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Author Topic: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?  (Read 22022 times)

Kendrix

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I've been struggling to get very clean tamb. hits on a track Im working.

The main issue is the sloppy, residual jangling that persists after the main hit has passed.  

I know of no effective way to mechanically dampen all the jingles.  

Driving home last night "Legs" came on the radio and I noticed how incredibly clean the tamb hits are on that tune.  The decay of the tamb. is as crisp & clean as can be.  There is no residual jangling happening at all.

Terry, How'd ya accomplish this?  Did the player have some extraordinary technique? Did you resort to triming/edititing the audio? Samples?

Do other folks have a means of dealing with this?
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Ken Favata

ssltech

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2007, 12:43:27 PM »

About that time they discovered the drum machine.

Dassit.
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MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36

I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics..

rnicklaus

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2007, 12:55:12 PM »

If there is no cowbell, this is a non issue.
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R.N.

J.J. Blair

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2007, 12:59:12 PM »

You need a tambourine player named Wendel.
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They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

McAllister

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2007, 01:01:48 PM »

Weird, just as I started reading this thread, my iPod started playing A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You by The Monkees. Super, super tight tambourine playing there, too.

Sounds to me like a tambourine that has a head on it, and really thin chimes - not one of the weighty, plastic things. I could be very wrong, though.

M
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Taproot

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2007, 01:13:22 PM »

Kendrix wrote on Fri, 20 April 2007 10:25

I've been struggling to get very clean tamb. hits on a track Im working.

Driving home last night "Legs" came on the radio and I noticed how incredibly clean the tamb hits are on that tune.  The decay of the tamb. is as crisp & clean as can be.  There is no residual jangling happening at all.



Tambo, courtesy of Fairlight.
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Jeffrey Reed
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RSettee

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2007, 01:41:29 PM »

Terry will obviously have a great answer, but I know what you're talking about.....I usually set a noise gate's threshold very high, so that the errant jingles get cut out of the decay. It works great, because those errant post jingles get cut out almost, if not all the time. Same thing with a shaker...if I want to cut out the noises before the track, too, i'll set the noise gate threshold very high. You have to be careful with the threshold, because it could cut off the attack of the sound too...which, i've found, can also work great in specific cases, for a certain intentionally odd sound.
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tom eaton

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2007, 02:25:15 PM »

If you're going to PLAY a tambourine, rather than trigger one, there are lots of ways to get them to speak differently.  The angle of the jingles is the determining factor on decay time, the more vertical they are the longer they can run amuck, and the more horizontal the more "white noise"-ish the hits are.  A muted head, or no head, tambourine struck with a mallet can be a great single hit sound... many people instinctively bring the tamb towards the hitting hand in the process of hitting it causing a pre-jingle (I'm serious... just don't have good terminology)... so frequently it's good to concentrate on holding the thing dead still and hitting it with a soft mallet or the butt of your hand (almost like dusting off your hands).  I have 7 or 8 tambs here and they have all gotten used at one time or another.  The smallest little toy tamb can be just the thing, and sometimes a massive 10" with a head can be right for the vintage 16th vibe.  But the sound really is all about how you hold the thing in your hands, and your approach to striking it.  

My personal fave are the LP brass jingle sticks... so easy to control.  Least favorite are any of the various half-moon plastic things (I have a Rhythm Tech) with trashy jingles that sound like cans rolling down an alley.  I actually got to play a riq for the first time yesterday... that was cool too.

-tom

stevieeastend

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2007, 03:48:10 PM »

no offense to anyone but... it´s just a tambourine, right?

compasspnt

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2007, 03:55:11 PM »

Boy, some of you are so full of it, I wonder sometimes why I even bother.

Tom Eaton, however, has some sense.

There is no Fairlight on that recording, and no Wendel.

The tambourine is not done with any machine.

It just so happens that I can actually play the thing the way I want it to sound.

I played and sang every single thing on "Legs" except for Billy's lead guitar and lead vocal, and a triple of my two harmony tracks by Jimmy Jamison.

The tambourine, which I still have (and just looked at this moment), is one of my two blue plastic ones that I bought about that time ('82-83) from Robert Hall.  I can't tell the brand, because where the logo might be I have some tape, and I'm not taking it off!

The way i got the clean sound was indeed to angle the metal "jingles" so that they only rang as long as I wanted them to.  In this case, that would have been almost perfectly vertical.  The tamb was held and "swung" with the right hand, and hit upon the heel of my left palm.

Reverb was added, in this particular case an AMS RMX with both plate and whatever program 8 was.

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compasspnt

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2007, 03:56:46 PM »

Oh yeah...

No Cowbell...
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J.J. Blair

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2007, 04:01:34 PM »

Quote:

no offense to anyone but... it´s just a tambourine, right?


Well, that's no ordinary Tambourine! That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered tambourine you ever set eyes on.  Death awaits you all with big, nasty, pointy teeth!
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studio info

They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

J.J. Blair

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2007, 04:05:13 PM »

I think somebody needs to do a mash up of "Legs" and the Miami Vice theme.  

Terry, you programmed the drum machine and the bass on that one?
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studio info

They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

compasspnt

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2007, 04:11:51 PM »

J.J. Blair wrote on Fri, 20 April 2007 16:01

Well, that's no ordinary Tambourine! That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered tambourine you ever set eyes on.  Death awaits you all with big, nasty, pointy teeth!


Right on, brother!  Big, mighty teeth!

And Blue!


J.J. Blair wrote on Fri, 20 April 2007 16:05

I think somebody needs to do a mash up of "Legs" and the Miami Vice theme.  

Terry, you programmed the drum machine and the bass on that one?



If you mean "Miami Vice," unfortunately I did not.  But what a thing that would have been on the ole curriculum vitae!

If you mean "Legs," well then, whatever might have been programmed, was me.

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rollmottle

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Re: ZZ Tops "Legs"- The cleanest tambourine hits in the universe?
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2007, 04:17:37 PM »

compasspnt wrote on Fri, 20 April 2007 13:11



J.J. Blair wrote on Fri, 20 April 2007 16:05

I think somebody needs to do a mash up of "Legs" and the Miami Vice theme.  

Terry, you programmed the drum machine and the bass on that one?



If you mean "Miami Vice," unfortunately I did not.  But what a thing that would have been on the ole curriculum vitae!




that would be our good friend Jan Hammer on the Miami Vice theme...

http://image.listen.com/img/356x237/8/1/6/1/651618_356x237.jpg
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