Stereo hi hats and ohs

[Fire Dome]

Hi i was just wondering about drum ohs and came across this theoretical problem i guess.
If you record oh in stereo with two SDC over the left and right side of the kit. How do the hi hats end up in the centre of the mix on cds??

For example i record the ohs and pan them to respective sides of the stereo image how will i stop my hi hats coming out of my right speaker???

Hope you get what i mean.
If not feel free to shout or whatever

Dave

 

[sile2001]

Hi i was just wondering about drum ohs and came across this theoretical problem i guess.
If you record oh in stereo with two SDC over the left and right side of the kit. How do the hi hats end up in the centre of the mix on cds??

For example i record the ohs and pan them to respective sides of the stereo image how will i stop my hi hats coming out of my right speaker???

Hope you get what i mean.
If not feel free to shout or whatever

Dave

Well, there's three parts to the answer I guess... The first part is that I've never really noticed a professionally mixed CD that had the hi hats exactly in the center of the mix. Second, in almost any overhead miking configuration, both mics will pick up at least some of the hi hats (in a large part because they are so loud), and that would tend to pull the overall hi hat sound more towards the center. Third, in most recording studios, they have the resources to be able to dedicate a mic and channel specifically to the hi hats. With the hi hats on their own channel, they can be put pretty much anywhere in the stereo field.

 

[Fire Dome]

Thanks. That pretty much answers it. Just one more thing. How, even when micing the hi hats with a dedicated mic, do the hi hats appear near the centre if the OHs are picking them up to the left or right???

Cheers

Dave

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Thanks. That pretty much answers it. Just one more thing. How, even when micing the hi hats with a dedicated mic, do the hi hats appear near the centre if the OHs are picking them up to the left or right???

Cheers

Dave

First, there's no guarantee that the tracking engineer even used stereo overheads, or even necessarily any overheads at all. While the use of stereo OHs is common, it is by no means ubiquitous.

There are a few more situations which could easily put the hat in the middle:

First is if the engineer close-miked everything on the kit, including the hats. Sometimes when they do that, they don't use OHs at all. In these situations they can pan the drum parts pretty much where they want (assuming the have miked in a way where bleed is not an overwhelming issue), including the possibility of panning the hats to the center.

Second if if they used just a mono overhead for full-kit ambience (a subject of another current thread in this forum.) If that mono OH were panned dead center, the hats would appear there as well.

Third, but probably rare, would be if they re-tracked the hats separately and threw that track down the middle.

HTH,

G.

 

[Fire Dome]

THanks Southside. Thats answered everything

Cheers

Dave

 

[adclark]

The rule of thumb I've always heard was pan the drums from either the drummers perspective (Right Hand drummer --HH panned toward left along with high toms + left side crashes etc.., Ride panned toward right with low toms, left crashes etc, snare bass middle toms in middle). Or pan them from audience perspective (opposite of above). RUSH typically pan's from drummers perspective. I think this is the case with more "Musician" oriented bands (bands that musicians will pay closer attention to).