mixing high hat into song

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ikijapan

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Question for some of you drum pros.

In a song I'm working with, the high hat is closed during the verse and open during the chorus. Nothing special there. But the open high hat is MUCH louder, or maybe just the frequency it's in, it just overpowers stuff.

What do most people do when mixing this kind of situation? Should I compress the HH? Or just go in there and turn the volume of the HH down during the choruses?
 
If the drums are miced and balanced properly, it shouldn't be a problem. You want that part to be louder, most probably. But if it's a huge difference, than the drummer should practice easing off a bit when playing them open, and/or maybe hit them harder when they're closed.
 
Did you use a hh mic?

If you did then just take it out of the mix at that loud points.

Is it STILL to loud though?

Ok last resort.

Then youll need to backdown your overheads at that point in the song.
Tricky stuff, because its usually pretty obvious when someone automates overheads. Well......unless they have a super smooth hand at automation.

Also if you are catching alot of high hat bleeding into the snare mic you may want to try out a gate on the snare and high toms to minimize the high hat volume at its loudest parts.

-Chris
 
Take a drumstick and beat the drummer repeatedly about the head until he cries for mercy. Tell him that if he doesn't stop playing the open hats so loud you will be forced to kill him and everyone he has ever loved. You might have to kill his cat or something to make sure he gets the message.
 
The nature of open hats will dictate that they are louder than closed hats. To a degree since the open hats drive a tune more than closed, they should be louder, but the drummer must use technique to control the volume variance to serve the song.

If it's already tracked - then naturally it's too late to talk technique. EQ is not going to help much and will likely have an negative effect on the rest of the drum track (you don't indicate if you have a dedicated hi-hat track or if it's an overhead stero track. etc).

Working the faders may be your only option - hopefully without compromising the rest of the drum tracks.
 
Have him set the open hat so it is barely apart when open, making less of that resonant swash sound.
 
mikeh said:
The nature of open hats will dictate that they are louder than closed hats. To a degree since the open hats drive a tune more than closed, they should be louder, but the drummer must use technique to control the volume variance to serve the song.

If it's already tracked - then naturally it's too late to talk technique. EQ is not going to help much and will likely have an negative effect on the rest of the drum track (you don't indicate if you have a dedicated hi-hat track or if it's an overhead stero track. etc).

Working the faders may be your only option - hopefully without compromising the rest of the drum tracks.
Click to expand...

oops, sorry everyone, I've left out a LOT of details. I think I wrote this post at 1am this morning...

Actually, it is a roland drum machine brain, played on a TD12 kit by a real drummer. But it's just roland sounds or whatever.

The HH is on a seperate track. I'm sure I could just lower the volume during those passages, but I wasn't sure if maybe there was a better way.
Maybe it would be best if I posted some clips.
 
ikijapan said:
oops, sorry everyone, I've left out a LOT of details. I think I wrote this post at 1am this morning...

Actually, it is a roland drum machine brain, played on a TD12 kit by a real drummer. But it's just roland sounds or whatever.

The HH is on a seperate track. I'm sure I could just lower the volume during those passages, but I wasn't sure if maybe there was a better way.
Maybe it would be best if I posted some clips.
Click to expand...


dude next PLEASE state the details!!!!

Such bullshit.......
 
firby said:
no shit. ....................................!
Click to expand...

xfinsterx said:
dude next PLEASE state the details!!!!

Such bullshit.......
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not sure if you guys are bein funny...but if you are serious, then you are a total fricken idiot. It doesn't really matter that I didn't provide those details, the approach to the problem doesn't really change.

Besides the info you provided is going to be helpful to someone later who is having a problem with his HH that he recorded on a real set.

So, I'm going to go in and just automate the fader on the HH as someone suggested. Thanks for the help
 
ikijapan said:
Well, I'm not sure if you guys are bein funny...but if you are serious, then you are a total fricken idiot. It doesn't really matter that I didn't provide those details, the approach to the problem doesn't really change.

Besides the info you provided is going to be helpful to someone later who is having a problem with his HH that he recorded on a real set.

So, I'm going to go in and just automate the fader on the HH as someone suggested. Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

Actually, those details change things a lot. Since you don't have any hi-hat bleed into any other mics and you don't have to worry about the overheads, it's a lot easier to work on just the hihat.
 
zacanger said:
Actually, those details change things a lot. Since you don't have any hi-hat bleed into any other mics and you don't have to worry about the overheads, it's a lot easier to work on just the hihat.
Click to expand...

Ok, Ok, I'll give you that. But it's really nothing to get all upset over...I still ended up using the same suggestions provided.
 
ikijapan said:
Well, I'm not sure if you guys are bein funny...but if you are serious, then you are a total fricken idiot.
Click to expand...

Yeah i was serious.
And lets not be silly here son, youre the funny one.

Listen.

You are a classless nooB, with no sense of gratitude.

When you walk your ass into a forum designed to help one anonther, you need to be able to ask a question properly, and thouroughly to recieve proper responses.


A rule to live by around here.

By the way, fuck off. :D
 
xfinsterx said:
Yeah i was serious.
And lets not be silly here son, youre the funny one.

Listen.

You are a classless nooB, with no sense of gratitude.

When you walk your ass into a forum designed to help one anonther, you need to be able to ask a question properly, and thouroughly to recieve proper responses.


A rule to live by around here.

By the way, fuck off. :D
Click to expand...

Its not a big deal, I don't see why you're getting so upset about it. What does the "new" information change? Not much.

In his original post, he specifically asked if he should compress or change the volume of his hats. This means to me that he has the hats on their own track.

Automating overheads is actually not that uncommon. Now, if I were to completely take the hat track out of the mix, that would probably be more noticable. People many times will have at least two pairs of overheads and switch between them during songs, one maybe for choruses, one for verses.

Lastly, a gate might be an option, but not the best one by far. If we're getting a lot of bleed, it'll be very noticable when the gate opens and when it closes.

Maybe you should get over yourself and give the guy a fucking break.
 
rory said:
Its not a big deal, I don't see why you're getting so upset about it. What does the "new" information change? Not much.

In his original post, he specifically asked if he should compress or change the volume of his hats. This means to me that he has the hats on their own track.

Automating overheads is actually not that uncommon. Now, if I were to completely take the hat track out of the mix, that would probably be more noticable. People many times will have at least two pairs of overheads and switch between them during songs, one maybe for choruses, one for verses.

Lastly, a gate might be an option, but not the best one by far. If we're getting a lot of bleed, it'll be very noticable when the gate opens and when it closes.

Maybe you should get over yourself and give the guy a fucking break.
Click to expand...


There is no way im wrong here.

When you have a question concerning an electronic drum set it just might be helpful to tell the crowd you are imploring that you have one.

Period.

Get over myself or not.

Beleive me this mistake wont occur again on his part.
 
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