Convincing Midi Hi Hats (Logic/Reason)

Zangetsu

I'm having trouble getting convincing 16ths on the hats in both programs, I'm been experimenting with different velocities to get that natural feel to them but haven't had much luck as of yet.

I'm using Logic 9 and Reason's Redrum depending on the style, anyone any advice on how to give the hats a more natural dynamic?

Thanks

seannash

do you use quantization(although i guess that rhythm )
might help

krd

Are you trying to make them sound like real hi-hats played by a real drummer?

You would have to accent the hits - even use several similar sounding samples for the hits - real hi-hats sound slightly different each time they're hit (and a hit with a left hand always sounds slightly different from the right). Groove quantise - or find a groove template and move the hits slightly off the grid.

Something like EZ Drummer on the PC does a lot of this stuff automatically. People are able to get very convincing drums just by pencilling in basic patterns without having to do anything fancy.

jtsuited

Zangetsu wrote: »

I'm having trouble getting convincing 16ths on the hats in both programs, I'm been experimenting with different velocities to get that natural feel to them but haven't had much luck as of yet.

I'm using Logic 9 and Reason's Redrum depending on the style, anyone any advice on how to give the hats a more natural dynamic?

Thanks

Logic 9 eh???? Couldn't be easier. All you need is a velocity sensitive midi keyboard and the '70s kit' loaded up into the EXS24.

You'll find the hihats easy enough on the keyboard, and then just play them in. This is where the whole internet will tell you to not quantise them after you've played them. Ignore them.
Quantise the notes to whatever swing you want (16b or 16c is fairly natural sounding, in fact vary them from bar to bar).

Then it's just a question of tweaking the velocities as each velocity level triggers a different sample in the exs drum kit setting.

PulsW

When I want realistic sounding hi-hats, I usually go to one of my banks containing the same hi-hat played in many different ways. I then import them into a sampler and mess about with accents, velocity and sample length.

I do the same thing to the whole drumset, if I want a realistic sounding one.

Dramatik

Rather than using just one closed hat sample for the whole pattern try using two or three similar sounding hats with different lengths.

iamstop

1. Buy a record player
2. Buy some disco records
3. Find the drum breaks
4. Cut out all the hi hats to individual hits
5. Use a full redrum with all the hats loaded in
6. program hats in
7. EQ and add effects to taste

Sky King

With 16th hi hats try adding swing to create a shuffle beat or un-quantising the notes a bit.

A drummer will generally put an accent on the first beat, and possibly on the third of the 16th pattern. Try the following MIDI velocities

Beat 1: 100
Beat 2: 70
Beat 3: 85
Beat 4: 75

Copy and paste through four bars.

And tweak around with them. 1 and 3 are the accented beats, remember that.

(I am drumming since 1995)