Taming open hi hats

[chris harris]

It's worth noting that if you have any intention of someday being a professional engineer, you should get all the experience you can trying to make something better out of less than ideal tracks. I'm talking about being an engineer in 2013, where you make a reasonable living recording mostly local/regional bands, and see a few of those albums released every year. That's the reality for most working recording engineers. This isn't the cocaine and Ferraris golden era of mega budgets and month long sessions. Probably half of what I do these days has at least some of the work done on a home recording rig. Learn as much as you can about fixing/correcting deficiencies, and you'll be in demand.

You'll also be that much better when you do have great tracks to mix.

[Brett Siler]

Some pretty great advice so far. I maybe echoing a few things here but here is my advice.
1. Just turn down the overheads. They are pretty loud, just bring up the kick and snare and then the cymbals to taste. I like mine a little quieter than the kick and snare.
2. If it's still clashing, you may need to notch out some EQ around the 3khz-4khz area. Sometimes they can fight with the vocals around there. Sometimes around the 7khz area too.
3. Desser may work in the room or overheads, or if the bleed is to loud in say the snare mic you may need to desse the snare mic. Be careful setting it to extreme may sound weird.
4. Still not working? Try setting a compressor on the overheads and sidechain it to the vocals, so when the singer is singing the compressor tames the cymbals.
5. Automate by hand if necessary.

[jordaniusrex]

Wow, I'm so grateful for all your feedback, praise, criticism, and ideas! You guys are great (and here I thought I should post on Gearslutz?)

I did a first round of tweaks (reducing the overheads, automating down the open hats) that were immediately hated by everyone who heard them, but I think I've now gotten somewhere worth sharing.

I followed a bunch of advice from here, so thank you.

New version: http://db.tt/7sRmfH9d
What I did:

* Reduced the overheads in the mix and brought up the room mic, snare, and kick
* Added a subtle compressor on the overheads sidechained to the vocals
* Raised the vocal level .5db (at this point there was more space for it in the mix)
* Increased the vocal delay time from a static time to 1/8T (the tempo varies since we didn't click)
* Tuned the vocal slightly in some extra problematic spots (yes, we comped)
* Reduced the top end boost on the master buss EQ
* Took out a little 700hz on the overheads
* Raised the bass guitar top end level (I'm processing the lows, mids, and highs separately) and added a little 5k on the guitars

@ Nick Sevilla: We were really interested in making this record ourselves. I've read Tape Op for years, assisted in a local studio (back in the *cough* ADAT era), and have been messing around in my home studio for years. Producing, recording, and mixing a record is as much of the art form to me as crafting and performing the song, so leaving it to someone else wasn't going to fly this time. Maybe in the future? and maybe next time we'll be able to do it at a more relaxed pace.

@ Chris Harris: Word.

@ Chris Harris pt 2: That's the goal someday. I've definitely cut my chops on plenty of less-than-ideal tracks (of my own bad recordings?)

@ boid: Awesome. While I mentioned that we went quickly, I did spend the time to make sure all of the mics were in phase. I just meant that I couldn't spend 3 hours trying to get the perfect hi hat sound. My focus was on the kick and snare and getting them solid.

On the mix I posted the hi-hats weren't really that treated. I had a compressor taking 1-3db off the buss, and a tape sim adding a little saturation there and on the master. I also bumped up a little top end EQ on the master. There was some bleed on the snare mic and the room was pretty crushed. It was probably the combination of those things.

Nope, not the singer on this one: I play bass. I do sing on a few of our songs, but not this one. The singer/guitarist does like his vocals a little buried, but I'm sure we'll find that right level. I like the idea of riding the feedback up on the emptier spots. Maybe I'll give that a shot later.

@ slight: You're right about the brightness and the 700hz. My mixes usually come out dark, so I often overcompensate on the master buss. The drum sound is now more balanced between the close mics, overheads, and room.

@ joninc: Thanks! While I'm familiar with the National, I've never really taken a deep dive into their records. Our drummer is pretty great for our music and has a distinctive style. I'm sure I'll be able to get him to ease off the open hats a bit after this.

@ vvv: I'm having trouble with YouSendIt. I'll try again tomorrow and see.

@ eh91311: Of course we are hard on ourselves, and I appreciate your compliments. I'm razing the big peaks about 2db with a fast 20:1 and then smooshing about 5-10db with a LA-2A plugin. I don't really want to do more than that??It'll take a pass at riding the fader on the tough parts and see if that helps.

@ Brett Siler: Most of these ideas have been covered already, but I'll try notching the 3-4khz if the vocals still aren't quite clear enough. I cut it already on the guitars?

[boid]

cool!
leave as is

[jordaniusrex]

I've had a lot going on in my life since I posted these up here so I haven't had a lot of time to update. I made a few more tweaks to the mix and am feeling pretty good about it for now. Check it out: Nantucket Red

[jordaniusrex]

Just an update: I just got the album back from mastering (thanks to Mr. Carl Saff), and you can check out two tracks (including the one in question on this thread) on the Dead Painters bandcamp.

[Electro-Voice 664]

sounds real cool! update yr last link/yellow page is freaky on my eye balls

[cale w]

I'm really digging this album! I'm really into the whole brevity thing.