How to Make Hi-Hat Rolls in FL Studio (Trap and Drill)

Hi-hats are the engine of a trap beat. The 808 gives it weight and the snare gives it a backbone, but the hats decide whether the beat feels lazy, nervous, bouncy or aggressive. Here is how to program them in FL Studio, from the basic grid to rolls that sound like a real producer made them.

1. Start with a simple 8th-note groove

Before you roll anything, lay down a steady base. At 140–160 BPM (or 70–80 if you count in half time), place a closed hat on every 8th note in the Channel Rack or piano roll. That is your pulse. Rolls only sound exciting when they break away from something steady, so resist the urge to fill every bar with 32nds.

Pick a hat with a short, tight decay. Long, washy hats smear when you roll them fast. If you need sounds, the TrapWin Free Drum Kit has 3 hi-hats and 3 open hats taken from every TrapWin kit, and our article on the free trap drum kit download explains what is inside.

2. Set the piano roll snap for rolls

In FL Studio one step is a 16th note, so the snap menu in the piano roll is your roll-speed selector:

• 1/2 step = 32nd notes, the classic trap roll.
• 1/3 step = fast triplet rolls, the "gallop" feel heard in drill and modern trap.
• 1/4 step = 64th notes, a buzz that works for half a beat before a snare.

Change the snap, paint a short burst over the last beat of a bar, and switch the snap back. Most good hat patterns use two or three roll speeds per four bars, not one.

3. Place rolls where the groove breathes

The best spots for a roll are the gaps: right before the snare on beat 3, at the end of a bar, and leading into a new section. A common four-bar pattern looks like this:

• Bar 1: straight 8ths.
• Bar 2: 8ths with a 32nd roll on the last half beat.
• Bar 3: 8ths with a triplet roll before the snare.
• Bar 4: a longer roll that ramps into the next bar, plus an open hat.

Keep the bars with vocals simpler. Busy rolls under a rapper fight for attention; save the wild stuff for the intro, the gaps and the transitions.

4. Shape velocity and pitch

A roll with every note at the same velocity sounds like a machine gun. Open the velocity lane in the piano roll and draw a ramp: quiet to loud for a roll that pushes into the snare, loud to quiet for a roll that fades away. You can also accent the first note of each group so the listener still feels the beat.

Pitched rolls are the next level. Select the notes of a roll and move every few notes up a semitone or two, or draw the pitch in the note properties so the roll rises across the burst. Rising rolls build tension; falling rolls make the end of a bar feel heavy.

5. Humanize the pattern

Real swing comes from small imperfections. Nudge some off-beat hats a few ticks late, lower the velocity of every second 8th note, and drop a note here and there so the pattern skips. If two hats overlap, put the closed and open hat in the same cut group so the closed hat chokes the open one, the way a real hi-hat behaves.

6. Speed it up with a script or a plugin

Drawing rolls note by note works, but it is slow. Two TrapWin tools do the repetitive part for you:

• HAT GOBLIN is a hi-hat and snare roll plugin (VST3, AU and Standalone). Hold a key and it rolls locked to your DAW tempo, from 1/2 down to 1/256 with triplets on the black keys. It has 12 roll patterns (FLICK 3, RAMP UP, GALLOP, STUTTER, RATCHET, BOUNCE and more), velocity shapes, a pitch ramp of ±12 semitones, pan ping-pong or sweep, swing, humanize and probability. It ships with 120 factory hats in 6 banks, or you can drop in your own WAV, AIFF, FLAC or MP3. When the roll sounds right, DRAG MIDI lets you drag one bar into FL Studio as editable notes.
• The Piano Roll Toolkit includes the TW Hi-Hat Roller script for trap and drill hats with rolls and pitched rolls, plus TW Velocity Shaper, TW Stutter & Ratchet and TW Swing & Triplet Feel. It needs FL Studio 21 or newer.

Want to try the script approach first? The free TrapWin FL Starter includes the TW Hi-Hat Roller script, an 808 glide preset and three mix chains.

7. Add movement after the pattern is done

Once the MIDI is final, you can still create variation on the audio. Gross Beat is perfect for this: a hat roll or a half-time stutter on the drum bus for the last bar before the hook makes the switch-up obvious. The 808 & Drum FX pack has 100 Gross Beat presets for 808s and drums, including hat rolls, snare builds, fills and gates. For a deeper look at the plugin itself, read Best Gross Beat Settings for Trap.

Program four bars, loop them, and ask one question: does the roll make you want to hear the next bar? If yes, you are done.