Rolling High Hat Trick with Sonic_Pi

Welcome, readers! I learned a neat trick for spicing up a high hat and a kick loop.

Consider the following:

live_loop :cymbal do
    sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: amp_level
    sleep 0.25
end 

 

It's your standard loop. Now try modifying the velocity or amp of that cymbal:

live_loop :cymbal do
    amp_level = (ring 0.5, 1).tick
    sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: amp_level
    sleep 0.25
end 

It's subtle but it gives a rolling feel to the sound. It's a really quick way to add some more flavor to the beat.

Based on a conversation I had in the Sonic Pi forms, this is a way to streamline this too:

 live_loop :cymbal do
      sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: (ring 0.5, 1).tick
      sleep 0.25
end

You can put the ring inside the sample line. I'll explore rings more in a future post too so stay tuned!


Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what you think and what you've been working on musically (with Sonic Pi or otherwise)!

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