Cowbell - how to make my own or tune sampled one?

[Bartone]

I have been watching some tutorials how to make cowbell with Serum, but I can't get anything that's really cowbell (I don't have Serum, only Vital but they should be very similar). They always end up sounding too much like trance plucks, nothing to do with cowbell

I have been also trying to tune cowbell samples that I have with FL Studio's factory sample library.
But they always sound somehow off-key when I play them together with pianos (FL Keys) (there must be something wrong what I am doing with the cowbell samples).

Example: I play the 808 Cowbell from FL Studio in C note (Packs -> Drums -> Percussion).
FL Studio's tuner says it is G#, and FL Studio's pitch detector say it is C#. If I tune it to C#, it is still a little bit off-key when played with other iFL Keys. If I tune it to G# it is also off.

Edit: I want to use cowbell as instrument, not just percussion.

[Etienne1973]

Have you tried doing it with FM synthesis? I like the FM synthesized DX7 Cowbell.

If you are interested then here's a DX7 patch ...

COWBELL .syx.zip

Do you have the free DEXED DX7 emu? If no, then here's the link:
https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/

[cytospur]

Two pulse wave oscillators, one at ~850 Hz, the other anywhere between 500-1000Hz (to taste). A lowpass filter with resonance around 1.5-3 kHz should help as well. Maybe add in a bandpass filter if you can. Sharp attack and decay with a fair bit of release.

[BertKoor]

Tune by ear I'd say. Pitch of percussion is supposed to be "off" anyway.

[imrae]

Metal bells tend to have a lot of non-harmonic content so even if the fundamental frequency is "in tune" other components of the sound won't be.

In other words, cowbells are already out-of-tune with themselves.

[DMG68]

One doesn’t tune cowbell, one simply adds more cowbell…
I wouldn’t stress about tuning cowbells or other percussion, unless you’re changing pitch to your taste, but not to tune to the key of the song.

[Bartone]

Sorry I was not clear: I want to use cowbell as a lead pluck instrument, not just only percussion sound.

[osiris]

[ROTMetro]

Phonk cowbells are originally from an 808. Is that the sound you are going for? You might look for phonk tutorials on Youtube as they are playing around with cowbell sounds a lot now.

[jamcat]

So something like this?

[mjolnir]

My crazy mom used to have a collection of old cowbells... REAL cowbells. You could probably find some for sale on Ebay or similar. They are rectangular in shape and sometimes come in chains ...to be worn like a necklace on REAL COWS. No joke. Just be sure to wash them off really well if you buy some so you don't get manure or hay or whatever on your DAW. I ain't even joking. But you could probably get totally authentic cowbells that way for real. And sell the extras off to your buddies LOL after you cut them off the chain (the cowbells, not your friends).

A quick image search scared up this as the first link:
https://www.bell-outlet.com/Cowbells.htm

OOOPS, sorry, that link shows brand new, non-rusty cowbells for sale. No need to worry about manure on those.

[Bartone]

Phonk cowbells are originally from an 808. Is that the sound you are going for? You might look for phonk tutorials on Youtube as they are playing around with cowbell sounds a lot now.

Yeas, similar to phonk style cowbell melody (but not phonk genre what I make).
I have been watching many phonk tutorials, but haven't really had luck on how to make my own cowbell with VST (like Vital). They always end up sounding too synth like.

[Bartone]

So something like this?

Yes, something like that way.
Using cowbell like a instrument playing a melody, not just percussion.

[Bartone]

Have you tried doing it with FM synthesis? I like the FM synthesized DX7 Cowbell.

If you are interested then here's a DX7 patch ...


COWBELL .syx.zip


Do you have the free DEXED DX7 emu? If no, then here's the link:
https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/

I don't have Dexed DX7, maybe I need to get it if nothing else for the cowbell

[mjolnir]

If you download the AV LINUX avldrums (drumkits), you can extract the *.SF2 (soundfonts). I'm pretty sure there's a cowbell in there on one key, but I forget which one. It's just a quick mono recording, but it is from acoustic drums. I just heard it a few days ago before I deleted them.

https://www.bandshed.net/avldrumkits/