What's the bell/ride sound in What Time Is Love (Live at Trancentral)?

Trying to rebuild WTIL and I'm stuck on one percussion sound — a short metallic "ping" that runs through the middle section, roughly every other beat.

02:50~ at 1. What time is love (LT) in The White Room album

I ran a spectrum analysis on it (averaged over 70 hits, taking the difference between each hit and the moment just before, to subtract the rest of the mix). What came out:

  • Strongest partial around 1775 Hz, with others at ~924, 2476, 3035 and 3633 Hz

  • The ratios between them are non-integer (1.19, 1.87, 1.92) — inharmonic, not a tuned oscillator pair

  • Only ~12% of the energy sits in those partials; the rest is broadband

  • Decays about 10 dB in 34 ms, 20 dB in ~160 ms

That rules out an 808 cowbell (which is two tuned squares around 540/800 Hz). It reads like a real cymbal bell to me, but I can't tell whether it's a sampled ride bell, something off the 909, or a sample from another record.

The album credits list 808s and 909s programmed by Major Malfunktion, plus an Akai S900, so a sampled one-shot seems plausible. Does anyone know what was actually used, or recognise the sound from somewhere?

Posted Aug 29, 2026, 3:10 AM UTC

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