Stupid high-hat!

M

McParadigm

New member
I've been told that, when recording drums, the way to keep the mix sounding natural is to rely on the overheads for most of the sound, and add individually mic'd stuff as needed.

Doing this, I can't seem to get a mix where the high hat isn't annoyingly high in the mix. I've got four mics on the kit...two overheads, one bass drum, one snare. Any thoughts?
 
...

What positioning are you using for the overs, also what mics are you using (all of them) Is the snare mic getting alot of bleed from the hihats?
 
Hmmm...

I mic the snare by sticking the mic under the HH, so it's facing the snare, away from HH... kicks prolly don't get alot of HH bleed, so we're focusing on the OH:s..

I'd try the old method of putting one oh just over the snare, two sticklengths, and the other one over the players shoulder two sticklengths from snare facing the kick.
Then maybe move the HH away from the snare as much as the playing lets you...

Plan B: snare and kick(s) same as above, but move the overheads to in front of the drumset, some 30cm apart, in a 90degree stereo pair, above kick and below toms so that the snare is cought between. Some 20-40cm in front of drums....preferably at snare hight.
This'll get alot more snare, kick and toms and far less of the cymbals, including HH... Bloody motherf*ckers will bleed to any mic around anyway.. :D

....??
 
Jouni said:
Plan B: snare and kick(s) same as above, but move the overheads to in front of the drumset, some 30cm apart, in a 90degree stereo pair, above kick and below toms so that the snare is cought between. Some 20-40cm in front of drums....preferably at snare hight.
This'll get alot more snare, kick and toms and far less of the cymbals, including HH... Bloody motherf*ckers will bleed to any mic around anyway.. :D

....??
Click to expand...

I'm going to try this.

Thanks, everybody.
 
McParadigm said:
I've been told that, when recording drums, the way to keep the mix sounding natural is to rely on the overheads for most of the sound, and add individually mic'd stuff as needed.
Click to expand...
This only works if the drummer has control over his dynamics and actually 'mixes' himself. If the dummer beats the crap out of the cymbals and lightly taps on the drums, you're screwed.
 
Farview said:
This only works if the drummer has control over his dynamics and actually 'mixes' himself. If the dummer beats the crap out of the cymbals and lightly taps on the drums, you're screwed.
Click to expand...

The drummer is awesome. No worries there.
 
McParadigm said:
The drummer is awesome.
Click to expand...
then the hats shouldn't be so loud. too loud hihats is ALWAYS a technique problem.

always, always, always.

the easy solution--don't hit the hats so bloody hard.


cheers,
wade
 
McParadigm said:
The drummer is awesome. No worries there.
Click to expand...

Without hearing him to say for sure, I would think that he's hitting the hi-hats too hard.

If I am wrong, and he is in fact that awesome, ask him to hit them less hard.
 
A couple of things...

A - After recording, mute your overheads and see how much hi-hat has bled into your other mics. If there's any (for instance, in a rack-tom mic pointed directly at the hats), then no matter what you do, you'll always have a too-quiet rack-tom (or whatever drum has the bleed), or a too-loud hi-hat.

B - Just stand in front of the kit while he's playing and listen. Are the hats really loud? If so, definitely have the drummer play the hats a little softer!

C - There is a remote possibility (e.g. not very likely) that your chosen overhead mics have a response curve that has a peak at a similar frequency to the hats. I wouldn't put this on your "check this first" list though :p

Good Luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top