The Clap is undoubtedly one of the essential rhythmic elements in modern music. It all started with Roland’s TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, which introduced sampled clap sounds that consequently marked an era in contemporary dance music. These type of clap sounds are still widely used today. However, as time passed and hardware and software samplers progressed, various gadgets for controlling and manipulation of the clap sound became available. In this tutorial, I will present you with a piece of software that’s made specifically for generating awesome sounding clap sounds. It is user-friendly and comes with a lot of options for creating claps that will fit perfectly in your mix. Without further due, let’s check out Hand Clapper by AudioThing.
Create your clap
For this purpose, I already created a short loop within the SoundBridge: DAW, which contains some rhythm, bassline, and a synth sequence. Let’s hear how it sounds.
~Full mix without Hand Clapper
Secondly, I’ll create a new MIDI channel and place a new instance of Hand Clapper on it. At the same time, I can start explaining its primary functions.
Enhance the rhythm with Hand Clapper
As I mentioned above, Hand Clapper is a drum synthesizer dedicated solely to claps sounds. Furthermore, a famous Japanese percussion synthesizer from the ’80 inspired its internal design. Three internal noise sources recreate the classic sound of vintage analog drum machines (such as 808, 909, HC2, and more). While there is plenty to choose from onboard sounds menu, you can also load any sample you want.
Let’s go through the Hand Clapper’s controls:
– Frequency: Controls frequency of the filter.
– Gain: Controls the peak filter volume.
– Amount: Controls how many times the Source will be triggered to generate initial repetitions.
– Rate: Controls the delay between each initial repetition.
– Decay: Controls the Decay time.
– Randomness: Controls the number of random changes applied to the filters and the volume.
– Reverb: Controls the amount of the Plate Reverb wet signal Gain Control the volume of the instrument.
– Source: Selects between the internal sound sources (808, 909, HC2) or an external WAV file.
For this example, I’ve chosen a standard 808 clap sound. Moreover, I will tune it and then make a sequence from it in SoundBridge DAW’s MIDI editor. So now, let’s hear it in action.
~Hand Clapper sequence 1
A touch of automation
To stir things up, I will automate the frequency and repetitions rate parameters. Let’s consequently hear how my clap sequence sounds with a touch of automation.
~Hand Clapper sequence with automation
Finally, let’s hear how now this clap sequence sounds with the full mix.
~Full mix with Hand Clapper sequence
Download the project here.
