I had a hard time deciding between GQ and CS for this question; CS won since music is involved.
How are cricket noises made in musical pieces? I’m not asking about a real cricket sound captured and played back. That’s too easy and too obvious when that is done.
There are songs where there is a cricket effect that is too musical and regular to be the real thing. Mark Knopfler’s Coyote is one example, where 2 separate cricket tracks provide the rhythmic tempo of the piece. So, Doper musicians, any ideas how they were made?
Do you mean like the squeaky noise that comes in a little ways into this song (mp3 sample on that page)? It’s pretty common in Brazilian music, but I have no idea what it is. I seem to recall Paul Simon using it in “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” as well.
And if that’s not the instrument you mean, does anyone happen to know what it is anyway?
That one I do recognise. It’s called a cuica. The picture in the Wiki article doesn’t look much like the one’s I’ve seen, but the article explains the concept. I’ve also heard them called “African talking drums” but according to Wikipedia, that’s something else entirely.
And they are lots of fun to play, almost as much fun as a slit drum.
I listened to the samples of this song on Amazon and realised that my first answer isn’t right (although the “cricket” I’ve heard in real life sounds a lot more wooden and less metallic than the sound sample on LP’s page.)
I think you could get that sound with the right size guiro (like GorillaMan said) or you could get it with one of these or one of these. Or maybe something else completely. I even thought at first you could get that sound with one of these but that would be REALLY hard to keep as tight as the sound in the song. (Although if you sampled it, then looped…hmmm maybe?)