Hats

AudioThing's Hats is a specialized drum synthesizer that isolates an often-overlooked corner of beat-making: high-frequency percussion. Rather than treating hi-hats and cymbals as afterthoughts, the plugin dedicates its architecture entirely to this domain, offering both synthesis and sampling pathways with genuine sonic depth.

The synthesized noise section departs from conventional white or pink noise generation. Instead, it employs six square wave oscillators tuned to different pitches and phases, a topology borrowed from the Roland TR-808's hihat circuit. This architecture produces metallic, controllable noise characteristics that respond logically to pitch and decay parameters, avoiding the brittleness of generic synthetic hi-hats. The sample section draws from a curated factory bank of 55 recordings, spanning rare vintage drum machines through acoustic cymbals, with notable processing including Aphex Aural Exciter treatment and Revox tape saturation on select samples.

The effects chain - ring modulation, bit crushing, filtering, and reverb - can be freely reordered via drag and drop. The filter section uses cascaded high-pass and band-pass stages with state variable topology and zero-delay feedback, providing surgical control without introducing latency artifacts. This matters for tight hi-hat work where phase relationships influence groove pocket.

Hats serves producers who demand precision in their hi-hat programming, whether crafting vintage-inflected beats or experimental electronic textures. While specialized plugins risk feeling gimmicky, AudioThing's execution here justifies the focus. With 80 presets included and randomization tools, there's sufficient creative scaffolding for quick exploration without sacrificing the detailed parameter access serious engineers expect.