when i layer the high hats, the sound is a bit off, almost like the high hats are interfering with something and causing some of the high-hats to be muffled

Don't worry about being new to this. I've been doing it 34 years and learn new things every day. The important thing is that you HEARD it. You may not know (yet) what it is or what it's called or how to fix it but your ears told you that something was wrong. That, my friend, is the most important thing. yoyoBen is correct about learning about phase and his questions relevent but it's quite scary when something is horribly out of phase and the person doing the work doesn't hear it!!

So, yoyoBens questions, look at those, think about them and answer them.

As an experiment, and to help you get your head around phase issues, make 2 (or more, depending on how many different hi hat tracks you have) and only have those elements on those tracks so that you can solo them and really hear where the issue is. On one of the tracks, put a gain plugin and flip the phase (you'll see the buttons for that in the gain plugin).

What you'll find with that is the ones that were phasing may now be fixed and the ones that were ok will now start phasing.

See if the hats on the different tracks are in exactly the same position. Sometimes though, the actual sounds have different lengths, attacks, releases etc and this can also cause an issue.

Bounce the hat tracks to audio (but keep your midi as this is just an experiment) and see how far out the waveforms are on your hat tracks. Try manually alligning them to improve things although this could also make it worse, that's the nature of audio.

Go to youtube and lookup examples of out of phase audio. Keep it simple at first.

yoyoBens most important question 'why?'. As you are producing the the track the answer can be as simple as 'I want to" which is fine. But as you're also the engineer you now have to make it work.

You'll get there. Keep going. Do lots of research. Do lots of experiments.

Three (other) possibilities:

This can also happen if you're layering two tracks using the -same- instrument.

An open high hat will usually cut-off when a closed high or semi-closed hat is played on the same channel/instrument.

Possibly running out of polyphony.

"when i layer the high hats"

From your description it sounds like some sort of phase cancellation going on.

Solo the parts and check the phase.

Knowlegde of phase and phase-cancelation is crucial as soon as you record/produce/mix even compose sound. What and how are you layering?

Edit: and why?

Layering sounds is a perfectly valid production technique…. but it does require some care. As always, less is more (2, maybe 3 sounds at most). Layering 15 hi-hats to create a “super-hat” will have diminishing returns.

As other have pointed out what you’re likely hearing is phase cancellation, caused by very similar sounds with overlapping frequencies, (& also microscopic timing differences). You need to choose your sounds carefully eg. a short open hat with a sharp attack overlaying an open hat with a long release. Positioning the two sounds by offsetting one or the other is vital, as well as adjusting their envelopes (attack & release). Other tricks include de-tuning one or other of the hats, & eq-ing each one differently. If you solo the hats, & listen on headphones this will help you hear what’s going on better. Once you’re happy with the result it’s a good idea to commit by bouncing, & treating it like a single sample, & then create a loop.

Usually an open hat in a house or techno track is mono, as you want it cutting through dead centre on a sound system, so it’s a good idea to bounce your hats in mono, (& use a little reverb to create a pseudo stereo image - again less is more). Keeping the hat mono will also avoid phase issues.

Programming hi hats that swing & groove takes skill & practice. The interaction between an open hat, closed hat & a 4x4 kick (bass drum) is often overlooked, so it’s a good idea to solo your rhythm track, & get that nailed before adding too many other elements. Tempo is another important factor, & often the tempo you started with isn’t the best tempo for the track, so try experimenting with a slower tempo. A lot of techno records are actually a lot slower than you might think… so listen to as many examples as you can.

Good luck!