What's the Technique Used to Achieve these Old Skool House Hi-Hats?

[SimonT]

Hi All!

Want to know how to get the same hi-hat effect on this track at the beginning!

YouTube

Sounds to me, listening through some of my samples that it's an 808 closed hi-hat on the off beats but what is going on with the other hats in this? I've a feeling it could be the same closed hat sample but with the hardness (I'm guessing it was probably done on an original TR-808) of each hat different. You could change the hardness of the hits on an 808 couldn't you, like soft, medium, hard? This could be done in a modern daw with various levels adjusted with the velocities.

Anyway, any help much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[rhythmgj]

That's just 16th notes on the HH. Yes, play with velocity sensitivity and if you want, place accents on the downbeats (1,2,3,4).

GJ

 

[SimonT]

That's just 16th notes on the HH. Yes, play with velocity sensitivity and if you want, place accents on the downbeats (1,2,3,4).

GJ

Yeah I got it quite spot on with an 808 closed hat on every 16th note using Redrum on Reason. On every 4th beat I put the open hat on 'Hard' hit setting and on each 1st beat on 'Soft' hit and beats 2 and 3 on 'Medium'.



As you can see from the pic, the steps are coloured. The lime ones are soft, the yellow are medium and the pinky red are hard.

What d'ya mean by accent and what d'ya mean by downbeats?

 

[rhythmgj]

An accent in music is a quick dynamic emphasis or stress on a particular beat. Downbeats are "on the numbers" (1, 2, 3, 4 in 4/4 time). Upbeats are the "in between" beats (_not_ on 1, 2, 3, or 4 in 4/4 time).

GJ