hihats

[nospin]

never happy with mine, was wondering if people could share tips about how they treat their hihats to fit in the mix better.
i can usually get a general sound i like, but they always sound way up front in the mix... is it common to use reverb, delays on hihats? filters?

i know theres lots of different ways to use hihats, even within dubstep, but if some of you could post some links to your tunes and a brief explanation of whats going on, that should keep me busy and give me some experiments to try out.

thanks

[MARCHMELLOW]

whats your general set up?

don't wanna give any advice unless its gonna be useful for your set up

[FSTZ]

pfffftf

this is how I got my hats to not sound like the generic 808 hi-hat

hopefully you have a drum machine, soft sampler that lets you bus your hats out their own channel.

^^do that

and then add a highpass filter to them to give em a more tinny or metalic sound

add a 1/8th delay and make it so the feedback is barely audible (this should give your hihat a little bounce action.

remember...

there are no rules, it's just music

hope this helps

[roqqert]

just use reverb and your volume button

[nospin]

whats your general set up?

don't wanna give any advice unless its gonna be useful for your set up

i'm using ableton live 6, with reason 3, other various vsts...


i use utonic a bit for drums, and can get sounds that i like for hi hats
(and yes, utonic lets you bus all sounds out individually.)
... i also have a few 808 samples around and some "garage" samples

i know its a weird question, i was just looking for some new ideas to try out.

and then add a highpass filter to them to give em a more tinny or metalic sound

add a 1/8th delay and make it so the feedback is barely audible (this should give your hihat a little bounce action.

^^ i'll start playing around with that, where do you usually find you set your highpass filter at?

[FSTZ]

Nospin: I'd just mess with the freq until it sounded right. Also try a bandpass filter.

do whatever works for the tune you are workin on.

you'll know when you hit that sweet spot

and if you havent already..

check my virb player and listen to the diff tunes to hear the subtleties of the hihats. I especially like the hats on "So Much" they seem to work well with the rest of the elements in the song.

but I think you are on the right track.

[ekaj]

You should try EQing them so they sit better in the mix - adding verb on things won't necessarily fix it.

[janner]

You should try EQing them so they sit better in the mix - adding verb on things won't necessarily fix it.

agreed 100%. delay can add a bit of space and rhythm, and a little reverb used tastefully will tie your hats into the other drum sounds (say 1-3% over the drum bus as a whole) but slapping reverb all over hats as a matter of course is probably unwise

in terms of eq, try applying a hpf at the lower mid-range in order to remove any low-end muddiness that is often audible when the hat has been cut from a loop (usually resulting from a kick/snare beforehand). a small boost at the top end will add a little sparkle and help the hats to cut through the mix

also don't forget that the original sound and arangement you use will have the most profound effect on the overall vibe. try to get hold of a diverse spectrum of hat sounds, from *tsssssshhhhh* wide open to *tp* shut, 808s to live. experiment with arrangement & syncopation. try moving the hits about randomly! conversely, try arranging them to reflect how a real drummer would play. imo these aspects are as important as eq & fx in getting hats to sound sick

hope this helps

[MARCHMELLOW]

something else to keep in mind;

it really does depend on what else is going on in your track, for example if your sub pattern is very simple, and your not layering other gritty sounds over it, then you have more room in the mix to add some more upfront hi hats in your mix.

and vice-versa, if your track has loads of crazy bass sounds and apreggiators, then maybe don't try and overload the mix with too many hi hats.

the great thing about dubstep sometimes is its simplicity, just a nice big kick and a massive snare with lots of gritty sounds layered can sound perfect. and vice-versa, a track with a wikid rhythm drum pattern, but not to much else to take the emphasis away from the drums.

think about using other sounds to glue the kick and the snare together aswell, for example Caspa seems to like to use the 'blip' sound alot in his tracks, which works wonders.

[trevelyan]

Depends on your programming, but I find that bussing all your hi's (and sometimes other elements) and compressing together can help to glue them together, and can add a bit of fluidity

Dunno if its too obvious, but use a number of channels for the hi's, as Janner says with varying lengths ranging from t - ti - tic - ticc if you see what I mean? Again it'll help fluidity and motion

As a general question though, with regard to elements being too up-front, I could do with some advice too I think...

Is there anything apart from volume and reverb that helps to give a track 'depth' (as opposed to sounding 2 dimensional)?

[MARCHMELLOW]

Depends on your programming, but I find that bussing all your hi's (and sometimes other elements) and compressing together can help to glue them together, and can add a bit of fluidity

Dunno if its too obvious, but use a number of channels for the hi's, as Janner says with varying lengths ranging from t - ti - tic - ticc if you see what I mean? Again it'll help fluidity and motion

As a general question though, with regard to elements being too up-front, I could do with some advice too I think...

Is there anything apart from volume and reverb that helps to give a track 'depth' (as opposed to sounding 2 dimensional)?

for that last question, it has to be SERIOUS knowledge of where hi hats sit in the spectrum, i mean like exact numbers, and also maybe panning would help. Rusko rinses panning, and it sounds lush!

[osk]

Yep. I pan hats. Not hard pan, but enough. Send one hat left and another right.

[trevelyan]

I didnt really mean in terms of hihats, I meant more generally

Panning is definitely good but can be annoying unless subtle and well executed in my opinion

[osk]

Yeah I agree. Subtlety and dubstep are like fish and chips...

Another thing I find useful is if you can adjust the velocity of hat hits it gives it a nice bit of sparkle - makes it less metronomic, more natural etc.

[twatty vagitis]

I didnt really mean in terms of hihats, I meant more generally

Panning is definitely good but can be annoying unless subtle and well executed in my opinion

try some paralell compression on ur beats, can really make a positive difference to most beats, can sometimes sound complete wank tho...

[distro]

add a group channel,send all beats and distort together. or leavge out the kick/snare distorting together can make it well solid. Similiar to compress together only u can get some interesting colouration from whatever dist plugin ur using.

[thee]

also try using a gate on your hats or drum loops at extreme settings this gives a nice choppy rhythmic fee-and helps keep the drum layer(s) clean.

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[ikeaboy]

You can get the same effect as a pumping compressor by using the Autopan plug in Ableton. Set the phase so the volume curves match, set the rate to 1 or 1/2 then what you have is a volume envelope that you can change with the shape amount and offset controls. This will let you suck down the volume of hats in time with kicks, Bass pulses whatever!