeah I'd say record your own layers. Create these myself and they are far more authentic than samples. Alter your position from the mic as well as the dynamic of your claps or snaps when recording. You can then go in and ever so slightly adjust individual hit positions then do all of the processing as stated above. This will be completely unique in terms of sound and feel. Simply your own vibe.
8-)

[The Elf]

Try distortion and transient design to reduce the dynamics. Clear out the LF junk.

[qp]

I was thinking it's going to be something like eskmo - cloudlight kind of clap or atleast amon tobin, koan sound claps...

For this you can always run some sort of filter on low wet setting across your whole song with slow lfo, or do some random dynamic eq per hit, or automate compressor settings on clap layer so different hits would get compressed differently, or record a clap and then switch stereo on each hit so effects would be sound slightly different every other hit, or .... list goes on and on, depends what you want.

For these 3 songs I hardly hear anything more than adding one - two extra layers.

[Saxum esse et non provolvere]

May I just take this opportunity to express my continued pride in this forum, in that no-one has so far made any puerile, smutty comments about "How to get random clap". Wait .... Damn !

[One Horse Town]

May I just take this opportunity to express my continued pride in this forum, in that no-one has so far made any puerile, smutty comments about "How to get random clap". Wait .... Damn !

Indeed, but if affected I'm sure that there's a plugin for it. Happy Christmas everyone.