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The low-down on hi-hats Whether you’re building a trigger from scratch or doing a home repair, digitalDrummer can help. Philippe Decuyper will find the answers to your DIY dilemmas. Just email your questions to editor@digitaldrummermag.com. This month’s question is from Ho Gaik Kim in Malaysia, who asks: “How do I make the module register the open and closed hi-hat sound? I’m converting an acoustic hi-hat together with the hi-hat pedal. Is it possible?”
GETTING A REALISTIC hi-hat simulation from electronic drums has probably been one of the most challenging things over the past 20 years of e-drums improvements, but some amazing results have been achieved. Basically, an electronic hi-hat is made of two separate parts: a pad and a controller. The first-ever controller to be used was a simple foot switch. To understand how it works, we need to remember that in the General MIDI context, three notes are assigned to hi-hat: Closed, Open and Pedal. Some modules (older ones especially) are able to send the right note, depending on actions of the switch. 52
A hit on the hi-hat pad will then be translated to a ‘Closed’ note if the switch is ‘On’ or an ‘Open’ note if not. Some modules were even capable of sending a ‘Pedal’ note when this switch was going from ‘Off’ to ‘On’ position. Modern modules generally conform to this norm because they cannot anticipate what may be connected to their MIDI port. And the General MIDI reference is usually followed by conscientious manufacturers and software developers. While three states and a switch can be great to control electronic sounds, it is not enough to satisfy the demands for good acoustic hi-hat simulation. www.digitaldrummermag.com