some kind of gate on cymbals

  • Thread starter Thread starter wannabecomedeat
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wannabecomedeat

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allright,

i think my problem is the really-not-so-dead room. there is a part in a song where there's only drum playing, at this part the cymbals goes like skwishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh skwishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and masks the drum behind.

is there a kind of trick to gate the cymbal or something so it sounds "skwish" and not "SKWISHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". Some kind of fade out, that'll not sound fake?? maibe an eq tips? maibe a compression trick?

sorry for the dumb explanation, but i think this way you'll understand!

thanx!
 
If the drum being masked is in the same overhead mic, then no, a gate won't help, unless you tried a multiband gate, which very well could sound like poo. I'd try moving the overheads--do you have them in front or back of the kit?--or adding some tom mics.
 
First of all, posting a sample, so we can hear the "skwishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"ing might definatly help.

As far as gating:
Really don't gate your OH's
In a studio situation Oh's are suposed to capture the whole kit and not just the cymbals, so you get a basic sound from the WHOLE kit. Gating OH's is exactly doing the opposite.
Actually, OH's mostly help masking gating artifacts from the close miked drums.

If your not satisfied with your OH sound, don't mess with it during mixdown but re-track!
Use other cymbals or muffle them, move mics, make a "drum room" work on room acoustics etc.

But off course you can experiment using an expander. Compression might even make things worse. Eq might help though it would probably screw up the rest of the track as well.

good luck!
 
If you have the drums close mic'd as well, turn down the overheads.

If you did a minimalist micing, you are screwed.
 
Have the drummer hit cymbals with less force. Close mic the toms and put some tape on the cymbals to get them to decay faster. Or use a softer alloy cymbal. Recording cymbals are different than live cymbals. In a studio you dont have the problems cutting through a bunch of loud guitars and such. Gating will cause a huge sucking sound to emulate from your speakers.
 
Well,

i use mesh head triggers on everything, so all i record is the cymbals, nothing else exept some stick noise.

I heard my track back after a little break, fells like it's only the ride cymbal doing so, maibe a bit to much gain on it. that sucks i'm not at studio now, feels like i placed a compressor in the list (which i didn't), cuz the loudest sound isn't the hit, it comes in after. It's like, low volume, then half a second later the big bad ass skwish arrives, and fades in 3-4 seconds.
 
wannabecomedeat said:
Well,

i use mesh head triggers on everything, so all i record is the cymbals, nothing else exept some stick noise.

I heard my track back after a little break, fells like it's only the ride cymbal doing so, maibe a bit to much gain on it. that sucks i'm not at studio now, feels like i placed a compressor in the list (which i didn't), cuz the loudest sound isn't the hit, it comes in after. It's like, low volume, then half a second later the big bad ass skwish arrives, and fades in 3-4 seconds.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the mics might have been too close.
 
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