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9:3 Variable hihat control
Overview
As discussed in the last section, variable hihat MIDI recordings can be tedious to edit or quantize. Therefore, if you use this
method of hihat control, it’s advisable to either make sure your takes are spot-on, or to be resigned to tedious editing operations.
Of course, if you’re predominantly using BFD2 for playing live, this is not a concern.
Note that BFD2’s Groove recording function automatically converts variable hihat input into standard hihat articulations which do
not rely on the hihat pedal height MIDI CC values.
Electronic drumkits use a MIDI continuous controller (referred to as Hihat height in BFD2) to represent the position within open
and closed states of the hihat pedal. Whenever a variable tip or variable shank note is played, BFD2 plays the appropriate tip or
shank articulation from those available – closed, 1/4-open, 1/2-open, 3/4-open or fully open – depending on the Hihat height.
You can assign as many keys to variable tip or shank notes as you need. However, all variable tip notes share the same settings,
while all variable shank notes share another group of settings. If you like, you can ‘lock’ the variable tip and variable shank set-
tings together, if you don’t need to adjust each of them independently.
There are also a number of important preferences that dictate hihat response: see section 9:4 for details.
Important note
BFD2 allows variable hihat control only for the hihat slot (slot 3). You may load additional hihats in other slots and trigger their
articulations directly with MIDI notes, but variable hihat control is restricted to hihats loaded in the hihat slot only.
Assigning variable tip and variable shank articulations
Any hihat note that your electronic drumkit brain transmits should be assigned to
either a variable tip or variable shank articulation, with one important exception.
Almost all brains send out a ‘pedal’ note, or ‘foot-chick’ sound, when the hihat pedal is
depressed fully. This note should always be mapped to BFD2’s pedal articulation.
The variable tip is used for the main surface or ‘bow’ of the hihat, which should be
used if you only have a single-zone hihat trigger pad. ‘Tip’ refers to the fact that the
surface of the hihat is struck with the tip of the stick.
The variable shank is used for the edge of the hihat, which should be used in addi-
tion to the variable tip if you have a dual-zone hihat trigger pad. ‘Shank’ refers to the
fact that the edge of the hat is struck with the shank, or body, of the stick.
Example: Roland TD-20
A good example is the Roland V-Drums range of kits. Most of Roland’s brains send out the same set of notes for the hihat. The
following table illustrates which notes to map to which articulation.
Roland note
Open Bow
Closed Bow
Open Edge
Closed Edge
Pedal
MIDI note (note no.)
A#1 ()
F#1 ()
D0 ()
A#-1 ()
G#1 ()
BFD mapping
variable tip
variable tip
variable shank
variable shank
pedal
The Roland brain decides whether to send the ‘open’ or ‘closed’ note depending on the pedal controller value and a setting on the
brain dictating the transition point between open and closed.
This distinction is unimportant to BFD2 because it contains additional 1/4-open, 1/2-open and 3/4-open sounds.
Therefore the open and closed sounds are mapped to the same variable articulation. BFD2 makes its own decisions about which
actual hihat articulation to play, depending on the value of the pedal controller.
The pedal note, meanwhile, chokes any playing open sound and plays the hihat pedal articulation (the ‘foot-chick’ sound).
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