How to humanize Hi-Hats on any Drum Machine | Variation techniques for your beats

[@3clrdsqrs]

Amazing techniques. Especially the Linn one is mindblowing

[@SpikesStudio3]

Hey Cap! That was absolutely riviting.nice approach, having a concept explained on various gear rather than a single piece of gear demonstrating various concepts. Typical of your exceptional productions. Kudos, once again. 👍

[@CaptainPikant]

Hey Michael, thanks for your kind words :) We actually re-shot most of the scenes because we didn't want to show it all on just one machine.

[@DrJ3RK8]

I really like the LM-1 trick, nice!

[@CaptainPikant]

Glad you like it! :)

[@mikemarion2154]

Since I have a Digitakt and TR8-S this is a great demo. I get the idea with all the Ableton Live demos on KZbin but it's so much more applicable to see it on hardware.

[@CaptainPikant]

Thanks! Yeah it does feel a little bit more hands on than in the DAW.

[@SpikesStudio3]

Absolutely Mike. I have Machinedrum uw, rd8, dr660 and digitakt for drum duties. Thats probably enough. Drum machines are truly wonderfull.

[@dudemanxx]

That Prince jam goes hard, wow. Good stuff.

[@CaptainPikant]

Thanks :) We had a lot of fun making this one!

[@AutPen38]

I knew the Linndrum closed hi-hat used the same sample as the open version, but I had no idea that there was randomness built in. Roger Linn was cleverer than I thought! This also explains why simply using a "Linndrum open hi hat sample" from the internet and sticking it on the grid never sounded quite right for me. I'm excited to use your tricks to bring some life to my patterns!

[@lundsweden]

Phasing on hihats was a popular method in the 80s too. Time for a comeback, IMO. I remember Prince used this trick on the Linndrum sometimes.

[@Rr0gu3_5uture]

I do this on an old HR-16 quite a lot. I'll assign a bunch the exact same drum sounds to different pads, then have them play at different pan/velocity levels while intermittently naturally going in and out of phase. It's a pretty cool effect.

[@mbrombert]

The LFO / Random approach is excellent. Fantastic tip!

[@mgmcdb7606]

9:30 Super interesting and a great technique for other applications. Great video. Thanks.

[@Jungle_Riddims]

Your videos are clear concise and to the point, an excellent source for reference and inspiration. Thank you for another excellent video.

[@PKFlashBeta]

Came here for some ideas going into working on a drum track. Love this.

[@luispat8633]

Love the tip with randomicing the starting point

[@mybiggrin]

Loved this. Thanks!

[@mbessey]

This is a great collection of options. Thanks for making this.

[@KevinArdala01]

Great vid, plenty of good info, thanks! 👍

[@daveyleeriot]

My guy, I can't believe I jus discovered your channel. Helpful AF 👊 New sub

[@cohaagenup]

Boy, this channel keeps on getting better and better. Keep up the great work!

[@davidsanfeliumarco9664]

Awesome content as usual!!!! Thank you so so so so so much!!!

[@pixelfrenzy]

Lots of great ideas in here, thanks Captain!

[@Ben.Jell.N]

I dig it!

[@adriaduch5094]

excellent video

[@varlokvarlok]

Beautiful videos

[@ianbroome6652]

Great video and ideas.🤗

[@lillehammerexperimental]

Your vids are amazing thank you

[@fruchticaramelos9013]

Top! Danke

[@untoldstory176]

Very Nice!

[@techshmitsofficial4659]

Great video :)

[@polaris911]

I'm surprised there aren't more comments on this video. Very cool deep dive, I'm jealous of your equipment. Doing this in software synths isn't as fun

[@petri..]

Great tips, a very informative video! Just got myself the Syntakt and I tried out some of those LFO tricks on the hihat with some swing added to it, really great results, thanks! 👍🏻

[@robertlee1176]

I like this guy 🤙🏾

[@ryanedwardmusic]

the LM1 hats emulation just sold me on the Digitakt

[@sophiew.1499]

It would be cool if you could send an ultra slow LFO to the swing parameter, then the swing would start to drift forward and back, kinda like a groove. I'm using swing a lot on the Polyend Tracker, individually or randomly shifting every drum element and sending it to the Volca Drum. It makes for a little bit of variation. Like the kick quantized and then every kick after that with more or less swing but not overdoing it so it's still in the groove. Anyway, thanks for these videos. I'm learning so much and having fun watching them! :)

[@CaptainPikant]

That's a cool idea! Having swing as a modulation target would be fun to experiment with :)

[@gapster77]

Nice vid

[@OrangeDrinkMusic]

hi from Elektronauts! incredible videos and channel - instant subscribe

[@RSKT_music]

Awesome video as always!

[@fjfrancois]

Thanks for your awesome videos, I wish to see more videos of your TT-78 😊

[@CaptainPikant]

It will definitely reappear soon, it's one of my favourite machines :)

[@RiccardoAlbertini]

LOL doom! Clever ref!

[@mareikemacinnes7764]

Roger Linn is the inventor of the swing in drum machine (LM-1) as well as the inventor of the 16 pad in drum machine (Akai Mpc 60) and to me there is no Ableton, Reason, Logic, Pro Tools or any other DAW or hardware device swing that does either It only comes close to Roger Linn's shuffle algorithm (LM-1, Linndrum, Mpc60, Mpc60 Mk2, Mpc 3000). That's why I use an Akai Mpc for all my sequencing. Just like Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Daftpunk and others back then. Greetings from Germany

[@CaptainPikant]

Absolutely! Roger Linn certainly was a pioneer for the world of electronic instruments :)

[@embersandash]

Yeah and Roger linn himself debunked the theory that there was anything special in the Linn or MPC timing.

[@mareikemacinnes7764]

@@embersandash It's nothing special mathematically, it's just shifting certain notes in a certain ratio. But the MPCs do it so consistently that a perfect repetitive groove emerges. MPCs are rock solid in timing It's the same with the Roland Tr909, which is said to have sloppy timing and therefore grooves so nicely. The opposite is the case that, like the MPCs, it has an absolutely stable timing and can therefore represent the written algorithm perfectly. But still no DAW on earth can handle the algorithms of these machines and therefore they are something very special. ;) Greetings from Germany

[@simhsimh7977]

Thank you for such amazing videos! Always a fountain of inspiration to play with rythms and machines 🤖🥁 Have you used an MPC ONE?

[@CaptainPikant]

Thanks! Not yet :)

[@MrMarcLaflamme]

Regarding choke groups on the DT, I'm wondering if you could leverage Neighbour trig conditions to simulate it. Mind you I haven't used Neighbour conditions very much (if at all come to think of it) and I know they only look at the previous track so this might not work...

[@CaptainPikant]

Good idea, could be worth a shot. I'll try as soon as I can :)

[@andrewknox9360]

I need to know something. What hand cream are you using? I feel like if i had to use my scarred, wrinkly old booger hooks for a youtube video I'd get kicked off the internet.

[@CaptainPikant]

I can wholeheartedly recommend hand cream with lanolin (sheep wool wax). Works wonders.

[@OrangeDrinkMusic]

ROTFL @ "booger hooks" - please make a video thank you

[@DeathFromRKelly]

Where can I get that LM sample? I wanna test this so bad on the MPC/ Force. Such awesome tips!

[@CaptainPikant]

The original Linn samples were once available on www.electrongate.com/dmxfiles/linn/index.html, but they've been taken down. Maybe you can use something like the Wayback Machine website to still retrieve them?

[@leocomerford]

2:12 Fair dues to Ringo for playing "Rain" much _faster_ than the released recording kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmSspoF9rayJjs0 and still pretty much nailing the timing.

[@dragonfly_bry]

ya 777-9311 is alien - great study in the 80-90s - prince is the man - check the ballad of dorothy parker drum pattern if you want a challenge lol

[@CaptainPikant]

Thanks, I'll check it out :)

[@jorisdewilde6801]

i just learned why there is silence before some samples xD

[@p3tergri1ff]

this is very human

[@5lip5pace]

do you run any of your drum machines through a DI box?

[@CaptainPikant]

No I go straight into the audio interface :)

[@tz64nk41]

5:15 has anyone ported DOOM to the Digitakt yet

[@harrybetts5334]

Goodman this is just what I need, using an machinedrum sps1 mk2 here it's great but goddamn it's a bitch

[@xisotopex]

the thing is, random/probability doesnt equal sounding human. a human will play the hi hat with a certain feel that depends on quite a few things, but random just sounds random. it sounds like a computer playing something random. its still rigid, it still lacks feel. no human plays an instrument "randomly" and no human plays an instrument based on probability.

[@cowtooler]

sky is blue

[@sophiew.1499]

yes, this is correct, but this is not really what he is doing. He's trying to add groove to the hi-hat via variations in the microtiming, he's not trying to make it sound completely human, bc a machine can't be a drummer and a VST cannot replace a bassist or a guitarist. It's still cool to have variations in a like a 4 bar pattern for example.

[@xisotopex]

@@sophiew.1499 adding "groove" is exactly like trying to make it sound human, because thats what a good human player would do, add groove, not randomness. randomness in a player would get you fired from that job or band.

[@MonkeyBars1]

"scarce" has a long A. Englisch ist seltsam - weiß ich schon.

[@MonkeyBars1]

Truly excellent roundup of all the humanizing techniques. Danke!

[@Somedei]

Robotic hats after looping for minutes on your fav daw and a higher volume makes you see things arent there, so humanize is not for me,good vid thou

[@CaptainPikant]

Absolutely understandable. These kinds of Hi-Hats have to be left untouched.