Hey guys, popping in for a quick update. We are officially 94% of the way to me being able to pay off that stupid loan and getting back into music! I'm currently not dying of starvation, working odd jobs, and of course plugging away at my book, which is what I wanted to share with you!

I wrote this chapter today, while I was fiddling around with cymbal samples for AFMD (ADR3-N's Free Metal Drums).

It's one of 71 articles I've drafted since the whole financial debacle in March. If you spend a lot of time working with cymbal samples, you'll love it.

Without further ado:

Cymbal Sampling Hax

So you downloaded a pack of cymbals off the internet – only to realize they’re all oneshots… of different cymbals. Not much you can do with that, right?

Wrong! Turns out, you can make them a little more musical – with DIY cymbal chokes!

This method works best for MIDI composition.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Some cymbal samples
• A MPC style sample plugin
• A release knob!

For this experiment, I used a pack of Paiste cymbals from Internet Archive, but it works with any cymbal samples – maybe even any sample VST.

In my case, I use Mixcraft’s built-in OmniSampler. It allows you to drag and drop samples directly into the plugin, and the “global” feature allows you to adjust all the parameters at once. You’ll see why this is useful in a second.

Step 1: Load Your Samples

First thing you’ll want to do, drag the samples you want into OmniSampler – or your sampler of choice.

You’ll be doing this twice, so keep it to just crashes – or hats. Whichever is your preference.

If you want to do both crashes and hats, repeat these steps with a new patch.

Once everything is loaded, set your attack to 0 ms and your release to 600 ms. This is the most important step! 600 ms is about the average release time of a real life cymbal choke.

Now, when you trigger your cymbal samples, they should choke instead of ringing out. The length of the midi note will control the amount of time before the choke!

Step 2: Load Your 2nd Set of Samples (Optional)

A second set of samples allows you to swap between chokes and sustained hits. This is optional, because you might decide you prefer manually controlling the release.

Nevertheless, as far as quality of life improvements go, it’s super easy to set up.

Simply load the same samples an octave or two higher than their choked counterparts – in order. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose.

For OmniSampler, new samples import with a default release, which significantly decreases the amount of work you’ll need to do, i.e. you won’t have to do them manually.

With each sample an octave or two apart, you can select any of the chokes you write, or vice versa, and swap them to sustains with the flick of a keyboard shortcut.

In Mixcraft, this is as easy as select the note, hold SHIFT and UP or DOWN, and presto, octave jump. Swapping between octaves and DIY “velocity layers” is a snap!

Step 3: ENJOY!

Whether you decide to manually draw in your sustains or apply Step 2 for velocity control, you should now have a fully functioning, slightly more versatile cymbal bank.

This is ideal for open hi-hats with a couple round robins. Since pedals are hard to hear in a crowded mix, your DIY chokes will fool pretty much anyone into thinking you have a full library!

You can expand this technique with pitch shifting

For multiple cymbals, you can detune them. This will make it seem like you have more samples than you actually do. Coupled with the manual releases and some simple shifts in filter “resonance”, you might even fool yourself!

Still, it’s not a replacement for multiple round robins. Without them, your new cymbal patch will be best suitable for slower passages and those that are not very busy with repeat crashes.

However, if you’re using it to supplement an existing drum library, one that doesn’t have any chokes, or if the cymbals are a little ugly, congrats – you now have options!

Don’t forget to apply global FX to glue everything together, and of course save your patches!

And that's it!

I'll probably be working on this beast for a few more months, the way it's going. If you'd like an update on future articles, request an @! Once everything is ready to go, I'll drop the whole shebang on Gumroad for free!

Special thanks to the amazing people who made this and my continuing work possible:

@stevemaddenfootball (@Aalasteir)

@AED-4

@BrandyBuizel

@CrimsonKero

@Cyberdevil

@Droid

@FarFromSundown

@liljim

@jimmythecaterpillar

@KI1

@Mariogd

@MATRVG

@TeffyD and the Mall Music Collab Team

@theOve

@TomFulp

@Whirlguy and the Newgrounds 30th Anniversary Collab team

@zeroizeroizero

@Yatsufusa

And many, many more. I would not be here without you!