Alright, so this is probably not the best tip ever but for some folks (like me when I tried this years ago) it will be superdandy-fancy pants.

Okay, I eat a lot of Pringles. That's how I keep the body of an 11 year old. So you can imagine, I have a few extra Pringle's cans lying around. Now, we all know there are plenty of uses for these exquisite tubes of crispy bliss, the premier of which being that ONE explosive chipcannon you can make by putting the lid on, putting the can on the floor, and jumping up into the air, coming down with full shock-and-awe force on the middle of the can. This produces the ONE really good boompoof (maybe that's where the term bombproof really comes from?hmm) that is never really as good the subsequent times.

Well...I use them all the time in the studio as different types of shakers. The beauty of this is that they're really easy to make, you can fill them with anything "shakeable", and they sound great recorded. For lighter, smoother tones I use some flour or fine sugar. You can get a bit more prominent sound using rice and a more aggressive one with beans (dried, not pork n' beans so put 'em down already). I have about five different ones in my percussion cabinet and also use used coffee cans as well as off the shelf altoids (unopened). The altoids get smoother and smoother over time because the mints eventually turn to powder from all that quakin'.
If you haven't tried this yet, check it out and your tracks'll be bakin'!

I have a prescription and it's LESS cowbell, more Pringles!

mckay
bounce inventive audio