RHYTHM TECH RTT2B HALF MOON NICKEL TAMBOURINE

[Deleted]

One thing that I find very difficult to do is get a decently realistic tambourine sound on recordings. I have a few samples that are OK but just to get into a groove and add accents and shakes that sound right is very frustrating.

So why not just buy one and do it myself? Because I don't know what I'm doing. To my mind a tambourine is something from the music cupboard in primary school, not something that can cost £400+. How wrong I was! After a lot of research about the sound that my head was looking for I settled for double rows of nickel  jingles on a crescent shaped rim. Sample sounds of the Rhythm Tech RTT2B sounded great on the Footes website. The comparison with brass jingles showed a much brighter, cutting sound that I felt would fit best into most of the music that I want to make. 

I looked at a few with heads as well but it seemed tricky to NOT hear that drum head if you didn't want to. The full round headless ones seemed a little tricky to manipulate too and the handles on many cheaper models didn't look at all ergonomically comfortable

Hope this purchase works out to be a good choice. I plan to buy a few more percussion things soon: egg shakers and possibly clave sticks. Not just going Old Skool, I'm going Primary Skool! 

[JAC]

Wow, £400 for a tambourine!

How much does a good cow bell cost?!?!

[Deleted]

Depends if the cow gave it up without a fight JAC. To be fair those expensive ones were hand built from godknowswhat and stretched with velum or something. Fine for an orchestra percussionist - we all know how massively well paid they are - but to be honest I didn't even like the sound of them for my purposes. The players used them more like drums and got tremendous effects out of them. Quite eye opening.

I've just finished recording with mine and OH MY GOD! How did I live without this thing for so long? From now on there's going to be tambourines all over EVERYTHING!

Once I'd figured out how to control the beginning and end of the playing it was so easy and great fun to do. What a relief to wipe the sampled tambourine loop and actually play one instead.

Up until now I've always loved to listen to a latest mix on headphones and smacked away on my thighs or air drummed along to it. Now I just need to put a tambourine in my hands and I'm off.

No wonder Mick Jagger can't help himself and even Liam Gallagher can't pretend to be detached and unimpressed!

[Deleted]

I ended up being a bit too enthusiastic and bruised my hand rather badly.



Now wonder Ray Cooper plays like this; probably trying to find a bit of body without bruises on.

[Deleted]

Well after using it on that Pot 'o' Gold song and trying to learn a few other techniques with this tambourine I've decided I'm not convinced by its shape. It does sound good but the shape is unhelpful. I now tend to hold it by one end of the crescent shape.

In my reading about the design of these tambourines there was a great deal of emphasis put on how it is easier to play. I disagree with this. By putting your hand right in the middle of the tambourine the centre of gravity is changed and it is harder work to swing. The tambourine is not using its own weight to swing and so it is harder to maintain a rhythm with it without more muscle control. I bought a really cheap toy one of the same diameter to compare and although it sounded much worse it was much easier to play rhythmically and using polyrhythms. I can't recommend a crescent/half-moon tambourine really. I'll probably flip this one and buy a similar quality one with a full round shape.

[Deleted]

My new Meinl round tambourine just showed up after being out of stock since April. I was right, it IS a lot easier to play as the full circle creates a great counterweight. It also sounds BIGGER and busier so may be too much in some places. I suppose it is also less precise and harder to stop!

It feels great and the jingles have a fuller, bell-like, less 'chink-chink' sound than the Rhythm Tech one. I also noticed something I've not heard about before: where holding your hand sits and how cupped or open it is alters the sound too. In fact it is possible to sort of 'tune' the thing, or certainly attenuate or increase the treble element by moving where you hold it, and by cupping and opening my holding hand it was possible to almost 'phase' the thing.

I can see BOTH of these tambourines being very useful for their own idiosyncrasies.