hautbois16
Member
I'm sure that the method you suggest is great - if you've got a recording studio with all kinds of samples at hand along with a piece of electronics that can be made to respond only to taps on the high-hat but nothing else, then trigger the desired sample. But your electronic triggering device would have to be a bit more complex than a simple circuit with only one trigger output in order to get a variety of sounds that might come from a high-hat.
Then, too, if you are in a situation like mine where you don't have all that fancy electronics available, you have to go a different way to get a sound at least somewhere near what you want. I would probably resort to a somewhat "knobby" approach since I would alreadyhave some kind of multitrack capability (a Tascam DP24 in my case): I would record the drum part in at least two passes - maybe more. My first pass might be all of the drums EXCEPT the high-hat; my next pass would be ONLY the high-hat. The high-hat is now on its own track, allowing me to apply EQ on it different from EQ on the other drums. Would you believe that I borrowed this idea from the "Demo Song" that came with my recorder. The manual talked about using the sliders on the machine to set up a desired mix, and some of the drum parts were on their own tracks. Not only could you apply different EQ to each drum "instrument," you could move each "instrument" independently to where you want it in the stereo field. Granted, it would take special skill and practice to create a complete drum track by playing parts in two or more passes, but that would not be an insurmountable task. One thing for sure: your high-hat won't bleed into the other drum sounds unless you make that happen with the knobs on your mixer or whatever you are using.
I have done my share of those "knobby" tricks. On one song I remember, the guitar I had at hand had some "regulation" problems such that I could not get my "ol' country C-chord" to play in tune though the G-chord and D-chord sounded great. My solution" I played my first guitar track staying silent on every C-chord. Before my second pass, I retuned a string or two on the guitar to make the C-chord sound in tune the way I wanted, then I recorded my second pass playing only the C-chord when it was needed and muting the guitar strings when it was not to sound. In listening to the whole song, you wouldn't know that I had done the C-chord on its own pass unless you had my guitar in hand and checked its regulation on the three chords involved using accurate tuning of the strings. I eventually took the guitar to a music store which does instrument repair and regulation; but at the time, my "knobby" approach worked fine.
Of course, it's nothing new for some of us home-recording hobbyists to do something strange to get as near as possible the sound we want.
Then, too, if you are in a situation like mine where you don't have all that fancy electronics available, you have to go a different way to get a sound at least somewhere near what you want. I would probably resort to a somewhat "knobby" approach since I would alreadyhave some kind of multitrack capability (a Tascam DP24 in my case): I would record the drum part in at least two passes - maybe more. My first pass might be all of the drums EXCEPT the high-hat; my next pass would be ONLY the high-hat. The high-hat is now on its own track, allowing me to apply EQ on it different from EQ on the other drums. Would you believe that I borrowed this idea from the "Demo Song" that came with my recorder. The manual talked about using the sliders on the machine to set up a desired mix, and some of the drum parts were on their own tracks. Not only could you apply different EQ to each drum "instrument," you could move each "instrument" independently to where you want it in the stereo field. Granted, it would take special skill and practice to create a complete drum track by playing parts in two or more passes, but that would not be an insurmountable task. One thing for sure: your high-hat won't bleed into the other drum sounds unless you make that happen with the knobs on your mixer or whatever you are using.
I have done my share of those "knobby" tricks. On one song I remember, the guitar I had at hand had some "regulation" problems such that I could not get my "ol' country C-chord" to play in tune though the G-chord and D-chord sounded great. My solution" I played my first guitar track staying silent on every C-chord. Before my second pass, I retuned a string or two on the guitar to make the C-chord sound in tune the way I wanted, then I recorded my second pass playing only the C-chord when it was needed and muting the guitar strings when it was not to sound. In listening to the whole song, you wouldn't know that I had done the C-chord on its own pass unless you had my guitar in hand and checked its regulation on the three chords involved using accurate tuning of the strings. I eventually took the guitar to a music store which does instrument repair and regulation; but at the time, my "knobby" approach worked fine.
Of course, it's nothing new for some of us home-recording hobbyists to do something strange to get as near as possible the sound we want.