Overhead treatment with inconsistent drummer

[mmmb]

Hi everybody! i am working on a mix and the drummer is very inconsistent while playing cymbals. On one section he is smashing the hell out of a crash and on the other he treats the china like a little girl.

Personally i tried compresion, automation, eq. (not yet into sound replacing the cymbals) but the thing is that whenever i raise the level up to the point that the quietest cymbal is ok in the mix all the bleed gets in the way messing everything up. I tried eq to lower the bleed, but then i get an awfull sounding cymbal. although i have S.D 2.0 i dont want to start abusing on samples becouse i`ll like to retain some of the natural recording.
Anyway, any other ideas? i thing it is a pretty common situation so it would be nice if we share our thoughts.

If you want a reference of the actual project i`m working on here it is:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18143303/and seek2.mp3
(of course the mix need work on other areas also, but i think we should focus on the overhead thing to keep the thread usefull)

Thanks for everything!!!

 

[Fragle]

i'd set the overhead levels in a way that's balanced and sounds good for most hits, and just automate the weak hits up, as well as the really loud ones down.

i've also read that andy wallace likes to set the OH level so that the ambience and bleed sounds right to him, and then automates the actual cymbal hits up.

 

[mmmb]

i'd set the overhead levels in a way that's balanced and sounds good for most hits, and just automate the weak hits up, as well as the really loud ones down.

i've also read that andy wallace likes to set the OH level so that the ambience and bleed sounds right to him, and then automates the actual cymbal hits up.

Great info. In this particular case i think that the second aproach will work for most parts. Thanks!

 

[Melodeath]

Wow that sounds tedious. Unless you mean just doing it dirty and raising the level whenever there's not a no-cymbal tom fill