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Hi Hat patterns

Okay so I stumbled on this thread about basslines. Awsome thread.

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...&threadid=44854

Anyone care to throw up some good patterns for hi hats? I know in most tracks there are quite a few layers of hi's. Usually one with the kick and the bass, and then another kicks in later. Anyone want to share some good patterns with me, the hi's are what I probably have the hardest time making.

My trick is to use the cliche "poom-tss poom-tss poom-tss poom-tss" pattern where your hats are exactly between beats, and then I fill in between that. I usually try to have a basic sample playing this basic 4/4 pattern and then add filler with shorter and different sounding hats. Try to experiment with delay effects, they can add alot to a hat line.

example:

( o = kick, | = main hat, . = smaller hat)

typical kick/hat line:

O____|____O____|____O____|____O____|

filled in kick/hat line:

O_.__|.__.O_._.|_.__O__._|_.__O.._.|

(filled it at random, but you get the idea )

It helps to have different layers coming in at different times. The hat layers are vital to getting this feel of the track building up.

After it's been built up a bit, I like to add a sharp and short hat on the kick itself, like so;

O_.__|.__.O_._.|_.__O__._|_.__O.._.|
|________|________|________|___

and to fill in the empty sounding bits, you can try putting a hat on every 16th note, with a generally lower, pitched-down and/or lowpassed sample, like so;

O___|___O___|___O___|___O___|
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._

Basicly, everything that's in the bassline thread can apply with hats. It's just a matter of playing around with it and figuring out what works and what doesn't.

Wow bro that's reaaaally useful, thanks a lot, I'm messing with this now

There is only one good pattern for hats, and that is no pattern. If you can't build up at least a solid 8 bar line with a cadence at the end of the 2nd repetition (16th bar), it is going to sound incredibly repetitive.

You have to think like a drummer - real drummers do not play the same 4-second hat pattern for 6 minutes at a time. The absolute best thing you can do is turn on your quantize (set it to 32nd or 64th notes), play the note on your keyboard (either MIDI or computer), and record for a few minutes. Then cut out or rearrange whatever doesn't sound right.

Open hats on either side of a closed hat can help get rid of the boom-tish sound. I also find shakers on every 8th note work pretty well.

The Mekkem Rhythm Guide has about 100 hi hat patterns, unfortunately I can't find the website for it anymore

Whether you create your own patterns or not, definitely layer them (my latest tune has about 10 different hat patterns all up) ... and vary them too, especially as DigiNut suggested, after 8 bars or 16 bars etc.

Lots of good advice here but I must say the advice DigiNut gives is most useful and true. Believe it or not, some of the best percussion patterns involving hi-hats have happened completely on accident by accidentally moving midi data around. Randomness and variety is the key...

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut There is only one good pattern for hats, and that is no pattern. If you can't build up at least a solid 8 bar line with a cadence at the end of the 2nd repetition (16th bar), it is going to sound incredibly repetitive. You have to think like a drummer - real drummers do not play the same 4-second hat pattern for 6 minutes at a time. The absolute best thing you can do is turn on your quantize (set it to 32nd or 64th notes), play the note on your keyboard (either MIDI or computer), and record for a few minutes. Then cut out or rearrange whatever doesn't sound right.

Your funny, shud be in comedy

quote:

Originally posted by Aquarian My trick is to use the cliche "poom-tss poom-tss poom-tss poom-tss" pattern where your hats are exactly between beats, and then I fill in between that. I usually try to have a basic sample playing this basic 4/4 pattern and then add filler with shorter and different sounding hats. Try to experiment with delay effects, they can add alot to a hat line. example: ( o = kick, | = main hat, . = smaller hat) typical kick/hat line: O____|____O____|____O____|____O____| filled in kick/hat line: O_.__|.__.O_._.|_.__O__._|_.__O.._.| (filled it at random, but you get the idea ) It helps to have different layers coming in at different times. The hat layers are vital to getting this feel of the track building up. After it's been built up a bit, I like to add a sharp and short hat on the kick itself, like so; O_.__|.__.O_._.|_.__O__._|_.__O.._.| |________|________|________|___ and to fill in the empty sounding bits, you can try putting a hat on every 16th note, with a generally lower, pitched-down and/or lowpassed sample, like so; O___|___O___|___O___|___O___| ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._ Basicly, everything that's in the bassline thread can apply with hats. It's just a matter of playing around with it and figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I didn't really understand the design there :P hehe...
jk...I mean I didn't understand your drawings so much...The spacing looks odd to me..

hey,

new to the board and production so been doing some searching through older threads. Stumbled across this one and was intrigued about "The Mekkem Rhythm Guide has about 100 hi hat patterns". I've tried the website but it doesn't work anymore - I'm assuming this knowledge just can't have been lost which would be a shame.

So has anyone any pointers regarding either patterns or this Mekkem Rhythm Guide?

From a beginner this would be helpful as a starting point, cheers.

It's all in the layers.

5-10 different hihat patterns all playing at the same time = the winner.

My hihats are often just something completely random, then I add a bit of delay and stereo echo and there we go...

I found this tutorial a while back, it doesn't go into a lot of details, but I've found it quite useful.

It describes an interesting workflow, to avoid the '4-second hat pattern for 6 minutes at a time' problem.

Tweakheadz Drum Tutorial

quote:

Originally posted by lightflash hey, new to the board and production so been doing some searching through older threads. Stumbled across this one and was intrigued about "The Mekkem Rhythm Guide has about 100 hi hat patterns". I've tried the website but it doesn't work anymore - I'm assuming this knowledge just can't have been lost which would be a shame. So has anyone any pointers regarding either patterns or this Mekkem Rhythm Guide? From a beginner this would be helpful as a starting point, cheers.

Yeah the website doesn't work any more. But take it from me - I bought the rhythm guide, looked and went 'wow, so here's a pattern, there's a pattern'. They all sound good. And when you're looking at 100 different patterns for 4 bars of hi-hats, you cover a lot of them. So much that after about 2 days you can just put it down and realise that pretty much ANYTHING you write as a hats line is going to work, and you don't need to copy them out from a list.
Just push notes around, make up your own lines, layer up to 10 of them and listen for the groove. That's about it.
I know you won't like that answer, as I hated those kind of answers when I was just starting. But just do it, and trust that it'll give you good results. It will.

they only kind of hihat paterns im having trouble to make is in airbase - pandemonium... now how that for hats?

Just wondering what sort of note values you'd suggest to use? I've seen 16ths a few times and was wondering if this is as small as i should go? maybe 32?

I find the main problem i have is it all sounds a bit abrupt, no real flow to the groove..

Cheers.

^ Try to apply delay with 3/4 delay times on your hihats. Ohmforce Ohmboyz does a good job with that, but almost every delay unit should work wonders. It can produce some nice effects if you got a stereo delay, your hats will automatically sound "richer".

32s are not really needed (only in some fills maybe)...

this is how I constructed the hihats on my latest tune... note I am a Psy producer, but the percussion is kinda similar to "normal" trance I think:

- strong closed hihat on the offbeat. Make it strong, but dont let it stand out too much... its a matter of fine tuning.
- driving hihat every 1/16. To spice it up, try to alter the pitch on some of the notes a little. Something like C-C#-C#-C-C-C#-E-C for example should work.
- add another layer of soft, long hats with a kinda simple groove to "fill the gaps"... Again try to play with the pitch.
- now feel free to add more hats with a little pitch variation. The more emphasis you put on the percussion, the more hihatlines I'd add. Now our new hihatline can be a little deeper, again with some slight variations on the pitch.
- feel free to add more percussive sounds. Note that you always should keep times of 3/16 (or 3/4) in mind.. this should be a groove which in addition to the beat-offbeat character should enhance the drive and groove of your tune big time. Kinda hard to explain, you just have to get a feeling of the hihat groove, and things will almost happen themselves.

Try this one for example, "K" is for kick, "H" is for Hihat (the offbeat one), and "G" is for groove hihat (the one I'm talking about):
K-_-_-_|K-_-_-_|K-_-_-_|K-_-_-_|
_-_-H-_|_-_-H-_|_-_-H-_|_-_-H-_|
-_-_G-_|_-G-_-_|G-_-_-G|_-_-G-_|

Now you can even add shakers/ deeper hihats, like this...
|_-_-S-S|_-_-S-S|_-_-S-S|_-_-S-S|

In terms of percussion arrangement, all of my tunes look different, and its almost impossible to make a science out of it. Hope I could help..

A very interesting plugin IMO every producer should be aware of is the bitcrusher "E-Phonic LoFi". Carefully applied, your bitcrusher can make your percussion sound "richer", and also kinda "raw"... I often had problems with percussion where the "clean" hihat sounds didnt sound like a real unity. After some Bitcrusher treatment, they sounded just like a good drumloop... and if you want a really hard industrial percussion, this is the way to create complete aural destruction

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