HATGRAFT

An instrument for hi-hats only. Use it when programmed 16th-note hats sound like a machine gun, or when half-open and pedal hits stand out as if they came from another instrument. Closed, pedal and open are not separate samples here: they are one pair of hats, opened more or less. Press a foot controller (CC4) and the hat goes closed, half-open, open while staying one sound all the way; an open hat stops with the sound of the cymbals closing.

You do not have to program the patterns. Each of 12 keys holds a hi-hat pattern that plays in time with your song; patterns with open hits or the pedal send CC4 too. RANDOM re-rolls them, and LOCK keeps the ones you like. Drag a key onto a DAW track to drop the pattern in as MIDI.

Every hit varies a little in strength, where the stick lands and timing, so a steady groove never sounds mechanical. Yet the same spot in the song always sounds the same, wherever you start playback and whenever you bounce. No samples are included: it plays from its synthesized layers alone, and you can layer your own hi-hat samples on two slots, one for closed and one for open.

HATGRAFT Pro (on Gumroad) adds control over how the hits vary, every control on the EDIT page, WAV export of the patterns, individual outputs per way of playing and saving your own presets.