Rung Cow Hi-Hat
A ring-modded cowbell with cymbal noise.
Tuned to the same frequencies as a cowbell, except VCO-A is tuned one octave higher because I’m sending the sub into the ringmod. Tune VCO-A to G6 +35¢ = 800 Hz + 1 Octave. Tune VCO-B to C#5 -45¢ = 540 Hz.
Tune the VCF frequency to C9. Experiment with different filter modes: BP2, BP4, HP4, LP4, LP2.
Use an alt cymbal noise.
1: Send VCO-A sub, and VCO-B square into the ring-mod.
2: Patch ENV-A to VCA-B CV, then VCA-B to the mixer.
3: Turn up the noise in the mixer. Switch noise to alt, and select one of the cymbal noise sources. To select different noise flavours, hold down the red manual gate button and click the buttons in the MIDI/CV section.
4: Set mixer levels to taste.
5: Set the filter to bandpass 2 or 4 with a frequency around 10,000 Hz.
6: Raise Q a little. Raising filter resonance accentuates the high frequencies. Don’t raise it too high, or it’ll screech. Find a nice balance.
7: Patch MIDI velocity to ENV-B fall. Then send ENV-B to VCA-A level.
Further Reading
See the manual linked on this page, there’s a lot of good information here.
Designing a TR-606 style hi-hat from scratch (Youtube)
Moritz Klein, the designer of the Erica Synths EDU DIY Hi-hat describes how the module works.
Analysing Metallic Percussion (SOS)
Explores the challenges of synthesizing metallic percussion instruments like cymbals, hi-hats, tam-tams, and gongs.
Synthesizing Realistic Cymbals (SOS)
Synthesizing cymbals using FM synthesis and the Nord Modular.
Practical Cymbal Synthesis (SOS)
How to synthesize the cymbals from the 808 and 909.
This article is mostly about bells, but the epilogue at the bottom has a brief description of the 808 hi-hats.