Rock Drummers play Hi-Hats Way too hard....

Sorry - I didn't say that well. The fundamental of ALL cymbals (say 16 inches and larger) are going to be quite low. Hi hats (usually 14 or 13 inches) will be low but they never really 'ring' - most of the splash is from the cymbals rubbing against each other. What I was saying is that if one thinks they can roll off everything under (for the sake of argument) 500Hz since one believes that cymbals are only high frequencies, they are going to find out otherwise. The real 'power' of the cymbal is around 200Hz - I know that sounds crazy but there is a lot of low end information coming out of them. If you roll off the OHs severely to limit the drums or bass drum, it might pass in full band setting but not drums alone. The cymbals will be quite thin and overly airy.

Paul

I say turn the HHs up in the mix. What the ****...

The best way to fix this is as follows.
1.Copy the overhead tracks to 2 new chanels.
2.turn your monitors LOW
3.Insert a chanel eq on your 2 new overhead chanels.
4. Using a narrow "Q" and full gain boost, sweep the eq around 5 to 7 K until the Hihats hurt your ears.
5.put compressors on your 2 original overheads, with low attack and release.
6.set the compressors side chain inputs from the 2 new channels created earlier.
7.pull back the threshold until the hihats get pulled back without ruining the cymbals.
This "frequency conscious compression" is the best fix for an inexperienced drummer.
This is a long way round using logic's native plugs.
I would generally use wave arts trackplug, which has 2 compressors that can both be sidechained using the 3 internal eqs.Download the powersuite demo from their site.
I would say it is an essential set of plugins, and use them
on everything.
michael

g5 dp 1.8, macbook pro Mac OS X (10.4.6)

this has always been an issue when recording drums - specially when the drummer is wearing head phones

Here's what I do:

I ask the drummer to play his part - and while he does it I'll stand 5 yards away from him centered. If he is a good drummer it will sound good. Now, if I hear that the drummer is beating the shyt out a the hihat and it exceeds what is to be regarded as normal - I have to figure out whether (1)he wants it to actually sound like that or (2) if he beats the hat in order to keep the timing... Lots of drummers maintain timing that way if they aint blessed with micro timing.

in the case of (1) - I'll use dynamic mics placed as close as possible to each drum, Hihat n cymbal

in the case of (2) : This is more difficult - it takes a little bit of psycology: If u were to ask him to play softer it might interfere with the perfomance making it un groovy... I had this problem once with a young and in expeienced drummer : what I did was record the drums 4 yards away with one mic placed in the center - then I took the drummer to the control room and have him hear what he just played - I asked him what he thought of it - He said - the hihat is too penetrant: So he went in the rec room and rehearsed a bit and as I was done micing the grand piano he had it sounding real nice - Also - I made him wear and "In ear" head phone on one ear only for the metro nome.

If the drummer thinks its nice like that but u know it is wrong for the recording - dont try to change his mind - simply use another drummer as u would not try n make a bass drum sample that sound bad - sound good - but rather look for another...

If u havent got another drummer or the situation is like it is and u have to deal with it - make sure u use dynamic mics - like shure sm 57 - if u havent got any dynamic mic and only condenser - make sure that they are set to hyper cardioid - and that the snare drum mic is pointed away from the hihat...

U could also choose to regard the hihat - as a cymbal and just treat it as an over head - whatever works -

The most important thing : THE PERFOMANCE - rather have a hihhat that sound a little worse on a great perfomance than a bad performance with a good sound