Best Method of Mixing Hi-Hats?

[DoubleYou]

I only ever put a stereo shaper on them and pan them in piano roll, but I can't help but think you can do more to them in the mixer....
How do you guys mix your Hi-Hats? Or do they even need to be mixed? (If that's the case, I must be OCD about having a clean mix)

 

[JGrisly]

Hi hats can be tricky.
Sometimes I like to throw a light chorus and even a light overdrive/tube saturation on 'em.
I always sample delay them tho. Sometimes a light setting just for space and sometimes a more extreme setting for space and that bouncing back and forth feeling/sound.

 

[ProdlemBeatz]

usually i roll off all the low/mid frequencies(most of the hats doesn't need this though).. and apply a light reverb/delay.. panning & different velocities are the most important to give that bouncing sound

 

[Sure_Fire]

high pass and send to a stereo buss. If I'm using a slicex preset with a shit tonne of sampled hats I usually whack a compressor to make sure nothing ends up heaps louder than the rest. Never usually put reverb or any other FX since it just seems to clutter things and is kinda unnecessary anyway.

 

[SwagProductionz]

with hats I just cut the lower frequencies and raise the highs.. keep it simple...

 

[DoubleYou]

Thanks for the tips guys, really appreciated

 

[kurushi]

Very slight distortion or saturation, and roll off the low and mid completely. With the rest of the drums going on, the "tuned" part of the hi-hat isn't really needed (unless you're going for a really clean song with a real kit and other live instruments), but it fills up anything empty sounding.

 

[JGrisly]

Man, this is crazy. Its ok for your sounds to have some color, and that color comes from the mids.
killing the mids on a cymbal kills the bell, attack and tone of the cymbal. Bad idea.
Unless you want your hats to sound like static distortion.
Listening to some of the tracks from those suggesting eliminating mids, and yeah, your hats sound harsh and flat. sorry....

 

[DMTian]

Highpass + EQ + transient shaper + pan position
And keep the whole sound, highpass only inaudible useless low frequency content
Perhaps distortion and reverb
But hihat will stay a hihat, all you want is to find the right snap and position, you don't have to throw every single plugin on Hihat channel

 

[Bern Ban]

I just try to start with great high hat sounds and only really adjust volume levels. Apply variation with velocity sensitivity. Maybe I'm just lazy.

 

[kushashin]

Ive heard you can use dominion to change the high frequency sound, anyone tried this vst?

 

[MarcDHall]

Actually for me the most important aspect of hi-hats is their dynamics. Most of my tweaking of them is getting the length of their attack and release right. Some hihats need to be very short and transient more for texture, some have to be longer and flatter. I have found that you have to be fairly careful with effects you add to them. For example reverb can easily make them sound washy and kinda dreamy and cheap. Too much of things like chorus can make them swishy and make the track spirally.

Its most important to get their pitch right... so pick the right sample to start with. I think new people often make them too loud too. And maybe have to much high frequencies in them. Makes them too bright.