Hype up your Hip-Hop Hi-Hats in Reason

In some of the recent Hip-Hop tracks I've heard, specifically Waka Flocka Flame, I've been seriously impressed with the hi-hat programming that has been taking place. Instead of regular 8 beats, and 1  

In some of the recent Hip-Hop tracks I've heard, specifically Waka Flocka Flame, I've been seriously impressed with the hi-hat programming that has been taking place. Instead of regular 8 beats, and 16 beats within the hi-hats, with the occasional 32nd note shuffle, they have added really cool inclusions of 64th note bursts rolling through a very tight beat.

I've decided to give a little instruction within this tutorial on how you might, if you're interested, add some of the intricate hi-hat bursts with very little effort. I'll be using Reason, but the same principals apply to all other DAWs. Let's check it out!

Step 1

Turn the tempo down to about 66 BPM, or simply double the tempo to 132. I'm going to go with 66, just to give myself some extra wiggle room.

Step 2

In ReDrum, load up Hip-Hop Kit Number 3

Step 3

Draw in this beat for your kick, sub-bass, and snare.

Step 4

Zoom in close and draw 8 hi-hat hits, as shown below, from 1 to 1.3. Then drag select all of the hi-hat hits.

Step 5

Change your Snap Settings to 1/64

Step 6

With all the hi-hat beats selected, drag the thumbnails over so that all of the hi-hat beats are 64th notes in length.

Step 7

Hold down the Option key and drag the last two beats over 4 times, creating four repetitions of each beat, and 8 additional notes.

Step 8

Now select all the hi-hat hits again!

Step 9

In the velocity area, draw a straight line in the lower regions of velocity like this for the first 7 hits. To do this without affecting the other drum hits, hold down Shift+Option+Command and draw. It should look like the image below.

Step 10

Now, for our 64th note burst, draw a diagonal line going from down to up, so that the burst goes from soft to loud.

And there you have it, a very easily created 64th note burst that glides in and adds some depth and coolness to your hip-hop beat. It should sounds like this in the end:

And, if you play around, and copy little snippets here and there, it can sound like this...

Oh, and for best effect, and to re-create the previous hi-hat sound. Replace the hi-hat sound with: Hh2_Nextstep.wav.

Enjoy!

Become a better producer in Reason

Sound Designer, Musician, Author... G.W. Childs has worn many hats. Beginning in the U.S. Army back in 1991, at the age of 18, G.W. began learning electronics, communications and then ultimately audio and video editing from the Department of Defense. Upon leaving the military G.W. went on to work for many exciting companies like Lu... Read More

Discussion

Ed
Hey G.W. that's pretty slick! Thanks for sharing.

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