Re: Acoustic/Koto with Paper Clips and other tips for PREPARING LOOPABLE INSTRUMENTS

["Jon Wagner" <jondrums@hotmail.com>]

Rick and others-
  I've tried a few things with my acoustic setup that you might like to 
try: 
  A really neat effect I first heard out of Stanton Moore (drummer for 
galactic, and solo artist (who uses a boomerang live by the way))  who got 
it from someone who I can't remember.  Get a piece of plastic flexible 
tubing and fit it airtight into a drum.  Then play the drum while 
blowing/sucking into the tube.  You can get a really cool realtime pitch 
shift by altering the pressure in the drum.  This seems to work best on my 
floor tom.  One of these days I'm going to try rigging up a 
footpedal/piston 
arrangement to control the pressure in the drum.  I have also heard 
Stanton 
playing with toilet brushes, which is a really cool effect that I haven't 
tried yet.
  Also I was experimenting with placing splash cymbals on my drums and 
playing them.  If the drum is tuned just right for the cymbal, you can get 
some really cool sympathetic vibrations with incredible sustain.  I've had 
the best luck putting the cymbal upside down and holding the center of it 
on 
the drum with one hand.  Of course by pushing it down harder, you can 
change 
the pitch of the drum to match the cymbal.  Play either the drum or the 
cymbal.
  Try a cross-stick rimshot on your floor tom.  Now move the stick closer 
or 
futher from the rim to change the pitch of the rimshot.  This is a neat 
one! 
  I've also had luck doing this on some of my snares.
  If you tighten the heck out of the snares you can get a cool effect by 
engaging the snare lever just as you hit the drum.  Kind of a pitch bend 
at 
the end of the hit as the snares engage the bottom head and bring its 
pitch 
up.
  You can get a buzzing sound out of your drum by loosely dangling one 
stick 
perpendicular to the head right in the center of the drum. then hit the 
drum.  This one takes some practice...
  Also try rubber bouncy balls scraped on the heads of your drums.  I once 
saw Tuttie Heath play with mallets with bouncy balls on the ends and he 
did 
this really cool scraping/bouncing sound on the toms which had a very 
wierd 
effect.  I've never been able to replicate his sounds, but I've come up 
with 
some good ones.
  I'd love to hear about other effects from other people!
bye-
Jon



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