Hey guys, this is my first time posting. Ive been working on this track for some time, and i cant seem to get the hats to where i want them. Im trying to go for a traditional tech house sound, but i cant get the 1-1,2 sound that i hear in most tech these days.
SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds
thats the track, any suggestions for the hats?
Just a couple of ideas - dont know really what you are going for man 
Assuming you use ableton:
Try layering the hat with a copy of itself in simpler - one octave down.
Use the velocity % to about 1/2 way… then increase/decrease the volume level of the lower octave to where it sounds fuller.
If you wanna have a 16th pattern playing constant… again set the velocity to 50% or so in simpler… then stick a Velocity Plug before it - increase the random & you’ll get random velocities…
If you do your off beat hats at different velocities… then make the pattern length lets say 3.5 bars (or whatever sounds good) - then loop it out… it’ll repeat randomly if you get what I mean. Same goes for anything really.
Stick a utility plug on your OB hat & raise it up… will make hats sound wider.
You can get a bit of a “pattern” by sidechaining a reverb as an insert on your off-beat hats. if you make it like, 30%wet and have a small size, and 3or4sec length.
Interesting track… like all the reversed sounds.
ooh some nice ideas there. I will try some of em myself.
Usually, I try to mess around with a combination of placement and velocity to get the sound I want. Plus, and I think this is key, at least four different but very similar hat sounds that give it a more ‘live feel’ when played together. And these days I try to do at least a two to four bar loop for elements that will play a lot and frequently, like hats, to give the some form of modulation over a longer time period.
Thanks guys, i have added some more nested structures and they have worked nicely, ill post the track when its done if you guys are interested.
On another note, is there any free VSTs around that make nice, melodic trance like pads? I havent been able to find one
Great stuff here, thanks. To add something small, a phaser on hats can add a bit of sparkle.
Besides all those nifty tips, I got a few more.
Try to pan the different hats to different sides with different amounts.
I often use 3 different open hats of which 2 go to the left and one to the right. Some more pronounced closed hats will be centered on the beat. Some thinner and shorter closed hats will be to the right and between the kick and open hat.
Play with placing the different hats to find your groove.
And don’t stick to one rhythm. I often make 4 different bars.
Besides that, a return track with a highpass filter and the Warm Up Highs saturator will make the hats a bit more fresh.