Do you compress your Hi-Hats?
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JackRichards
New member
It depends, wether the hihats sound flat. Though I usually compress all my drums, mostly with the Waves API or Sonnox Dynamics
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HIMbeats
Guest
You never want to do something in your mixing "just because you always do". This is the wrong approach and some of your mixes may come out okay, but every mix is different because the sounds you use are different. Asking rather you should always compress a hat is like asking should you always wear a coat outside? Sure if it is 20 degrees, but if it is 90 degrees then the answer would be no right? Same goes for compression. It is important to understand the why and when before you apply ANY compression.
Are you compressing your hi hat to control a peak?
Are you compressing your hi hat to try to make it louder?
What are you trying to do by using a compressor for a hat would be my first question to you.
If you are putting the same compression on your kicks and snare every time, you may want to head over to the top of this section and read "Understanding Compression" by Mr. Weiss for a refresher on the compressor. Good info there!
Are you compressing your hi hat to control a peak?
Are you compressing your hi hat to try to make it louder?
What are you trying to do by using a compressor for a hat would be my first question to you.
If you are putting the same compression on your kicks and snare every time, you may want to head over to the top of this section and read "Understanding Compression" by Mr. Weiss for a refresher on the compressor. Good info there!
SoundHustle
New member
Ya like my man said it depends on your situation. But typically yes if you wan your hi hats to stand out more in a mix like a lot of dirty south tracks do then compress. If it's hats with a lot of hiss to them then compress to reduce that or the volume.
~X~
Word+Sound+Power= Music
This is getting out of hand.... Who the **** would compress a high hat? If it sounds ugly then use a different ****ing high hat or just eq that shit. You want it louder? RAISE THE VOLUME!! I swear compressor madness is some new disease and from what it looks like its pretty ****ing contagious.
Please, excuse my attitude.
Please, excuse my attitude.
lol the only time i compress a hat is when its too quiet or im really really trying to get a totally differnt sound out of it, but if its that bad PICK A NEW HAT! Your mix volumes should be so low that you dont have to compress really anything to get it to be as loud as it need be, but you can make a kick or snare more/less punchy. If the hi hat sample you have is just really quiet maybe get a better quality one cause when you try to boost something that was recorded at low level you often get hiss.
My advice for hi hats is eqing them. Boost th his a little to give them more TSSSS or hiss. however you want to say it.
The last thing you should ever do is throw a kick and snare in the track and just throw some random compression on it
My advice for hi hats is eqing them. Boost th his a little to give them more TSSSS or hiss. however you want to say it.
The last thing you should ever do is throw a kick and snare in the track and just throw some random compression on it
WeissSound
Engineer
I find myself often eq'ing hats a little bit - either taking some of the mids out, or raising a little bit of the treble to make them "shiny-er". It's pretty rare that I compress hi-hats. The times I've done it, I'm either trying to get a little more "tick" out of them, make the shushy sound come out a bit (that's if I want REALLY prominent hats), or if I'm doing some kind of rhythmic side-chaining thing.
But more often than not the hat doesn't get compressed.
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HIMbeats
Guest
Wow ~X~ I don't see you get upset about much here on FP so I know it must be for a good reason and over use of a compressor is a good reason in my book.
I would agree with you in that if you are making a track of your own then the need to compress a hi hat is pretty useless because you can just replace the hat with another. However I guess I was thinking along the lines of mostly what I deal with in the studio which is mostly alternative rock stuff and live drums. I often get overheads that were not placed correctly and I need to eq and compress them. I also get hats that are compressed during recording which brings up a whole another set of issues..lol. So for me there are times when I need to compress a hat, but I would agree 100% that in general compression is WAYYYYYYY over used in all genres of music.
J.Son
New member
Thanks for the advice.
Yeah i agree you dont HAVE to do it everytime its just a matter of needing it or not.
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Emmapeel9
Guest
Just to throw in some defense of compressing hi-hats.
I think this is more common with a live kit. You may get uneven volume in the hats and compression can smooth things out. You may also want more punch and more hit to the rythm to give energy and a live feel and compression can make things punchier and more intense. Compression can also emphasise the hit if you leave some attack before the processor kicks in.
Less need with a good sample playing a consistent volume though.
Yes it depends on what you have.
I think this is more common with a live kit. You may get uneven volume in the hats and compression can smooth things out. You may also want more punch and more hit to the rythm to give energy and a live feel and compression can make things punchier and more intense. Compression can also emphasise the hit if you leave some attack before the processor kicks in.
Less need with a good sample playing a consistent volume though.
Yes it depends on what you have.
ScorchinBeats
New member
Although I agree with this, I'm yet to find a mix where having an aux with parallel compression and saturation and routing my bass and drums to it DOESN'T help. It's my 'special sauce' lol.
LOL I have to agree sort of. I only use compression in parallel, on vocals (a lot), and limiting on the master. Otherwise just some eq, reverb, saturation and obviously levels.
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~X~
Word+Sound+Power= Music
I use compression on vocals, and thats about it. MAYBE a bassline once in a blue moon. Everything else I manage to fix/make sound better with EQ or a volume slider.
You see though, your using correctively so thats 100% fine; you have the knowledge to use it.
My post was aimed at the exact people that will come across and read it, the newbs on fp who attempt mixing. They are usually misguided and think compression is the holy grail fix for everything.
"My drums dont 'bang'... hmm let me compress it."
"Hey my snares arent loud enough" "oh lets add some compression"
"These strings dont sound like those other ones i heard... heyy let me compress them"
BUT WHEN THEY MIX VOCALS:
"hey my vocal tracks sound thin and weak what should i do?? :\ "
................. LOL. its ridiculous. I hope people see my post and understand me. Use compression for what its meant for. Don't use it on everything because some creep on youtube does it. EQ will get you where you want 45% of the times, the other 45% is sound selection. The other 10 percent is mutilation via vst.
Someone should make a video and kill this kinda thinking
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apdagr8
New member
I rarely compress my hi hats..my advice would be to normalize it if the hi hat is too quiet. Youre gonna have to turn the volume down on it anyway when you are mixing every track. You should also research about what every plug in youre about to use in your mixes actually does before you use them. Compression doesnt just make something loud hence the word compress lol
ScorchinBeats
New member
But the thing is:
If your drums don't bang, compression CAN fix that. If your vocals are weak, compression CAN fix that. If your strings are weak, compression CAN fix that. Hell, I am yet to find a spot where compression does not help in hip-hop music. So if it works, why not use it?
Prove me wrong: let me hear one of your tracks that you didn't 'overuse' compression on and I want to hear it be as hard and powerful as other commercial rap (drake, wayne, etc).
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Jlacck
Guest
I don't know if there is a point in compressing a high hat unless the drummer was incredibly inconsistent. However, for electronic music (of any style), there shouldn't be a reason to compress a high hat individually. If so, you may have a pretty bad sample and in most cases, you're better off changing the sound instead.
On the flip side, one thing I do often is buss all my drums to a compressor to give all the instruments a similar flavor. However, this is more for character and "glue" purposes than to level out drums. It can help with creating a smoother relationship between the instruments in your drum tracks. Perhaps that might be a better alternative for your case.
D
On the flip side, one thing I do often is buss all my drums to a compressor to give all the instruments a similar flavor. However, this is more for character and "glue" purposes than to level out drums. It can help with creating a smoother relationship between the instruments in your drum tracks. Perhaps that might be a better alternative for your case.
D
~X~
Word+Sound+Power= Music
I never said it didnt, did I? I was speaking about the posts you see here
'overuse'? Here's one with none at all. The only form of 'compression' is a limiter on the master. Nothing else on the master either. This was a project I had with another artist ll I did was mute the vocals so its gonna be kinda spacious as i mix around vocals.
btw, i dont create hip hop/rap. When I mix I mix for balance not kaboom bass in your face eatin up all my headroom. Power just happens (in my case at least).
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ScorchinBeats
New member
Sorry but that's not even CLOSE to the power and punch of commercial rap. Compare it, I mean REALLY compare it, to this:
'
Listen to the 808s bang. Listen to the condenser vocal sound. You can't get that without compression. It's like trying to produce EDM without sidechaining.
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