Hi,
I’m finding it difficult to get natural sounding hihats out of the samples in my MS. I’ve loaded quite a few more that I bought from the available sample packs, but they’re not really doing it for me.
This is despite playing them in with and without quantise etc.
Suggestions please?
Thanks
Darren
It’s all about how you sequence them. Try using subtle changes in volume, pitch, and decay.
Try a random LFO with a low depth on one of them, say, volume, and then P-lock small tweaks to the other in both directions.
Thanks but I’ve tried that, with only a little success. Wish I could describe better what I’m wanting. I’ve heard other Machines, such as Tempest have much nicer hihats and over feel.
Will keep searching.
Random lfo with a slow speed and low depth on the sample start parameter works wonders for humanising hats.
…swing, various velocity, various decay/sustain length, filter/eq, lfo’s adressing some of those parameters, choke grouping, since in real life there simply is no closed hi hat and an open one AT THE VERY SAME MOMENT IN TIME…
keep in mind each single moment of appearance is as important for any kind of of groove as the moment when it shuts up again…
that’s all the craftmens’ship secrets there are to “good hi hats”…
besides the basic truth, pretty much any sample treated in a combo of these ingredients can grow into a nice hi hat line…
therefor, whenever u think again, oh, that’s not grooving, shorten their overall decay/systain length…
and get ur first accents by making certain single ones longer again…
adress an lfo to velocity and twiddle a little on the track swing…
but most important on the long run, spent more time in crafting than in finding the “right” one…
for truly realizing this, u might wanna try with a simple snippet of plain white noise…
Apologies if this is overly basic.
–Are you alternating hat velocity? Most drummers hit the hat slightly softer when playing with their non-dominant hand, so p-locking velocity on every other (non-accented) hit might help feel more natural
When I had a Model: Samples I liked to use an open hi-hat that I would close with a short decay. I would send velocity modulation to decay so that higher velocity would mean a slightly longer decay. That also means that when I was programming them I would have some variation in the velocity. Higher on the downbeats lower on the upbeats.
No matter what drum machine I use, I also like using more than one hi-hat sample whenever possible. So if I’m sampling a drum break or something then I’ll use all of the hi-hats rather than just one. So if you’ve got a few in a kit then try sample locking some of those, as well.
Finally, there’s microtiming. Pushing notes slightly off the grid can help it feel a little more natural.
This is the best advice and exactly what I do with the hihats on the Model Sample and other drum machines (where possible).
Can you provide us with some song examples?
You definitely should try Velocity Modulation.