A Hi-Hat Controller for the Alesis Nitro Max
Posted 2025/09/03. Last updated 2025/09/03.
Introduction
About half a year ago, I decided to fulfill my teenage dream of learning to play a musical instrument. After researching good entry-level electronic drum kits, I settled on a second-hand Alesis Nitro Max, as it had a proper kick tower instead of only a pedal. It has served me well thus far, but when getting to Grade 3 and 4 songs (e.g., on the Trinity Rock & Pop syllabus), I found that I was struggling to open and close the hi-hat in unison with striking the cymbal during my lessons on an acoustic kit. As a result, I wanted to reproduce the feel of a real hi-hat stand compared to an electronic pedal that lives independently of the cymbal.
I knew that after-market hi-hat controllers existed, with the Goedrum range being one of the most popular, but when I contacted the company, they said that the GHC-AN would only partially work (no splash or half-open sounds), so I couldn't justify spending £60 on it. I thus set out to come up with my own solution (NOTE: while I was writing up this post, the company reached out again to let me know that the GHC-AC would likely be compatible, as it is fully functional with the Nitro Pro, but by then it was too late, as I had already constructed my controller).
Understanding the Existing Pedal
The first thing I did was to take apart the Alesis pedal:
Depending on how much the pedal was pressed, I measured different resistance values across the tip and second ring of the Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve (TRRS) jack, which correspond to different sounds:
| Position | Resistance | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (Unpressed) | 147kΩ | Open |
| 1 | 86kΩ | Open |
| 2 | 41kΩ | Open |
| 3 | 10kΩ | Half-Open |
| 4 (Fully Pressed) | 1kΩ | Closed |
I then confirmed that (a) even if the pedal is disconnected, the hi-hat defaults to an open sound, (b) if I use the 1kΩ resistor directly, it produces the chick sound (or the splash one if I remove the connection immediately), and (c) if I first connect the 10kΩ resistor and only then place the 1kΩ resistor in parallel (equivalent resistance of 0.91kΩ), there is no chick/splash sound, and striking the cymbal produces the closed sound as expected.
Creating the Controller
Armed with the above information, instead of going down a variable resistance approach, I decided to have two contact points sticking out of the bottom of the electronic cymbal, and a fixed copper plate on the hi-hat stand to emulate the bottom cymbal of an acoustic kit. The first contact point is a 10kΩ resistor mounted on a spring, while the second is a 1kΩ resistor on a screw that is recessed compared to the spring and requires further pressure to make contact:
Putting It All Together
The design was surprisingly effective, though it required a bit of fine-tuning: I first had to adjust the screw height to ensure that I could reliably trigger the chick sound, and then I had to modify the Splash Sensitivity setting (“S-S” in the Utility menu) to ensure the splash worked consistently. I also changed the Velocity Curve setting for the hi-hat (“CUR” in the Utility menu), as the sound was much softer now that the cymbal was fixed in place and could not freely move.
I am extremely happy with the results, and you can see the mechanism in action in the following video, which shows 4 splashes, followed by 4 chicks, 4 closed cymbal hits, 4 half-open ones, 4 open ones, and then back in reverse: