Ok, I need some creative sound advice, and what better place than the tapspace community!?

I've got a show I'm going to be writing for coming up and I need to find a way to generate (using some sort of percussion like object) a resonant recreation of a baseball home-run bat crack.

The idea of a slapstick was dismissed due to it's shortish/shallow crack and too high of a pitch...

Any and all ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hopefully your username isn't a true indication of your tendencies towards people's heads :)

Anyhow, you could try making a whip crack type of instrument made out of 2x4s instead of thinner wood. Just experiment with various lengths/thicknesses and I'm sure you'll come up with something that sounds close to what you're aiming for.

We did a baseball show a few years ago and the solution we found was two Louisville Sluggers struck together and amplified. A few other students had temple blocks or woodblocks, and they all struck at the same time. Somewhere in the culmination, it was a pretty convincing sound and volume.

When I was working on the arrangements and wanted to include that sound in the mp3's, I found that particular sound effect and just put it in in the final Garage Band mix.

Hope that helps.

This probably isn't a very original idea, but smacking the heck out of a high jam block may get the point across. It wouldn't necessarily be literal, but might get the right effect.

Let us know what ends up working. I love stuff like that.

[quote author=Bryan Harmsen link=topic=3992.msg21004#msg21004 date=1303591707]
Hopefully your username isn't a true indication of your tendencies towards people's heads :)

Anyhow, you could try making a whip crack type of instrument made out of 2x4s instead of thinner wood. Just experiment with various lengths/thicknesses and I'm sure you'll come up with something that sounds close to what you're aiming for.
[/quote]

Thanks! We tried a few permutations of this and just kept getting a 'hollow' type sound. But that may be because everything tried was your standard yellow pine.

And, no. Not that it doesn't appeal to me for certain people from time to time.  My nick is (originally just my gamer nick) a play on being a drum-set player who tends towards material like 'Pantera'.

[quote author=erath link=topic=3992.msg21007#msg21007 date=1303613577]
We did a baseball show a few years ago and the solution we found was two Louisville Sluggers struck together and amplified. A few other students had temple blocks or woodblocks, and they all struck at the same time. Somewhere in the culmination, it was a pretty convincing sound and volume.

When I was working on the arrangements and wanted to include that sound in the mp3's, I found that particular sound effect and just put it in in the final Garage Band mix.

Hope that helps.
[/quote]

WOW, someone else who's done a baseball show!? I'm amazed.  I ran out to a ";Play-It-Again"; store and bought all their wooden bats hoping to get the right combination.  How did you go about amplifying it?  We're also considering mounting one bat to be struck the other.  Did you try this?

Thanks!

Everyone, thanks for your creative ideas! Even though I've been away from the forum, we've been trying your ideas out and hope to find a great solution!  If we do come up with something unique, I'll be sure to post the details and maybe a picture here.

Thanks again!!

As far as amplifying something like the crack of baseball bat, I would try a boundary mic placed on a hard table, and swing the bat into [whatever] over the table. A healthy does of reverb on that mic would probably add to the perceived effect.

[quote author=Headkicker link=topic=3992.msg21568#msg21568 date=1315494905]

WOW, someone else who's done a baseball show!? I'm amazed. How did you go about amplifying it?  We're also considering mounting one bat to be struck the other.  Did you try this?

Thanks!
[/quote]

Sorry, to be responding to this so late... In case it still matters, we just used a Shure SM57 and had a kid whack them together. It was decidedly unscientific.

This was the first show that I wrote for Winds. I'd written for percussion for a while, then decided to give this a crack (Pun intended. You're welcome.) Anyhow, it opened up doors for me to do more wind arranging. Long story short, this show is near to my heart.

You can check it out here: http://www.ericrathmusic.com/Site/Baseball_Show.html

Good luck!

Btw - what exactly did the Cavaliers use to make that sound?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramd/33360515/