If you hate your hihats, watch this video

The hihat and high percussion in your music is the energy infrastructure of your track: it's super important to get right, but can't be too interesting or it will distract from the lead elements. How do we program good hihats? How do we make them sound alive?
This tutorial shows concepts that apply in all different DAWs as long as you have a sampler plugin. I'll be working in Ableton Live 11, myself.
My Foundations courses ► courses.underdog.brussels
Underdog Mailing List ► eepurl.com/gZmNbv
Patreon ► / underdogmusicschool
Discord ► / discord
Contents:
0:00 Get your education pants on
0:57 The natural upbeat of music production
2:11 The four levels
2:57 Level one, the programming
4:23 Syncopation
6:53 A B A C
7:43 Level two, sound design
9:12 The three tools of hihat sound design
9:24 The ADSR
10:42 LFO - time
13:01 EQ
14:42 Transient designer
15:59 Level three, the group design
20:02 Level four, too much fun

[@OscarUnderdog]

My Foundations courses ► courses.underdog.brussels Underdog Mailing List ► eepurl.com/gZmNbv Patreon ► www.patreon.com/underdogmusicschool Discord ► discord.gg/trDbVcDHB3

[@ThePaulynho65]

johnny sinns really can do any job

[@mjbellantoni]

Oscar, sometime in the last few months your videos have just gone to another level. Super practical, inspiring, and just a lot of fun to watch.

[@M.W.777]

I concur!!

[@aiden7274]

Yes, so much value in these, thank you Oscar, amazing work!

[@iamtheguitar]

"Name one genre that doesn't use high hats!" "Baroque!" "I know it, you can't!" "Oh okay I can't!"

[@OscarUnderdog]

Hahahahaha i cant argue with that

[@19Lqueen17]

I thought of gamelan music, but baroque fits too.

[@Hari-du6pt]

I really love how in all the arts the artists use words like "airy dustiness" to describe stuff, so cool.

[@AndyMangele]

I'm not a drummer (a home recording guy though) and I love the HiHat and the things it can do - in most of the cases it defines the whole pulse for a piece.

[@cavedwellersound]

Man your tutorials go above mere education, this is wisdom

[@samprock]

One technic I developed for myself is to have different hi-hat sounds on L/R or L/C/R. This make search space wider and finding groves more fun. Can’t wait for 12 update to get more playful with midi manipulation features. Plus what you’ve listed, Oscar, in such a pristine presentation. Great delivery, enjoyed your skills on top of musical inspiration.

[@Endle185]

Must sound great on a mono club set up.😂🇬🇧😂😂

[@samprock]

@@Endle185 One place my music will never play is in club LOL Best case scenario in ear buds and studio cans of few dedicated friends listeners …. one of them is … me 😂

[@JamesMcMeeken]

@@Endle185this won’t necessarily mess up the mix on a mono sound system. It’s the phase of stereo effects you need to watch out. You can and should always check mix in mono as part of the mixing process

[@JackBlackNinja]

@@JamesMcMeekennot just phase effects. Also just simple loudness. When layering things that share frequencies, you’ll probably need to turn down the elements being layered more if you just used on of the elements alone

[@RogerFaught]

I took "name one genre of music that doesn't use hi-hats, you can't" as a challenge: various ambient styles don't often use hi-hats.

[@blairdactyl]

haha yeah i have several ambient tracks with no drums at all

[@CatFish107]

Oh good, you sat down after the intro. That stance is a spine killer, maaaan.

[@CatFish107]

Also, I don’t have a sampler, and refuse to take the time to learn a DAW. Happy to apply the ideas to other gear / software though!

[@royburrakaxmeoff]

What a great tutorial. As someone who is lazy with drum programming, especially when it comes to hi-hat patterns, you’ve opened my eyes to what is possible. Thanks so much, I’ll be spending more time on my hi-hat patterns in future 😊

[@emnigmamachine]

I hate to say it but hi hats are always an afterthought for me. Gonna change that now

[@shuashock]

Same

[@nimbusnoise]

Same same

[@DunLan]

Same same same

[@jvaddison]

Same same same same

[@patrickguth3796]

Also one of the main issue I see in tracks made with sample packs containing loops (of course used unedited): The loop(s) don't match in groove or even fight against each other. I see this a lot both in drums as well as any other elements. Your lesson was very valuable, I think. Great work.

[@willespalazzo]

OSCAR, you are seriously one of the best dance music educators out there, thanks for another masterclass

[@matthewmadonna6943]

Heavy glitchmob style glitchhop doesn’t use them persay but uses glitchy sounds to fulfill their purpose

[@krispysox]

I like to think that groove is the play between the hats and their troop of subplayers, in the 16ths and beyond.

[@krispysox]

I feel touched to get a like from the maestro!

[@crunkdwscrew]

Can you make a video diving deeper into the idea of a ‘global groove’ that you hit upon at 18:30? And Techiques to further accentuate the global groove of a track - like compression, etc.

[@MyshkoMusic]

Hhahahah I LOVE the energy right from the start 😆 I can tell you had a lot of fun recording this video :) Great work!

[@minde1337]

One of my favorite vids from this channel by far

[@CypiXmusic]

This comes in the perfect time. Been searching for how to improve my hats for a while. Hope this thing is gonna help a bit

[@paulthehorse]

Loving these videos so much. The emphasis at the end of every video on HAVING FUN is an all-too-needed reminder to our community. So important to love the process & stay inspired.

[@streglof]

Nice! Please do shakers and tambourines next. I struggle.

[@mollyoko]

buy one get a mic, shake it, record it , put it in sampler. genius.

[@Pavillionairez]

Aaaah....i think you mean the Shirley's and the Twirlies

[@malegria9641]

Shaker- literally just use some white noise with hipass and shortish delay. Tambourine- don’t know how to help you here, sorry ;-;

[@DielectricFailure]

I had to been my weakness for probably the past two years since I started trying to write this type of music. Thank you so much for showing how you create manually the swing-groove!

[@stefankatic1337]

Looking forward to watching this! Just what I needed.

[@user-rh5rr9wh8i]

Fun and well put together!

[@uhhhclem]

This is really great, inspiring stuff. Though I have to say, the section on group design has a really strong "now draw the rest of the owl" vibe.

[@nimbusnoise]

I live for that ending 😂 go off king 🔥

[@lightburning9693]

Brilliant opening description. Theory of hats! love it.

[@martinstagnaro]

Ty Oscar. You put some groove on my hats and a smile in my face with the level four

[@Georgemelhem]

Love you papppi always fun and engaging educative videos 😘😘

[@FfanitTech]

Legend! Fantastic video

[@LautaroGutierrezArbiza]

Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge! Extremely helpful

[@i4mt1m94]

Literally watching this on the bathroom... loving your videos btw such good work and of great value all the time

[@dennisrochat7747]

Think you’ve outdone yourself with this one. Good stuff. Also the intro was so fun hahah

[@StephenJPilat]

Great video as always!

[@astoshowyouhow]

I have replayed that "SCHLACK, SCHLACK" at 9:38 more often than I care to admit

[@ricardojmestre]

Me too. Oscar, you should sample that!

[@delugedj]

hahaha this is great. on point and fun. good to see ya happy bro! thanks for the vid x

[@Mykicya]

Very cool!!! When I started watching your lessons, I finally started to understand how it all works!

[@BoboLearns]

I did take notes.

[@Sasha_Shlyakhoff]

Oh my god! It was such an awesome tutorial. Thanks man!

[@antonynewland5834]

This is good because there’s a tendency to program hats in predictable ways I find , and I want to find different/ more interesting approaches 👍👏

[@AlexblackTV]

I always put your videos when i need some kind of inspiration or motivation, thanks a lot!!!

[@wethepeople6940]

You are an amazing teacher!

[@lnnerTemple]

Amazing and helpful as always❤

[@gavisthename1]

That was super helpful, loved it!

[@shortcutDJ]

yeah i feel like that, love listening to crispy hi hats but i suck at making them

[@iraklismoschonas5214]

Great video, thanks Oscar! I almost always lower quite enough the level of my hi-hats, so they can be heard less, but still be felt in the track.

[@Sanny.V]

awesome video! keep up the good work!

[@cush7696]

Masterfully explained!!!! Very useful !

[@kelvinlee18]

Awesome lesson!

[@akmumtaz6723]

Hats have always been an Achilles heel for me, where i have disregarded projects just cuz I couldn’t get the tops right. THANK YOU for this! Im certain I won’t be repeating past mistakes again and have fun experimenting with the most hypnotic part of a track 🤘🏽

[@remimonod5532]

Thx a lot, that was the video I really really needed. It helped me a lot !!

[@the_tp]

dude, honestly, at second 48 I stopped the video right now and gave u a streight thumbs up :D these are the vibes man haha love your vibe! and now putting on my helmet to be prepaired for the gems u`ll throw at me in the video! ;)

[@pavlekocbek]

this is a nice channel, professor. It's very nice to watch this for me. Affirmative to my pioneering and deepest top underground secret research lab work at the dawn of electro. So glad to see other researchers,scientists and professors came to the same results, solutions and paradigms.I Look forward to watching more and enrage in debates about new breakthrough solutions, ways, levels and future experiments.

[@selfconscious_glider220]

Dude I love the way you teach. It involves both the heart and the brain elements of music.

[@bengineer_the]

Sounds wicked!

[@LucBoeren]

super great tutorial

[@MichaelTmusic]

Grate stuff, devil sleepsin small bits.

[@omapots]

Great intro!! 💯 and overall content of course

[@docjoesweeney]

Got my education pants on! Great session. Definitely learning something good.

[@Jo_van_Tatz.aka.Mr.T]

Thanks a lot Oscar ! one of the best hi hat tutorial i've seen now ! nice and funny , some of the steps were really nie to see and hear :)

[@LUPART]

“Charlies” I'm having that. I love The Charleston. And something I call “Charleston Techno”, too. Such swingers as; BLAM THE TARGET by Neil Landstrumm, Game Form by Joey Beltram and Cristian Vogel's Body Mapping. The whole album. GET YER SHUFFLE ON!

[@hastysnailsound]

Thanks bro ! Really inspiring

[@slavak592]

Really good video, short but super informative, thanks so much underdog

[@sophiefau1648]

thank you!! amazing video :)

[@MessingerDAD]

Thanks so much, you are a great teacher! ❤

[@Fundaground]

Some of us old fogies program on hardware and I still find this info useful. Bravo

[@meis18mofo77]

You should check out Au5's FM technique for synthesizing cymbals. Noise based Hats don't always work and they can get a little dull if overused.

[@iggysixx]

Hi hats convey the feeling of the bpm / speed of the track. A 160bpm track with consistent 16ths on the hihat can FEEL faster than a 180bpm track with only kicks on the 1/4 notes (and the occasional 1/8 accent kick)

[@Azalraku]

This is 100% an area I'm lacking. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[@M.W.777]

Hell yea

[@manavdraugu]

Very informative video, thank you

[@cassiomendes13]

More cowbell! Excellent video, Oscar!! Thank you!!

[@7thNoteOfficial]

The dance at the end bro 😂😂👏🏾👏🏾

[@HWSNISNW]

Brilliant as always - love your dancing 😅

[@docjoesweeney]

This video was absolutely perfect. A niche topic, but so well described

[@alexmouthon]

thank you so much for this masterpiece brooooooooooo

[@toneworks_music]

Awesome video!

[@Animo1681]

loved the intro!

[@Maladaptation_ThiesWrobel]

Very good, thank you 🙏

[@cassettedisco6954]

Amigo muchas gracias por tus consejos realmente son muy buenos y te cargan de energía, saludos desde México 🇲🇽

[@ryanperrault8174]

Thanks for making this....One of my weaknesses in production I think...Could always use more Hi-hat tips.

[@nifako5294]

Thank you so much ☺️

[@arturom628]

Thank you!! Super timely. I was just struggling with mine a few hours ago 😢

[@banglondon987]

Great video!

[@lemurdreamur9257]

Really like your style of explanation. That is all :)

[@nicolasrouiller3885]

so simple but so deep, thx Oscar!

[@rodnee2340]

My solution is hi hat on the off beat and a rhythmic delay to give it some interest! I think I need this video!😂

[@jean-marcdecanter7719]

Very good job ! Helpful for me. High hats are as important as kick !

[@raakam52]

Yo I'm glad I discover this channel, keep up the good work ! By the way I'm from Belgium too :)

[@Bass_Nomad.]

hihats are those things where the open one is between the kicks and the closed on every sixteenth. that sums up my hihat pattern i use. i hate programming them, usually i just get some top loop or a shaker and be done with it.

[@dj_instruments937]

A video on the hi Hats and the "groups" would be appreciated. Like actual visual demonstrations changing out hh for rides, using and adding an energy reverse etcetera and building a solid drum groove. Just want to improve my drum programing. Thanks in advance 😊

[@stefanengel4714]

Oh shit, I think I just pissed my education pants

[@Frankk463]

Amazing

[@davidjangdal]

Hey! Amazing job as always ❤ But where was the best part, "Stay producing, be good to each other and take care" ?

[@dzaxys4643]

I can think of a bunch of genres that don't use hats but we mek techno and we need hats so lets goooo

[@NebulizorOfficial]

Hats off to you sir! :D

[@OscarUnderdog]

I see what you did there!

[@ropeburn6684]

Brotip for mixing: Especially beginners are mixing their hihats way too loud. The reason is simple: you make a new hihat track in your DAW, and it starts at standard volume close to maximum, which is way too loud. So you turn it down - the problem is, perception is relative, your ears instantly got used to the too loud volume, so "a bit less" now sounds "right" to you - but it isn't, it's still too loud. Your ears and brain fooled you. A simple way to fix that is turning the channel all the way down, then slowly up again until it sounds right. Effectively, you're turning your natural perception bias upside down.

[@helixrider]

Especially the reminder to keep it simple totally gets me. My HHs are mostly wayyyy to busy and over the top… 🤪🙌

[@drydessert4198]

Aside from smaller aspects, the main deal with hihats is what function they are supposed to cover in a track and how you achieve that. A very important aspect is how high in the frequency spectrum high hats and other individual cymbals are and which and how many you layer to create and take away tension and drive throughout your track. The same goes for the envelopes. In certain genres (like Berhain Techno: Subzero (Original Mix) · Ben Klock) you have a low frequency shaker type of sound, a low pitched sample probably. In more forward going tracks you would have more layers and rides in particular to add more and more drive. Sometimes, you can use noise sounds (like noisy vinyl sounds or background noise floor from an analog recording). These sounds have more of an aesthetic function in contrast to a hardgroove Techno track where the hats are supposed to drive the track forward. You made a video about music having to have a steady element so that groovy elements can be groovy in relation to the steady element, the metronome video. That is one purpose of hihats, not the only one but an important one. And I would say that with hihats, you can create patterns that are not just 4/4, 8/8 metronome type of click tracks but are groovy yet serve as metronome of sorts. But you need to have the idea that some tracks have that and that this is a thing. Then you need to find out how to do it (hint: short rhythmic patterns that drive the track forward and have a recognizable identity. So you need to make it a bit interesting otherwise it's too generic. But when you try to make it too clever, it's going to be too clunky.). You added modulation on the decay. That is a good idea but it wasn't rhythmically functional but random. Can use intentionally make some sounds have different attacks and decay phases so that this creates a certain rhythm? Can you then modulate these to make the contrast stronger and then dial it back again to help evolving the entire track? Can you use pitch on your hihat samples to create and take back tension? What can you do with delay and reverb on individual hihat tracks, or even individual hits (so just one particular hihat hit instead all hihats of that type)? Take a listen to Beautification by David Alvarado to get an idea. When you use white noise to create hihats, where do you distinguish between a hihat function and a snare drum/percussive function? What other effects are useful for hihats (distortion, flangers with and without envelope followers, phaser, ...)? What is the relationship of hihats and snare drums in Techno and House? Can snare drums be an extension to hihat tracks with more weight? ... There are so many more things about hihats..

[@rayjayvids]

BRILLIANT 👍✌️