Ever wonder where Pharrell and the Neptunes get those killer snares and face scowling kick drum sounds from?  If I told you using regular household products you can find at your local Home Depot would you believe me?  That’s right…The folks at UGHH.com recently went in on how to get “bling like the Neptunes sound.”

Deep trash cans for that kick, a sharp one for the snare and metal buckets for the percussive. It sounds simple but Pharrell and the gang are also able to program a kick and a snare for instance and add different bucket sounds onto what was programmed. Using this improvisational technique, N.E.R.D.’s producers pick up eight-bar loops from what Pharrell does using vocal mics on the buckets such as SonyC800G into the Avalon 737. Using different plug-ins and Pro Tools they will play the sample and the kick at the same time to demo it the way they want.

So if you ever remember rhyming over cafeteria table beats back in high school at lunch time then you weren’t too far from process the Netpunes still uses today.  All you needed was a mic, sampler and sequencer.  And who said sampling wasn’t original?