Hi,
I’m trying to program a simple rock beat with 16th notes on the hihats. I can’t get it to sound real. I tried adjusting volume, two different hihat samples/settings, retrig programming, adjusting swing and live recording mode. Still no sattisfying results. You can hear what sort of beat I am looking for in this demo video:
Hey AndreN
I quickly put together something. It’s still a little more on the machine then on the human side but since it’s a drummachine my expectiations aren’t to high
I just set the trigs on the 16th notes put on some accents on every second stroke and applied very sublle swing (52%). Then I randomly shifted some hits’ microtiming.
If you have any wishes to make it different or “better” let me know.
Andren, to me it just sounds like you’re not programming enough variation. Not enough dynamic difference between hard and soft hits, no ghost hits (on snare), no decay fluctuation, etc.
I may just be stating the obvious but plocking velocity might help. Plus probably obvious too you wouldn’t want to trig the HH on the downbeat (like in the video, he uses his right arm to hit the snare).
Did you record that soundcloud clip in live mode? Cause, while the sensitivity on the pads are wretched, you still should be getting some kind of variety in accents…
No tutorials, only experience.
A human drummer only has two arms, so can only hit two things at once. When he is playing 16ths on the hats, when he hits the snare, he isn’t hitting the hat. Do the motion right now. Play 16ths and then hit the snare on the 2 and 4. Notice that you’re not hitting the hat while hitting the snare. So when you program this on the AR, either leave that hat space blank or lower the volume. Lowering the volume is what’s considered a ghost hit. It’s just audible enough to register a sound, but barely perceptible. This adds dynamics.
Decay fluctuation - try plocking different decay times for each hat hit; longer on some and shorter on others. This will add swing.
Swing moves hits off the grid. Playing with the decay of a sound will not “add swing”.
Moving a trig with micro - timing, on the other hand, CAN add swing.
There are too many musicians confused by swing and what it does, let’s try and keep it simple and accurate
Cheers !
First of all your overall velocity is too high. A drummer will not hit the hats with a full stroke when playing a 16th note pattern. With 16th notes it’s more like all notes are around 50% velocity or so and a few key ones are emphasized. Sounds like you’re trying to accent the 1,5,9,13 which is cool. Maybe slightly accent the 4,8,12,16 a bit too.
Decent sounding 16th note hi-hat programming is tricky, and I find the AR pads aren’t responsive enough to live play a good 16th note pattern live so you gotta do lots of tweaking to get a good feel…
So what I recommend is to try adjusting your velocity more than just every other note. Try this for velocity (did % 'cause I don’t remember if velocity goes 1-100 or 1-127)
Also try altering the decay slightly per step. The decay should be slightly shorter on lighter hits. But be subtle about it. The drummer’s left foot might move slightly with the beat causing the pressure between the hi-hat cymbals to vary and the stick won’t hit in the exact same spot every time.
The closer to the edge you hit, the more decay, whereas closer to the bell equals less decay.
Personally I either play my hi-hat patterns in real time or use loops if I don’t want them to sound programmed.
