I have just read the article concerned Greggy, with ever increasing amazement. It contains to many .... well .... I don't even know what to call it. Lets be polite - a complete lack of knowledge of digital sound? I also wonder how long ago this was written? It certainly must have been quite some time ago.
Anyone who can write "why should you record 16 bits when you will only use 12" really needs to do a bit of studying. This is in adition to remarks like the fader being less sensitive in the lower regions - while a digital fader works in equal increments throughout the entire path.
Don't regard this as critisizing collegues. But it is a fact that many of them are entirey accustomed to analogue ways, and ways of working suited to analogue. They often continue to use these ways in the digital domain, until they find that some working practises should be disgarded for a different media. I had to make the change, I found some practises hard to discard. I have spend a lot of time training engineers on mainframe digital consoles for one of the main manufacturers. For some people its like taking the wheel of their car and telling them to drive through the rush hour with a joystick instead, its different! Others take to it like ducks to water.
Just one thing about the High Hat. Of cause, its a HH. Use sence and reason. You're not going to spend a load of time setting your levels so your HH is just below clipping out, you don't need to. But keep the level high, and you keep your noisefloor low. Just plain fact. Record it without to much shelving and / or EQ, and when you apply your shelving - your volume has dropped considerable already, and you have plenty of room for processing.
Another point worth making. Its very important to ensure your meters are calibrated correctly, especially when you're working with digital. Another thing is that cheaper DAW's do NOT have the best of meters. Often they are not fast enough to respond to peaks. In that case it really is a matter of using your ears!
