So midi hi hats, groove agent or pattern pattern sequencer!
Best option would probably be to find MIDI loops that are played by a real drummer, and then take those. There are some in GrooveAgent, in different styles. Some might be programmed, some look like played.
Set up a Logical Editor preset to randomise Velocity and Position, by just a little.
In GrooveAgent, the Built-in kits (and some such as the Simon Phillips etc) have a modulatable open hi-hat, which goes from shut to fully open.
Don’t forget to push or pull the hats (and the snare) backwards or forwards by a smidgen. A little bit before the beat makes the track “edgy”, whilst a little bit after makes the same music more laid back.
One thing that used to be great was Cubase used to come with a bunch of “groove templates” installed for just this kind of thing.
The other approaches do work, but having groove templates right there really made things faster and easier.
This can also be accomplished realtime by using MIDI Modifiers in the Inspector.
On thing that can really help make MIDI drums sound realistic if you are duplicating the Pattern or Part a bunch of times is to use the newly introduced Play Probability (name???) capability. Add in some low velocity (or not so low) ghost notes to your Part and set them to have a low probability (20% is a good starting point) of playing. Now when the Part plays you’ll get a bunch of subtle variations.
Nothing wrong with these choices, but you’ll get different results each time you press Play. Sometimes good, sometimes not so, and no telling which until after the export.
2 Likes