struktophon for drums

recording samples of a snare drum with plonk struktophon

Tools

  • snare drum
  • at least one contact microphone, e.g. PLONK® struktophon
  • clamp
  • (digital) audio recorder

Setup

After connecting the contact microphone to your audio recorder, place it on the snare drum such that its surface is flat to one of the two drumheads. Hold it down with the clamp.

Top view of snare with PLONK® struktophon and clamp. Top view of snare with PLONK® struktophon and clamp.

sampling

When you are happy with the setup, set gain and try out different beating techniques. You might already then start the recording; I especially find the first try-outs very interesting in their sounds.

Here’s a recording with this setup made with an RME UFX captured through Reaper.

Recording snare drum samples in reaper. Guess, which of the snippets you see is the sound you hear in the example... Recording snare drum samples in reaper. Guess, which of the snippets you see is the sound you hear in the example…

experiment

Be creative in your sampling process! Alongside hitting the snare in different ways, you might also want to experiment with arranging the contact microphone in different places on your drum. We clamped it e.g. between floor and snares (I know…). Holds tight and sounds interesting enough to sample!

PLONK® struktophon clamped between drum floor and snares. PLONK® struktophon clamped between drum floor and snares.

You might also want to try other parts of your drum set like e.g. a tom or a cymbal:

PLONK® struktophon attached to a cymbal. You might want to add some pressure to the sensor element: the more pressure you apply (within reason), the more direct will be the transmission of vibrations to the sensor. PLONK® struktophon attached to a cymbal. You might want to add some pressure to the sensor element: the more pressure you apply (within reason), the more direct will be the transmission of vibrations to the sensor.

Do you have other ideas and techniques you came up with, or simply want to share sounds you created with your setup? Feel free to contact us and we might include them into this page.