You are looking to solve the problem the wrong way. While it can be minimized by mic selection or placement, this must be solved at the source. Get quiet hi hats (the new Paiste dark crisp hats are very quiet, but expensive) or get a drummer who can control the volume of his hi hat. Drummers who can do this do not exist in most parts of the world.

If you are really in a pinch, you can trigger a snare and mix it with your original to help cut down on hat bleed.

I don't know what kind of music you're talking about but in case it's music with a steady snare with little dynamics (no ghost notes) you could try a decent gate on the snare (when mixing).

A gate with EQ on the trigger side can do a pretty good job.

Well this is an age old problem..

Some ideas..

Have a LOUD, well tuned snare with fresh skins so you minimise the amount of eq you have to crank in

Quiet, small hi hat's

Encorage the room to 'help' the snare, remove padding, add padding.. I put packing blankets over the Bass drum making a little tunnel, to reduce it's spill into the room (and vice versa)

try to get undersnare sound from the room mic's

Use an undersnare mic to get the crispy sound (I usualy don't dig these)

Make a baffle round the snare mic stand (sheet of foam or egg carton) to try to reduce the bleed...

Raise the hihat as much as is comfortable...

I dunno, we all get that problem...

One older engineer said to me, try to pick a mic where the hihat bleed has a NICE tone. Loud hihat via a SM57 on snare ain't so nice..

to continue with that - Tape a AKG 451 to the SM57 so the capules are level, use both mix to taste.

I dunno, we all get that problem... :)

LordAlvin suggested that the problem might be the hihats....mmm....he might be right..I am using a Zildjan "A" Mastersound 14 inch set..it has very nice highs and excelnt "chick" but might not be good for recording...what do you thing?
Val

You could try a mic with a tighter pattern, where the null of that mic is towards the hi-hat.

Or, go with fewer mics (say, the Fletcher 3-mic method). [url=(dead link removed)[/url]

Good luck!

Regards,

Graham

I prefer Zildjen "New Beat" hihats, preferably vintage 'old sax' colored ones...

Harvey Gerst in the forum 2 below bought a 12" Zidgen hihat just FOR recording, I wonder how that sounds....

:eek: