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What real instruments do you have lying around that you use a lot in your productions?

ThomasNL

Thomas van der Burg
I've got a giftcard to spend on some instruments and was wondering what you guys recommend. I want some fun stuff but don't want it to just collect dust, so actually usable in productions.

Things like, percussion (pitched, unpitched), flutes, string instruments, weird unique stuff. Got about a €100 to spend.

Curious about your suggestions!
 
it depends a lot on what are you able to play!
are you confortable with guitar, flutes, reeds, bowed instruments?

i
 
in that case i'd suggest some percussion (tuned? i enjoyed a toy-marimba in the past).
also a little toy piano could give some fast satisfaction.
an ukulele could be easy to learn even if you don't play guitar

i'd avoid flutes, reeds and bowed instruments: they could require too much effort to be learnt

but it all depends if you want to learn how to play something new. it could give a lot of joy!

e.g.:
 
My at-the-time girlfriend bought a kalimba for me at the annual Medieval Fair, and I still have it (thirty-odd years later). It is easy to keep in tune, and it sounds very woody and resonant, with nice sustain.
That might be something that would be easy to work into your productions--and even a good one would cost less than €100 (I guess those made from crazy-exotic woods could get pretty pricey, though)
 
Piano, keyboards, and synths are my main instruments but I also play all kinds of guitars and I often use them in my music. Also, I do have a number of "curiosities", such as mandolin, small wind instruments (tin whistle, recorder, ocarina), and hand percussion (djembe, darbuka, frame drum, tambourine, shakers). But to be honest, most often I tend to work with DI and VI sources for the sake of convenience.
 
I have guitars and a bass guitar, but I want a tagelharpa (and someday an upright bass). I also have a frog guiro, which is fun and I'll use any objects from around the house for percussion samples.

There are lots of good suggestions here. There's lots of percussion instruments that don't sound so good as sample libraries, so for percussion I'd be thinking of maracas, tambourine, guiro or shakers for that budget. Sampled drums sound okay typically, but a small hand drum would give you quite a bit of flexibility that your samples might not have.

If you have a string instrument but you don't have a bow, I think you might consider buying a bow or an ebow. That's also something on my wish list.

If you don't have a string instrument and you find one that you can afford, that would be a good choice. It will give you a range of sound types that you can sample and do other things with, even if the instrument itself is not great. You don't need to be able to play it particularly for that purpose, just get some interesting and/or musical sounds out of it.

In the same way, a cheap fife, whistle or recorder could be used. A swanee whistle could provide a good basis for some interesting note bending sounds and doesn't require learning any fingering positions.
 
in that case i'd suggest some percussion (tuned? i enjoyed a toy-marimba in the past).
also a little toy piano could give some fast satisfaction.
an ukulele could be easy to learn even if you don't play guitar

i'd avoid flutes, reeds and bowed instruments: they could require too much effort to be learnt

but it all depends if you want to learn how to play something new. it could give a lot of joy!

e.g.:

Wow that is awesome, all the instruments you have! Thanks for the tips.
 
Second the Kalimba suggestion. Also consider adding more money and try a handpan drum. The below one has given me nice samples and its good for meditation. Sine waves maaaaaaan.

https://www.thomann.de/se/asian_sound_hapi_drum_mini_d_akebono.htm

Other than that, maybe try a set of singing bowls. Or a really nice crystal one. You can get some interesting samples by adding small pearls or the like in the bowl and pitch down the recordings.


 
After going through this thread, I'm now seriously thinking of adding (real) kalimba to my toolkit although there are plenty of fine VI replicas of the instrument out there.

Also, affordable glockenspiel (not the toy one) might be an interesting option as well.
 
I'm a trumpeter by "trade" and thus had a variety of brass instruments at my disposal one time or another:

Various trumpets in Bb
Cornet in Bb and Eb
Flügelhorn in Bb
Alto trombone in Bb
French horn in F
Tuba in Bb (4 valves)

All of them were being played, usually recorded but none by myself. The recordings did end up on various media (albums, video etc. mostly classical/jazz). I actually only once used a recording of myself. I had a theater readily available for a few years (lived there, long story) and it had alright acoustics, so I dabbled with recording my own playing, but never liked the end results (self critic much?).

I still have a trumpet and the flügelhorn available. My wife played concert flute, so I have a concert flute in C available, but I cannot play it myself without blacking out... My wife can obviously. Would like a piano in the future, but haven't got the room or money at the moment..

My ex-wife plays alto and tenor saxophone, so had that for a while. I was rubbish at those too.

None of this will help OP probably, because I'd never recommend buying a brass or woodwind instrument for $/€/£100. Perhaps only as a decorative piece on the mantel.
 
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