How to Make a Hydrogen Drumkit

This post explains how to create a Hydrogen drumkit without editing any code i.e. a point-and-click method. This may sound complicated but it is actually really easy. So when you decide to do this, simply refer back to this post and follow the steps. Here we go:

1. Open Hydrogen (No-brainer), and make sure the Instrument Editor window is open.
2. Go to View and select Show Drumkit Manager. Select any drumkit and click Load Drumkit. This will be used as a base for your new kit.
   
3. I will assume that you already have the relevant sound files, you want to create the kit with, saved into a file (.wav, .flac, .au or .aiff formats).
4. Select the relevant instrument you want to edit, i.e. Snare, and view it in the Layers tab of the Instrument Editor window. You should see something similar to the below figure:
5. Select the blue horizontal block and click on the Delete Layer button.
6. Now you want to add your own sound, so click on the Load Layer button. This opens a file browser which allows you to choose your sound.
   
7. Select your sound and click Open. Your sound is now loaded as an instrument.
   
8. If you want to use multiple layers for each instrument, i.e. soft and loud snare hits, you must load another layer. This is done by repeating step 6.
9. With multiple layers you need to edit the volume at which each layer is activated. This is done by shrinking the blue horizontal bars in the Instrument Editor. As seen in the below figure, the two layers look like steps. This means that at high volumes the 1st layer will be used and at low volumes the 2nd layer is used (i.e. left is quiet and right is loud).
10. You can rename your instrument by clicking on its name in the Instrument tab of the Instrument Editor.
11. The Instrument tab also has some cool knobs which can be used to edit your instrument's sound. The most important of these is the instrument gain which allows you to raise or lower your instrument's volume to match the other parts of the kit.
12. The Layers tab also has cool knobs. The gain knob edits the selected layer's gain and the pitch knob makes the selected layer sound either higher or lower.
13. To add more instruments, simply select another instrument and repeat steps 6 to 12.
14. Once you are happy with your kit, you have to SAVE it. This is done by visiting the Drumkit Manager mentioned in step 2. Select the Save tab and replace all the details with your own. Make it official by clicking on the Save button. You have now made your own drumkit. I recommend that you save periodically whilst making your kit - you don't want to lose all your work.
    
15. Once you feel your kit is complete and you haven't done anything illegal like stealing proprietary sounds. Export it by using the Export tab in the Drumkit Manager and then post a link to it both as a comment to this post and on the Hydrogen Forum. Check out 4shared.com for free file hosting/sharing.
    

Let me know if this information was useful by rating this post.

Other posts you might find interesting:
Making a Roll Sound Realistic
Pimp my Beats
Multiple Outputs for Hydrogen
My Attempt at a Hydrogen Drumkit
Hydrogen Drumkits

My Attempt at a Hydrogen Drumkit

Hey fellow Hydrogen users,

I have constructed a Hydrogen drumkit from recordings of my own Tama Superstar Fusion kit with Zildjian ZXT Titanium Rock cymbals. Below are links to both the hydrogen kit and a short MP3 demo which allows you to hear what the kit sounds like.

Drumkit: Brian_Tama_Superstar
Demo: Brian_Tama_Superstar_DEMO


The above pictures show the Tama Superstar Fusion drumkit and Zildjian ZXT Titanium Rock cymbals used to create the hydrogen kit. Please write up as many comments as you like, good and bad. I would love to hear your ideas.

Other posts you might find interesting:
How to make a Hydrogen Drumkit
Pimp my Beats
Multiple Outputs for Hydrogen
Making a Roll Sound Realistic
Hydrogen Drumkits

Hydrogen Drum Kits

Hydrogen is fantastic, but only when powered with the right drumkits. Being a drummer, I know a few things about good sounding drumkits.

Hydrogen has posted a collection of a few of their "official" drumkits. These can be found here. My personal favourite is the Yamaha Vintage Kit. Note for Ubuntu Studio users it is easier to install these kits from the synaptic package manager. The Ultra Acoustic Kit from the synaptic package is by far the best I've tried.

However, there are plenty of drumkits hidden throughout Hydrogen's forums. I figured it would be a good idea to make a nice list. Please note that I did not create these kits and have not tried all of them. With that said, here we go...

1. A homemade metal kit: SonorDesignerKit
2. Kawai XD-5 Drum Kit
3. Roland JD-990
4. Yamaha TG-55
5. A variety of clicks and pops: ClicksAndPops
6. A homemade first attempt: Darthvim_beta1
7. Premier Artist Series and Zildjian Cymbals: PremierKit. More info here.
8. Another homemade jobby: Aqoustic

That's most of the drumkits...not really, I'm just getting tired :)
Hope it helps

Other posts you might find interesting:
My Attempt at a Hydrogen Drumkit
How to make a Hydrogen Drumkit
Hydrogen Drum Machine Basics
Making a Roll Sound Realistic
Funk Hydrogen Beat Templates
Hydrogen Drumbeat Templates - A Non-drummer's Best Friend