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Castanet recommendations


fret_man

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I recently got a few Spanish instrumentals rejected by a music supervisor for a variety of reasons, one of which was unrealistic sounding castanets. This can either be due to bad sounds or bad playing, or both.  I studied up on how to play castanets here (all 3 parts plus "how to choose") so, assuming I did that correctly, I'd like to solve the "unrealistic sounds" part of it. I used the castanets in IK Miroslav Philharmonik 2, since I thought they sounded better than those available in SampleTank 4. Those are all I currently have.

Rightly or wrongly, I kind of view that collection of sounds as "better than nothing". Do any of you have recommendations for castanets that may sound more "professional" and "realistic"? Thank you!

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12 hours ago, Promidi said:

Do you have IK Multimedia's Orchestral Percussion - which has a specific “Orchestral Castanets”

Yes, I do. I believe that's the one I used. I mistakenly thought it was part of Miroslav. I used the one that has the "menu" to choose ~12 different sounds (some of which I can't hear any difference but OK).

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Of course, it may not be the samples that are the problem. It could be that you choose inappropriate moments for the castanets, or that your rhythms are wrong, or that there is too much or too little reverb. Or even that no human could achieve what you are making the castanets do. 😀

Post a bit of the music here and maybe someone who knows about castanets could give you there opinion. Not me, I know nothing.

 

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23 hours ago, Nigel Mackay said:

Post a bit of the music here and maybe someone who knows about castanets could give you there opinion. Not me, I know nothing.

Good idea! Attached is a short clip where the castanets enter. They don't change very much from this for the rest of the song. The low clicker is on each down beat while the high clicker plays all the other notes. From my research, this is how they're supposed to be played. Granted, there isn't much difference between Hi and Low clickers in IK's samples, but I hear many real ones like that as well. But I'm curious if the failure is my playing or the samples.

FYI, the strumming guitar and main guitar lead are Ample Sound's AGL (nylon string) while the higher harmony is Ample Sound's Ethnic Uke.

Clip with Castanets.mp3

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Could it be the castanet hits are too even in volume and a bit too precisely on the grid? Maybe the runs could have slightly more dynamics in them as well, the accents a bit more prominent. The castanet sound could also maybe have a bit more body, it's quite thin-ish as it is, comparing to castanet video clips in YT.

I'm a Finn, btw, just to put my suggestions into perspective. Not too much spanish blood in me, so what do I know. 😂

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