recording drum hh, all messed up

[rgraves]

OK, not sure if this should go in the mixing forum or recording, but here's the thing.

I am recording a roland TD 20 drum it. Here's the thing, everything is fine, but for some reason the high hat messes up and will change timbre, and the volume will vary quite a bit...it's probably set too sensitve or something. I am working to fix it, but in the mean time, I am wondering about recording real high hats...I would imagine that there would be differences in volume and I wouldn't think that every hit would sound the same.

But when i listen to a lot of final recordings the high hat sounds pretty consistent. So what I am wondering basically, is, is there a way to process the high hat so that it sounds better with the problems I am having? Maybe I'm not even having a problem and it's just sounding too realistic.

Would it be best to use something to sample over it?? Like drumagog or something (never used that before, but i've heard of it.)

I think the variation in the HH sound is a distraction, just trying to improve that...

Thanks!

 

[scrubs]

Actually there is/should be some variation in the hi-hat. Good drummers accent certain hits to assist the groove and help keep time. Playing with the tip of the stick vs. the shoulder of the stick will also yield different sounds. A lack of variation is an indicator of sampled/replaced drums.

With a live kit, I've never found a need to mic the hi-hat, as it is usually loud enough in the overheads, and I would think replacing it would be problematic for just that reason. As I don't mic the hat, I don't process it and rarely do any processing of the overheads save a touch of reverb. You could certainly supplement/blend a sample with the live track if needed. However, the drummer's technique is the most important thing (along with good sounding hats).

It sounds like your sound module may be playing hits from different kits or something, if it's that noticeable. I would mess with the settings and retrack it if you can. Otherwise, ditch the track and program something.

 

[rgraves]

Actually there is/should be some variation in the hi-hat. Good drummers accent certain hits to assist the groove and help keep time. Playing with the tip of the stick vs. the shoulder of the stick will also yield different sounds. A lack of variation is an indicator of sampled/replaced drums.


It sounds like your sound module may be playing hits from different kits or something, if it's that noticeable. I would mess with the settings and retrack it if you can. Otherwise, ditch the track and program something.

Yeah, actually I think it's beyond just sounding "real". It goes in between sounding half open and half closed and half open and open and it just sounds aweful actually. It sounds like the HH is falling off the stand throughout each song actually, haha. I'm working with roland to see if there is a way to fix this, but that could take a lot of time I wasn't sure if there was a different way so I don't have to avoid doing any drum work in the mean time...

 

[gcapel]

Sounds like you could use Reason. I have a limited version. It's a sequencer. You could record your different hi hats hits. Save them all as wave files or export would be the right term. Then use Reason and redrum inside reason to sequence your hits and put them where you like. Export the reason app to a wav. Import your wav into cubase..etc. Cubase may have a way of doing this in a midi channel.