Use a different hihat sample for each individual hit in the song, record the hihat track solo to mini disc, slander the sounds of the Octatrack big time, have that mini disc submitted as evidence in the highly publicised trial, record the media coverage of the court playback of the minidisc via fm radio to the OP1F, transmit it from the OP1F to your car radio while ordering at a fast food drive through, send a freedom of information request to the fast food chain requesting the recording (for training and quality purposes) of your order, get a response from the fast food chain saying they don’t record drive through orders, go back to square one, use 909 hats, chillax.
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Respect for the work you’ve put in there.
To be honest it would have been more work to stop myself…
P.S. I have similar feelings about 808 and 909 kicks. I don’t really care what the kicks I use sound like, I don’t really know what a good kick is supposed to sound like, I dunno when I make a kick on a synth if it sounds proper or will work in a mix, so at least if I use samples of those I know they’re tried and tested, but for reasons above it feels a bit cheaty.
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Sounds like something Homework-era Daft Punk might do (R.I.P.)
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Not sure if Microtribe meant it this way but a listener doesn’t have to know what something is to appreciate it when it’s there. Maybe they’d just describe it as that ‘dancy aesthetic’.
Like with design, a consumer doesn’t need to understand it to appreciate it.
(I’m a 606 fanboy myself)
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You know that’s exactly how I feel about crumpets. They’re not bread, not muffins, obviously cooked but not sure if they’ve been baked or steamed, but then again they’re spongy and have lots of holes so maybe they’ve been grown like mushrooms… I just have no idea.
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Here’s an idea. Use the 909 hats as the place where the listener returns home. So for three minutes (or whatever), it’s some twisted form of a 909 hat that is kinda familiar and kinda alien, then gradually twist it back to a familiar 909 hat at some point, bringing everything back together pleasingly. Or go the other way, start out with the familiar and then twist things into something else.
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They got holes fer yer jam I don’t need to know about none of those fancy raisin agints
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Bossy boots.
I do what I like.
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I try to use the classic x0x sounds to give my patterns a classic touch. If I want a more modern vibe I make noise Hats and Rides. That fits my more dark techno style very well.
I think a good mix of old and new is the best way to go
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Good reminder that I should do a factory reset on the tr8 again. I‘m just making it sound worse with the few additional settings. The sp… something treated sounds i once got for a buck from samples from mars would sound better of course than what i‘m able to do.
Big jeff mills fan here. favourite just pure 909 finger drumming.
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I still love all (most of) those songs from when I was 14, but when I look at some of the thoughts and beliefs I had back then, many of them needed adjusting.
The novelty of the new experience quickly ossifies and become canon and what once was mind expanding becomes a limitation. Your particular gestalt of a dance track may be solely yours, or your specific demographic’s version of what-must-be.
So, what formed in the mind as the archetypal, one-true-hat may always be there, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be subverted. How transgressive can a hihat be? Do you go all Peter Gabriel/Melt and leave them out entirely? Do you replace it with unrefined noise? Do you just do what sounds right to you, self analysis be damned? Is there even room in techno for transgression?
There is plenty of great electronic/dance music being made without 909s but maybe that only leaves more room for yours.
I’m a non traditionalist. I’ll use whatever to hit that right frequency but I read/saw an interview with FM Einheit years ago about sampling or music in general when he mentioned that it only takes a second or two to get all the social/cultural context out of a piece of music. Just little snippets of things can be used to represent the entirety of the thing.
There is great comfort to be found in consistency.
“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” ~ William D. Tammeus
If you want to evoke all those involuntary memories, use the @adamjay ’time machine’, conjure those Proustian madeleines, use them. Deliberation and intent go a long way. Use those hats as a sigil. Cast them as a spell.
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Learnt a new word today. Thank you. 
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I find it a bit hard to believe that the majority of ‘consumers’ know what a 909 hat is. I feel a bit snobby saying that though. Sure they might recognise it and in which case there is a certain amount of nostalgia but to say you’re giving them ‘what they want’ seems a bit far fetched to me. It’s more about what you want as a producer / musician and what feels comfortable for you maybe. Whether you genuinely like them or not is another thing as it’s probably less about sound and more about insecurity and safety.
So yeah … 909 hats could well be holding you back.
I use them often too and I do like the sound of them but I am also really aware that I do it only because I am aware of my peers. Tried and tested so to say but that mentality is also ‘if it ain’t broke don’t try and fix it’, which is a death knell for progress and innovation.
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I don’t think it’s about people consciously saying “thats a 909 hat”, it’s about making enough familiar sounds to keep an audience interested whilst trying to avoid the lazy/nostalgic part of me from making things boring and predictable.
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909 is definitely ok sounding and the first time I played with the decay of one I instantly felt like Jeff Mills. After I got Pulsar 23 I’ve never cared about 909 hats again though 
after I sell it to get Perkons I’m going to spend the next 20 years trying to get my hats to sound like that 
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See now I think TR-6S is the way to go in this instance.
My only regret about my time with it first time around was trying to use it by itself. I think with something like the Syntakt, it’s a great match.
Great classic sounds, but also sample playback if you want to pitch your 909 kicks (as samples) to the rest of your sounds, rather than the usual “tune your track to the swept 909 kick” that makes so much stuff sound the same. Plus compression.
Battery power, small, just a dual channel audio cable and a midi cable needed, run it through Syntakts inputs and fx block. Boom , old geezer nostalgia plus that new-new.
And the flexibility of true absurdity, like 6 tracks of 909 hi hats.
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I can totally understand that, the Hihat Quest is something that drives me crazy. I do really like the Syntakt HH i got out of it - its just that they are not the expected thing - and the circuit for the HH is something special on the original machines, its not just filterd noise - they used oscillators to create that ringing sound. As we hear these constantly since years - its burned in for sure.
I sample the Syntakt now into my MPC, and when i need 909 hats, i use that mouse on mars sample - and layer it or cycle it. I dont know.
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9not9
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