So, couple of weeks ago I was hanging out at my local music store and instead of wasting time in the synth section, I walked into the drums departement. Before I knew it, I was jamming for like half an hour on handpans and tongue drums. First time ever, but really enjoyed it. Now considering my first tongue drum.
This one is multi-scale and has a pickup mic, so I can easily get the sounds into my modular or Ableton.
Any other Nauts on the handpan or tongue drum? (Or maybe even better things I am not familiar with yet?)
I bought my wife one of those Beat Root ones, it was pretty good for the price although she ended up selling it, not for any reason other than she lost interest in playing after a short while.
RAV Vast is the best tongue drum being that it has something like 5+ harmonics per note. Had one, loved it.
I apprenticed under a handpan tuner, and have been working on my own pans for a while, still learning how to get tuning dialed in, though Iāve shaped many. But if I were to go out and buy a pan today, I would likely get one from Harperās Handpans. These are stainless steel and Jeremy is a great tuner, which shows in his pans. If I had the dough, I would get a Yishama, which is probably the best pan you can get in the game right now ($5k+).
Thereās a lot of stuff out there and I could point out a whole bunch of things to watch out for based on how they are made, but I would definitely avoid any pans from corporate companies. Should you want to further discuss handpan stuff hit me up and can elaborate on it more.
But I would definitely get a RAV cause it will also improve your touch once you move to pans. You could make your own āhankā fairly easily, which is another reason I value RAV more is cause itās something I probably couldnāt make. Thereās a whole interior frame structure thatās welded to separate the notes to prevent crosstalk. Itās really nice.
Yeara ago i wanted a Panart Hang but it was quitte a hassle to obtain one in Swiss (and the price was a little above my budget then too). I ended up DIY ing a Tongue drumā:joy: . Still should have this thing laying around here somewhere:
Have a Rav Vast Drum here in G Pygmy. Wonderful instrument, super resonant yet forgiving. I pair it with a Sansula at times, both run through delay and reverb when I want to float with it. Highly recommended instruments. I bought mine used for an unbeatable price. These instruments are so solid, buying used can be done pretty confidently.
Cheers, solid advise (I am not planning to spend thousands, so I am leaning to a tongue drum to start out with). Whats āhankā? (EDIT: oh I see, another word for a tongue drum)
Haha, wow! What made you give up or are you still playing?
One of the hardest things is wrapping my head around what kind of scale to pick. Thatās why I was looking at the Beat Root, because it is a bit more versatile with 6 scales. So you can vary a bit more in tone and vibe (upbeat, melancholic, darker etc). Putting it through an fx chain is one thing I am really looking forward to!
As for most thing you learn from your mistakes. The drum was ok after the build but i messed up with fine tuning by not checking my tuners reference frequency. My initial tuning was 440 hz. Because i had some issues getting a proper readout on my tuner (due to overtones and resonating tongues) a grabbed a ipad app tuner somewhere along the road. Unfortunately that one was set on a 432 hz reference so i messed up.
I also came to the conclusion tongue drums donāt share the same mojo as hang drums do for me. More xylofoon/steel drum like sound. Iām more into the tibitanian singing bowl qualityās of good handpans. At least thatās my best way to describe the difference with words.Thereās still some desire to aquire a real handpan though. These instruments (especially when played right in front of you) resonate a lot with me. Recordings donāt do them justice. Fortunately there is a lot of supply on the market after Panart quit their productions. Suggestions for good alternatives are more then welcome. Eventually i wanāt to buy one just to get it of the bucketlist.
been meaning to buy one of these handpans for forever. or even the little wooden tongue drum boxes with tiny mallets. i am/was a drummer before i got into synths and production, so it would feel really nice to actually be able to smack out some complex organic rhythms without sequencing or tapping into an elektron seq sometimes (although i love that too)
nord drum 3p needs to be reimaged as a handpan. i guess the roland hand drum pad thing is like that
My new handpan. Its totally handsunk, hand hammered and out of 1.25mm stainless steel. Which is very tough work to do. Most these days made on pre formed shells.
itās a standalone instrument ā just electronic, not acoustic.
what i love about it most is that iām not restricted either with a single timbre or with a single scale.
. Still should have this thing laying around here somewhere:
