I could drop the kick & hats oneshots here for you to check with these if that’s helpful but I think you’re right 
gonna try later today or tomorrow with some highpass filter on the hats and see what happens.
I had 2 concerns :
Looks like none of these were true 
safe
makes sense 
I’d like to know what the result of adding the filter is for you once you’ve done it. If you try 2 or 3 distinct settings, I’d start out not caring if it sounded good, just looking for the phenomenon which is described to disappear and then from there, once you have confirmed whether or not there was anything in the eliminated spectrum crossing over, back it off until you find something you are happy with or can live with. I mean I can’t be of that much help but I think this is a good course of action.
I looped the part where the hats drop out and ran it through an analyzer. Volume looks relatively consistent.
Didn’t hear anything weird, but then I put on headphones with volume really loud. I can hear what you mean. Sounds compressor related to me because of the way it sound like it’s ‘opening up’ again.
Interesting interesting. I would never think about this as an issue except it would be on a big enough sound system.
Just tried slowing the audio down, and can’t hear it anymore, which makes me wonder if it’s illusory. 
I also checked it yesterday with various analysers and then came to the conclusion that it´s happening way too fast, it´s probaply best to just look at the waveform. I have an oscilloscope software that lets you view a straight line at a chosen db level. Seemed very consistent to me, I did not spot any differences.
If you´d do that, I´d set up a little blind test for you (sequenced from different hardware and software devices vs your recording) and then let´s hear if anyone can spot anything.
I’ll upload them later tonight or tomorrow then maybe someone can make the same pattern on his Digitakt and check it sounds similar 
Here are the kick and the hats.
if u wanna recreate it exactly : 135bpm. I have a parameter lock on the hats volume : 102 - 102 - 107 - 100 (4 steps loop) (and 11.55 of overdrive on the kick)
btw, I tried HP filter on the hats but it didn’t change anything.
I am not sure about the hats I used anymore, these are maybe the ones used in the former example :
(anyway I tried with different samples and the result is still the same…)
Do you hear something similar with only a kick playing on steps 1 and 5 when the kick stops playing.
Do you hear it with other samples and even when you turn down the level on kick and high hats?
I don’t hear the volume drop of the kick.
that’s true but I am sure this behaviour has heightened his curiosity
Gonna check this out (probably during my lunch pause as I am working at home) …
When the kick is alone (but on 1, 5, 9 and 13 - didn’t try this without the 2 last steps) the volume is constant.
I tried with another kick sample (and same hats) or with the same kick (and other hats (from the same pack)) and the result was the same.
The filter decrease the effect but doesn’t cancel it totally. I think lowering the volume of the hats had a better impact.
(reminder : it’s only audible when the master volume is really loud on my headphones)
Try to microtime the hihats just a bit before or after the step. Then you might rule out phase issues of the combination of samples used.
Did you try to recreate the same thing in a DAW to check if this gives the same result?
not yet but that was an idea I had too. gonna check in Ableton. if it happens too, then it’s a good news for my Digitakt
So… let’s assume there is in fact some change to the audio when the hats come in. If you take the part with only the kick drum, move it over to the part with the hats so that the kick drums line up precisely, then invert one track, then the result should be the some audio with just the hats AND some leftover artefacts of the change in the kickdrum.
Sort of like:
kick + hat - kick = hat
"modified" kick + hat - kick = hat + "modification"
Here’s some pictures of what I did:
And here you can hear the resulting audio:
As you can hear, there is absolutely nothing indicating any change in the kick drum sound. I think someone already mentioned it, it could be just some masking psychoacoustics. You could try just removing or lowering the volume of the hat on the step of the kick, see if that does anything.
Wow that’s a real deep analysis, thank you !
Did you listen to it loudly and did you notive that “behaviour” (which as you mention it sounds more like some accoustic hallucination?)
Haha yeah I turned up my headphones quite a bit 
The only thing I perceived is that the initial klick/knock at the very start of the kick gets sort of covered up by the hat. Didn’t really hear any change in the bass or overall loudness. The kick just seems less sharp (?) to me once the hats come in.
edit: this could be it? Auditory masking - Wikipedia
it’s an interesting read, gonna check it completly later today. But it could be this, yes !
Does it vary from person to person ? It’s weird some people hear it and some seem to don’t (or maybe that’s not loud enough)
(Looks like you don’t hear this as I do (or some others seem to do too) - for me I really hear a change in the loudness of the kick)
Hmm yeah not sure what else could be the root of this. Do you notice that with any other instruments coming in over the kick too? You mentioned Ableton, did you ever notice anything like that there too?
I’ll allow myself the snarky remark – but you better get used to this phenomenon, your tracks are gonna have way more isntruments than just kick and hat anyways.
