Dubstepforum.com

I think that the way you produce the drums in a song can make or break it. My favourite tunes has all very punchy, clear and vivid drum production going on.

I'm just starting to get a good sound on my drum rack, but I have a problem, and that's the motherfuckin' hi-hats.

Can't really get that crisp, clear and lively sounding hi-hats and cymbals sound that many good producers have. Vengeance sample packs SUCK imo(or maybe I haven't been looking hard enough), and I've tried to resample Toontrack Superior Drummer, but I'm not really near the sound I want.

How do you guys manage your hi-hats? Eq and such? Busses? Midi programming?
Appreciate the help!

layer your hi hats with 808 hats, compress, apply parallel distortion maybe long reverbs

Shall try putting some distortion on my parallel comp bus.

This is something I've been working quite a bit on ATM to get a smooth hat sound. Reverbs in the insert (with a mix control) chorus and delays. Also make sure to pitch them so they're in tune with everything else. This should help them sit a little nicer in the mix.

Hircine wrote:layer your hi hats with 808 hats, compress, apply parallel distortion maybe long reverbs

Never thought of layering hi hats.... Gonna have to try this

Pitch shifting.
Layer a sample with a synth like Xoxos' ClearDrum.
Envelope pitch.
Envelope highpass cutoff.
Boost highs.
Exciter.
Transient shaper.

hit : delay, gate, short envellope, pitch up

hat : phaser, reverb, pitch little up, reverse

my hit hat line are always about the delay automation, and sometime the gate one

You guys recommending any sample cd's with good cymbal samples?

How about this?

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=249655

- Sweep a hi-pass and cut out anything you don't need, it'll be a lot more than you'd think.

- Really slight delays, so much so that you can't make them out when they're there, but you can hear they're missing when you bypass.

- I usually have the hat samples inside a sampler, and lower the attack slightly which gives more of a 'shaker' as opposed to a closed hat sound.

- Velocity is your friend.

- PAN.

Hats are hard and important.

Work with them in the context of your mix, no solo business.

Transient shapers work well, as well as simply the adsr envelope of the sampler playing the hat.

Massive has a very good noise osc for hats called "metallic". Fine control of massive's amp envelope (#4 by default) will get you close with a little slow attack low threshold high ratio compression (or very easily a transient shaper ).

I find I kind of have to think about the hats though. It is where the rubber meets the road in terms of the space of the track. You've got to think about the space. How big is it, how epic is it, how reflective is it, how bright is it, how much depth is there, what is in front, what is in back? I suppose you can intuitively figure all that out, but I often have to think about it.

nowaysj wrote:Hats are hard and important.

Work with them in the context of your mix, no solo business.

Transient shapers work well, as well as simply the adsr envelope of the sampler playing the hat.

Massive has a very good noise osc for hats called "metallic". Fine control of massive's amp envelope (#4 by default) will get you close with a little slow attack low threshold high ratio compression (or very easily a transient shaper ).

I find I kind of have to think about the hats though. It is where the rubber meets the road in terms of the space of the track. You've got to think about the space. How big is it, how epic is it, how reflective is it, how bright is it, how much depth is there, what is in front, what is in back? I suppose you can intuitively figure all that out, but I often have to think about it.

Yeah, I know, It's literally the hardest thing with drum programming imo...

Thanks for the advice, I haven't really thought about transient shapers and the noise generator in massive.

Yeah to be fair, I like little tiny high hats, like little points of light. So very sharp transients and very very quick decay. Sssshow I roll, mostly.

jonahmann wrote:How about this?

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=249655

Whoah! Thanks man! Shall look into it

I use Logic's ring modulation and stereo delay on my hats.Also transient shaping and a touch of reverb.

I've downloaded some packs of cymbal sounds from Paiste own website, but the links over there doesn't work for me now? But finding samples from drum/cymbal manufacturers sites are also good places to search for samples.

I have some nice hat samples I've found in various sample packs, some from vengeance too. I just tend to boost a little bit pretty high up to make them crisp, then put a short reverb on them and that's it

what sound are you looking for? Realistic or synthetic/electronic? It all starts with your sample as you know...

I'd say if you're looking for realism find some drum breaks that you like and slice them out. If you're looking for some trap house stuff (seems like a popular word these days for some reason) then I think you can figure that out your own!

drake89 wrote:what sound are you looking for? Realistic or synthetic/electronic? It all starts with your sample as you know...

Definately realistic sounding. I can't really stand electronic sounding samples, it sounds horrible!

Ugh... I hate to sample from songs and stuff, I'm to lazy haha... but thnx for the advice.

Autism wrote:

drake89 wrote:what sound are you looking for? Realistic or synthetic/electronic? It all starts with your sample as you know...

Definately realistic sounding. I can't really stand electronic sounding samples, it sounds horrible!

Ugh... I hate to sample from songs and stuff, I'm to lazy haha... but thnx for the advice.

mpc60 vol 3 by goldbaby, go to the layered folder, get the hi hats, layer them with 808 hits. realistic and crisp.