Constructing a hihat-ish sound from random audio?

krank · Post by **krank** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:04 pm

I need to generate a rhythmic sound to fill in the high frequencies like a hi-hat, taking the source from real-time audio input (guitar track). I've spent some time with CamelPhat and its presets, but I only get annoying noises so far, nothing useful. I figure a Live rack might do the trick, but my use of Live's effects has been quite basic until now.

Any experiences with something similar?

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:50 pm

Might try autofilter sidechained to a pulsing (hi-hatish) source?

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:24 pm

What exactly is our sours material?
Are you wanting to do this in real time for example playing the hi part live?
Do you have sampler?

I just did some thing along these lines.
Surprisingly enough i found that using a drone from the low E string provided lots of over tones to mess with.
I started by taking the audio file and selecting a one beat section and looping it.
I then used the clip envelopes to carve out an ADSR type envelope.
Then i bounced it and dragged it into sampler where i messed with the pitch using the pitch ADSR and the filter.
When it was all awesome i bounced it again and then went to work with the usual devices i might add to a hi-hat to create movement.
Oh!,,, and i did all of it in context, hardly ever soloing the part.

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:51 pm

if I was gonna try to make a guitar into a high hat I would use distortion and or redux through a high pass filter I think, probably gate it or automate envelopes for volume. maybe a band pass filter migth work too. you might also want to consider a reverb with a really short tail.

that would easily give you a really electronic sounding high hat. if you're after a real sounding one I think your SOL though.

oh yeah, don't forget erosion with the white noise setting, most electronic high hats make use of white noise so thats a good place to start.

krank · Post by **krank** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:59 pm

Like I said, the source is a guitar track (electric). The prob is that I need to use only this as source, no exception - that's one of the basic concepts for this piece. I've had good results manipulating it into bass/rhythm and synth-like chords, but the high-end (treble) is mostly missing. So I need something to fill that frequency space without sacrificing the concept of having everything happen from a single guitar performance (idea is also to do it live at some point). It doesn't have to sound like a high-hat, just occupy the same area rhythmically and frequency-wise. One problem is that a guitar simply doesn't have much treble, so some frequency shifting might be necessary.

I know it's a bit of a tall order, but almost everything should be possible in the digital realm, methinks. I hear people do amazing things with Live's racks.

Edit - Johnisfaster, you posted while I wrote the above. Reverb and erosion might be a key.

Thanks a lot to you all for suggestions.

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:07 pm

Record a single note, pitch it waaaay up, toss it into Impulse, turn "length" up to 100%, resample, chop, bingo.

krank · Post by **krank** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:08 pm

the_planet wrote:Record a single note, pitch it waaaay up, toss it into Impulse, turn "length" up to 100%, resample, chop, bingo.

Has to be real-time I'm afraid.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:24 pm

Got a sample of the guitar track? Or what kind of chords, notes are you playing?

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:39 pm

Ok, I created a little guitar track with Operator. So, track1 Guitar, sending out to master and return A. Return A has an EQ, Gate and Erosion. Track 2 has an Operator hi hat on it where i am hitting every other 16th. This track is set to sends only and is going to return B with the volume all the way down. I am using this track side chained to the gate. This seems to be working. Dial in the frequencies you like with the EQ and adjust the erosion to your liking.

This was a quick and dirty way. I suppose you could get more elaborate. Right now it sounds like a closed HiHat.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:03 pm

You can create a snare by doing the same thing by messing with the gate release and hold times. Though creating a kick seems to be a challenge.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:18 am

auto pan set to synced tremolo operation, 16th notes. filter, erosion, perhaps a bit of redux, done.

thesmallisbeautiful · Post by **thesmallisbeautiful** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:25 am

Maybe this is just way too easy to satisfy you, but if you just mute the strings really high up (past the frets) and strum it fast you can pretty easily replicate a halfway decent hat sound with no digital tricks at all.

m:o · Post by **m:o** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:33 am

Moody wrote:Though creating a kick seems to be a challenge.

best with tonal low source
set filter freq. to desired kick freq.
set the filter resonance quite high
use an eq to shape the sound

use of adsr/gate is obligatory

leonard · Post by **leonard** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 2:21 am

ON this topic, does anyone know any freeware envelope/gate audio units/vsts which can act on an audio signal?
the way i've seen high-hat sounds made in he past is to really filter/envelope a white noise source, not exact but a close enough approximation. if you can turn your guitar sound into white noise, possibly through distortion, then filter/envelope it should should get close enough. btw heres and interesting cymbol synthesis tut, using sc3, but the concepts are the same..

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 3:36 am

have you tried messing with an auto filter?