Why does every indie demo have that same shaker sound?

I've been listening to demos from local bands, and they all seem to use a similar shaker in the background. It's starting to bug me because it feels unoriginal. Is there a reason for this, or am I just overthinking it?

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3 Comments

ben_nguyen337mo ago

Have you considered it might just be the easiest tool for the job? In my experience, when you're recording at home on a tight budget, a shaker is cheap, hard to mess up, and fills space in a mix without getting in the way. A lot of us use the same free sample packs or basic percussion kits, so that sound just pops up everywhere. It's less about being unoriginal and more about working with what you've got.

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patricia_harris697mo ago

Read a whole thing about this in a music production subreddit last week. Ben_nguyen33 is totally right about the budget thing. People were saying everyone grabs the same few free Kontakt libraries too. Ends up creating this weird shared sound across a bunch of different tracks. Not laziness, just practicality.

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patricia_harris696mo ago

Oh exactly! It's like what @ben_nguyen33 said, you just hit on the real point. When you're starting out, you grab the free stuff that works, and suddenly that shaker or drum kit is on a hundred tracks. It's not a copycat thing, it's more like everyone built their table from the same cheap, reliable Ikea parts. The sound gets common because the toolbox is common, you know?

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