Hats too loud in the overhead tracks

[agentmetal]

Hi guys !
I'm currently mixing my band's second EP, and I'm struggling with the overhead tracks, like many before me I guess...

Drums were recorded by a "pro" engineer, using an electronic kit and real cymbals miked with :
- a crossed pair above the drummer's head
- two close mics, one under each ride cymbal (we suspected we would need them, and we guessed right)

The crash and china cymbals seem pretty well-balanced together, and since the ride cymbals were miked separately, I can have them sound pretty well. However I'm having trouble with the hats : they sound very agressive and seem too loud in the overheads, often drowning the china or crash cymbals.

I managed to make it more tolerable by EQing out some annoying frequencies (around 1.5k if I remember well) and limiting the band above 9k or something, since the hat has lots of sizzle there. But that wasn't enough... and the hats weren't miked separately, so I didn't manage to isolate them from the rest to perform sidechaining (I tried sweeping an EQ, without success...). Can you think of any better idea ?
(of course I could use an automation, but there may be a smarter idea...)

Here's a clip of the song in progress : http://lethalmind.free.fr/public/Confined-v1d.mp3

Thanks !

- Lionel

 

[-Noodles-]

Wider EQ?

Maybe you could phase flip a track, and automate it so that it "eats" the hats when they're played?

I think that sometimes the drums sound really balanced, and others I really understand what you mean.

Maybe some of the other guys can give you more helpful answers!

 

[ApolloSpeed]

kick the drummer's ass,,,, and re-mic the overheads more towards the top of the crash cymbals

 

[jwiniars]

You could try de-essing them, it helps somewhat. Did you compress the overheads at all? I even find parallel compression sometimes evens those things out. Listening on my Macbook Pro, the hats sound almost as loud as the ride, so it just might be the drummers playing. If you can't re-record it, sometimes you just have to deal with it. I do a lot of electronic music, so sometimes the focus isn't fixing. Usually I find myself saying "Well this sounds kind of ehfed up, so how can I ehf it up more?". So maybe you can start out by compressing the hell out of them and see what sounds you get. You have major triggering going on in the track anyway to the point where it doesn't even sound like a real drummer, so take it further. Hope I've helped. Cheers

 

[derfbonker]

Sorry bro, but this looks like a job for automation. It sucks, and takes time and a lot of work, but it is the best solution in this case.

 

[Sloan]

Make the drummer pay all fees for re-tracking the drums.

 

[EdwardPayne]

+1 for d-essing the OH to get rid of the hi-hat. Try that! It might work for you. Find a d-esser that allow you to select the frequency. I use Waves DE-esser in the Rennaisance bundle and I've taken down a hihat or two with that one.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Use quieter hats next time.

Seriously, you should have a set kicking around. Drummers usually have (well, the ones I work with, anyway) the heaviest hats they can find. I've got a set of old Zildijans from the 70's that wind up on quite a few records because they're subtle.

 

[colonel kurtz]

...and this is why i never mic the hats anymore

they always end up loud enough in the mix anyways, do why use up another input for them?

 

[-Noodles-]

Is there a HH mic? Or can you copy an OH track, and use a gate / sidechain to duck the original OH tracks every time the copy breaks the gate limit?

 

[AdamWathan]

Not a bad idea! Copy the overhead channel that is picking up the high hats the most, EQ it a bit so the high hats really stand out and use that to sidechain a compressor onto the original OH tracks to bring down the level whenever the hats get too loud.

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

thats why you always mic the hats and make sure they're plenty loud in the drummers monitoring so he'll hit them softer

 

[-Noodles-]

Not a bad idea!

Came up with that idea today..
Probably "stole" it from someone else!

 

[agentmetal]

Thanks guys !
I'll try de-essing the overheads, and if it doesn't work I'll just automate... Basically all other options failed. The recording guy applied compression on the OHs and didn't mic the hats, so I didn't manage to do much and it really seems like a salvage operation...