Open and half-open hi-hats Drumkit Designer

[Jordn]

I need a sample for an open or half-open hi-hat.

I can't seem to find much online; my Slate DD5 doesn't have one available (unless I have to buy an extension).

How can I create that in Drum Kit Designer? The only controls I see for hit hats in these kits are for Tone, Dampen, and Gain.

However, I guess I can use my MIDI keyboard and G5 mapping. Is that the solution?

[David Nahmani]

13 hours ago, Jordn said:

How can I create that in Drum Kit Designer? The only controls I see for hit hats in these kits are for Tone, Dampen, and Gain.

Drum Kit Designer uses the MIDI GM standard, so A#1 is the open Hi-Hat: 

Then you can open an Event List, choose View > Articulation, and change the articulation value to get different open hi-hats: 

[drakepeterdrake]

David, thanks for posting this. I must admit to not knowing about articulation for the hh. Is it possible in the piano roll window to access that control, maybe being able to highlight the mid-hh and write levels for it there? Screen shot below for reference. I did not see any "articulation" choice in the "view menu of the piano roll.

Peter

Edited November 14, 2023 by drakepeterdrake
spelling

[David Nahmani]

You can Control-click a note in the Piano Roll to change its articulation in the pop-up menu. 

Another way to use different openings of the hi-hat is to set the Drum Kit Designer plug-in to respond to mod wheel, like this: 

[drakepeterdrake]

Thanks, I knew about the mod-wheel thing, which can of course provide hours of fun (see below...) I did find I could select, say, all the mid hi-hats and then assign a set articulation so i could customize the feel of the hh a little without entering articulation for every note. Or, I could hire a drummer...

P

[Jordn]

Just now, drakepeterdrake said:

Or, I could hire a drummer...

P

🤣

[David Nahmani]

Another thing you can do is create an articulation set so that you can change the articulations of the selected note(s) using a pop-up menu in the Piano Roll inspector:

[drakepeterdrake]

David, that function would be great. Please tell me how to activate that. My window doesn't have that function. (see below)

Thanks.

P

[David Nahmani]

33 minutes ago, drakepeterdrake said:

David, that function would be great. Please tell me how to activate that. My window doesn't have that function. (see below)

Not in front of Logic, but from memory, in the Track inspector, at the bottom, there's a parameter "Articulation Set", click it and there's a pop up menu where you can choose "New Set"? 

[Jordn]

2 hours ago, David Nahmani said:

You can Control-click a note in the Piano Roll to change its articulation in the pop-up menu. 

Another way to use different openings of the hi-hat is to set the Drum Kit Designer plug-in to respond to mod wheel, like this: 

Experimenting with this now. This is super cool.

[Jordn]

2 minutes ago, Jordn said:

Experimenting with this now. This is super cool.

One thing I notice is when using this method, I don't seem to be able to control the closing of the open hat. When you hit A#, followed by G#, the effect is supposed to be one of hearing the hat close.

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Jordn

[drakepeterdrake]

David, I feel pretty dense but cannot get the articulations to show up in the piano roll window like you have. If I have that window active and click on "track" the "configure track header" option is grayed-out. It's only active when I'm in the main arrange window. When you get the chance, could you please show me how to do it? Thanks. P

[Jordn]

I just tracked my open hi-hats with this method, replacing the sample I used yesterday.

Much better. Instead of having to start fixing velocities and articulation in the midi editor surgically, my fingers are now doing all that work. Since this is my second "study" mix, this is perfect and more accurately approximates what I was looking for!

 

[David Nahmani]

48 minutes ago, drakepeterdrake said:

David, I feel pretty dense but cannot get the articulations to show up in the piano roll window like you have. If I have that window active and click on "track" the "configure track header" option is grayed-out. It's only active when I'm in the main arrange window. When you get the chance, could you please show me how to do it? Thanks. P

No problem. This is the parameter I was referring to in the Track inspector. Let me know if you have more questions. 

36 minutes ago, Jordn said:

I just tracked my open hi-hats with this method, replacing the sample I used yesterday.

Much better. Instead of having to start fixing velocities and articulation in the midi editor surgically, my fingers are now doing all that work. Since this is my second "study" mix, this is perfect and more accurately approximates what I was looking for!

Great! Good to hear. 🙂 

[Jordn]

@David NahmaniI noticed that there is only a stereo option when I load Drum Designer and no option to make the track mono. I'm just creating a hi-hat track in mono. Can you explain?

[David Nahmani]

Drum Kit Designer is a drum kit plug-in so it's designed to reproduce a whole drum kit, hence the stereo. You could always replace it with a sampler instrument and customize the instrument to be only hi-hats but I wouldn't bother. Use a gain plug-in to turn the signal into mono if you have to - or better yet don't bother and keep your hi-hat in stereo as that's probably not an issue? 

[Jordn]

1 minute ago, David Nahmani said:

that's probably not an issue? 

No, it is not an issue at all, agreed 🙂

 

[drakepeterdrake]

David, thanks for showing the articulation menu. I was looking in the wrong place. What would make editing faster would be if the different articulation levels could be displayed in the automation window beneath the piano roll. Maybe that will be a future update.

P

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Nahmani]

4 minutes ago, drakepeterdrake said:

What would make editing faster would be if the different articulation levels could be displayed in the automation window beneath the piano roll. Maybe that will be a future update.

Aaaah.. but no: articulations are not some kind of automation parameter. They're an attribute of the MIDI note. So two notes could be played at the exact same time with different articulations (which cannot be done with automation values). And on the other hand, an automation parameter could ramp up throughout the duration of a note (which cannot be done with articulations). 

So... two different tools really. 

Think of automation as someone moving a knob while a note is sustained to for example change the cutoff of a filter. 

Think of articulation as the way you're playing a note: pizzicato, or sforzando, or staccato... it determines the type of note played (and for sample instruments, the sample that is triggered) but once the note has started playing, you can no longer modify its articulation. 

[Jordn]

OMG OMG OMG! I can actually tune these open hi-hats to match the ones on the recorded overheads! Woooot!💥💥💥

[Jordn]

I know the workaround for this, but after recording open hit hats while running my overhead track and my opens record closeded, even though I have the mod wheel set for open. When I record it alone I don't have this issue

 

[Jordn]

And there seems to be a difference in quantizing in the midi editor vs the Inspector.

Advice?

 

 

[David Nahmani]

11 hours ago, Jordn said:

And there seems to be a difference in quantizing in the midi editor vs the Inspector.

Advice?

The Inspector quantizes all notes inside the region, the MIDI editor allows you to quantize only selected notes. Is that what you meant? 

[Jordn]

8 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

The Inspector quantizes all notes inside the region, the MIDI editor allows you to quantize only selected notes. Is that what you meant? 

I was confused by the relationship between the main and midi editors. Could use some practice there. For the sake of expediency, I ended up moving the two quick sixteenth-note regions to a duplicate track. Are you saying that I can keep the one track, budget, and adjust individual midi note values?

 

 

[David Nahmani]

14 minutes ago, Jordn said:

Are you saying that I can keep the one track, budget, and adjust individual midi note values?

Yes. Well I'm not sure what you mean by "budget"? But you can select individual notes and quantize only those in the Piano Roll inspector (or using the Q key command). 

[Jordn]

2 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

 I'm not sure what you mean by "budget"

Haha... me either. It's a typo, but I can't remember what I meant to say!

Anyway, what you are saying makes sense and a time saver.

[Atlas007]

6 hours ago, Jordn said:

 budget

"nudge it" perhaps?

[David Nahmani]

1 hour ago, Atlas007 said:

"nudge it" perhaps?

That was probably it! 😁