Mic Triggering?

[ramchandra]

So I'm reading the current issues "Letters to Tape Op" and they get on a tangent about Hi-hats and alot of people kept talking about triggering the abient mic with the snare mic or the left overhead mic. I have my Ideas but what does this mean? Using a gate maybe? how is it done? and what does it do?

[Professor]

You could use either a gate or perhaps a compressor depending on what the intent is for the signal, but either way it needs to be a device with a side-chain input, or a stereo unit where you only need one channel to pass through.
I'm not sure whether you would want to increase the volume of the hihat when the snare is hit, or decrease the hats, and obviously that would effect how it's done.
A gate that has the hihat signal fed through, but uses the snare channel as a side-chain key would be able to add in the hihat mic (or boost the volume depending on settings) when the snare is hit and opens the gate.
A compressor could be arranged to either increase or decrease the hihat channel when the snare is hit. Again, the hats would pass through the device while the snare is activating the side-chain. Depending on settings, the hats could go through with no compression until the snare hits, and then they could be compressed without any make up gain which would "duck" the hats as the snare goes through. Adjust the settings so there is make-up gain and then the hats can get louder with each snare hit.

If you don't have a side chain, then you can use a linked stereo compressor if it allows one channel to activate the compressors independent of the other. That is, a comp that can select the left, right, or both channels as key inputs. Set it so the hats go through one channel while the snare goes through the other and activates the compressor. Then use the output from the hats in your mix but not the snare channel output.

DAWs can be a little more confusing in this area, but they should have routing options for compressors that allow an aux bus to be used as a key for gates, comps, and other devices.

-Jeremy

[mcsquishytooshy]

(I love how Jay Robbins asked that question. I love that man, and his recordings!)