Generate a Perfect Clap

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 types of clap sounds are still widely used today. However, as time passed and hardware and software samplers progressed, various gadgets for controlling and manipulating clap sounds became available. In this tutorial, I will present you with a piece of software that's made specifically for generating incredible sounding clap sounds. It is user-friendly and comes with many options for creating claps that will fit perfectly in your mix. Without further ado, let's check out Hand Clapper by AudioThing.  

Create Your Clap

For this purpose, I created a short loop within the SoundBridge: DAW, which contains some rhythm, a 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 mentioned above, the Hand Clapper is a drum synthesizer dedicated solely to clap 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 the 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 often 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 instrument's volume. 
• Source: Select 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 repetition 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 this clap sequence sounds with the whole mix.  

~Full combination with Hand Clapper sequence