Best way to avoid Hi-Hat bleeding into SD Mic?

[~BURNY~]

Hi there, newbie talking ,
First of all, I would apologize for my poor english, I hope this won't be a real problem.
I wonder if you guys (Andy? ) have tips on this issue.
I always try to put the top SD mic the closer I can with a more or less 45° angle using a cardîod patern (usually sm57) and generally get a decent sound except when I need to process (compress, eq) the snare in mixing mode. The Hi-hat always seems to ruin my SD sound. I can no longer have accurate control of hi-hat level and stereo positionning . So what Am I missing. I'm not using extreme compression setting (bettween 1:2/1:4 ratio, -6db/-8db attenuation, fast attack around 20ms, fast or automatic realease depending on the goal).
It seems that I always have to choose between weak snare or punchy snare with awful hats bleeding.
I also heard about a Terry Date technique which implies to use the same mic for snare and Hats Can someone tell me more cause it sounds wierd to me (maybe it was just a lie ). Should I use another mic/polar patern, should I use mini gobos (how?)?
Please help me .
Thanks.

 

[Nebulous]

Depending on what you're mixing on/ what equipment you have, the best way to fix it would be to mic the hats seperately (or let the overheads take care of hats), and gate the snare so that the hats don't come through as much. then you can compress all you want.
Good luck

Daniel\m/

 

[egan.]

The sinle mic thing is a valid technique but doesn't sound like what you're interested in.

Also, the real key IMHO would be to listen to HH bleed when you're placing the snare mic in the first place. It's way easier to account for it before hand than afterwards and often times its only about moving the mic to a different part of the snare. If placement doesn't get it alone, some of the guys seem to have reported good luck with the auralex "trap-xpanders" that go on the mic.

If you are stuck with tracks and mixing I would agree that you should gate and/or trigger.

 

[~BURNY~]

Thanks for replies. I probably should spend more time searching for the sweet spot. I agree.
I don't like using noise gate on the snare because of the following reasons:
-I like reasonant snares with nice decay. I mainly use the compressor as a shaping tool to manage it.
-Most of the drummers I've recorded so far use a lot of ghost notes that may be trapped by the gate. (manual edit? No way while the snare hits are so many) The same is true for triggering.
-The HH bleeding is still there when the gate open causing HH movments from the side to the center of stereo image. (the same is sometimes true with the crashes cymbal and the toms).
The auralex tip seems to make sense, I will try it next time (well maybe not with real auralex foam, too much expensive for me). Anything that can improve seperation interest me.
Thank you guys.

 

[James Murphy]

check out frankn'furter's "is that worth the money?" thread on page 2

 

[~BURNY~]

Thanks James!