As regards the Octatrack fx, i find the most “straight-ahead” approach for putting just a touch of 'verb on the HiHats is the “Dark Reverb” type (it seems most like a “Room” reverb of the three options), then turn the HiPass waaaaay up, set the Time to zero (the reverb isn’t nullified by this setting), and set the wet/dry mix halfway or something.
And in fact turn down the LowPass a few notches.
Getting that reverb to be clean and not overbearing in its frequency componentry makeup seems to be a key factor in Reverb technique. Also being aware of each sound event’s Reverb tail not fuzzing up the clarity of the next sound event’s initial transient/s.
it sounds like this is a regular workflow description although actually only yesterday evening did i properly go searching for information on how when and why to use use Reverb on HiHats.
the scenario was a remix or should i say “remake” of a drum groove, to access the bassdrum and snare sounds, but then use an isolated HiHat from another previously sampled drum loop on the Octatrack’s drive. The drum sequences were made on the Machinedrum originally, and now only exist as 4-bar loops on the OT storage card.
but anyway the idea was to try and make the new sequenced HiHat “fit in” with the other two drums.
At the risk of being overly detailed, I will post the copy-pastes of helpful people’s comments discovered during the nocturnal search for HiHat Reverb wisdom…
Caution: huge amount of words ahead…
“You can use reverb on anything but it entirely depends on what effect you want, trust your ears.”
“I use a combo of a room reverb and a plate reverb on all the cymbals in my mixes, both with a pre-delay of around 30ms, slightly damped in the room verb and less so on the plate, and size to taste. I’d hipass the reverb around 300Hz so it doesn’t muddy them or smear them up too much, unless you want that.”
“for the hats you have to be careful not to put too much on so that the tail doesnt mess with the next hat if that makes any sense.
“
“Hi, i think that depends on what you want, in most cases the reverb is use to give to the music a atmosphere in the mix, like been in a room or in a place, to do this the question is…How deep i want the hihats sound…? (how Much Reverb) and another question that goes together is…How far i want those hihats…? (how much volume) you can play wiht that.
In other cases they use the reverb as a ART effect, the diference is that they play with reverb making the sound go deep and more deep and more deep and then bringin them back again to the original position to make the feeling that is going away o to make the special move so they can add other instrument to the track.
“
“
There are endless samples out there to use but mixing them to the kick and snare is hard. Keeping their volume low is important I think. Bring them up just to the right spot.
Very light reverb if mixed with the kick and snare. Some light panning modulation really helps keep them moving and not drawing too much attention.
“
“One thing you could do is adding a reverb with a high pass filter (makes it cleaner)
If adding the reverb doesn’t work, try using a delay. It gives a sense of ‘space’, and also sounds a lot clearer “
“Whenever I use a reverb on hi hats, I use one that is exclusively for them. I make my reverb however large or small, colorful or not, dampened or not… the most important thing is keep it a mostly dry signal, (almost entirely dry, but obviously enough to make out the effect still) this will keep the horrible highs and hissing, and just plain ugliness out. Of course, this is just my opinion It all comes down to what you prefer yourself though, if it sounds good, do it, if not, don’t do it!
“
“
As for reverb though, normally very light and short timed “
uad…
“
The reverb just sounds to removed from the sound. I most often just end up only adding a touch of short decay to them so they dont stand out to much in the mix. I just wonder if any others have any tips for getting the reverb to sound more “attatched” and less synthetic.
“
“
This sounds like if the pre-delay is set too high.
Try a small room (< 0.7 sec) and set the pre-delay below 10 ms.
Other method:
Pre-delay values that are syncronized with the song tempo (e.g. 64th, 32th or even 16th) should keep the groove.
“
“
Trim them, if they need it, so the Hihats don’t sound whishy-washy.
“
“
in general, plate reverbs are good for blending with the original sound to add colour, while hall/room type reverbs tend to stand apart.
“
“
Although the Plate140 ist fantastic, it has too long reverb times for getting those small room effects.
Another proposal: try the RS-1 of the UAD just for adding a bit early reflections. This gives a space effect without the problems of the reverb tail.
“
“
yes, i’d second the rs-1, with a short predelay and slightly larger room size delay. this should ground the hihats within your mix yet keep it clean.
“
gs…
“
hi. this is only my second post. I would usually use a plate reverb on hi hats, but that is a matter of personal taste. Maybe you just need to try a different hi hat sound altogether. I often get the best results with electronic drum sounds by layering multiple kits or mixing and matching components of different kits. Or you could EQ and/or compress the hats independently of the rest of the kit. I would just experiment until it works.
“
“put a speaker in your bathroom
send the hi hat to that speaker
mic it up and mix it back in.
you might need to tweak the latency
“
“
de-ess the send to the reverb, if its too nasty
ambience or plate i like, but try
“
“
“Velocity and articulations
Drum ROMplers do a great job of recreating the sound and tone of a realistic drum kit, but you need to put in a little effort to replicate the performance and timing imperfections of a human drummer.
Program in velocity variations through the pattern, so that accented notes are at higher velocities and the notes in between are at lower ones, mimicking how a live drummer might play. You can also move certain notes slightly ‘off the grid’ to humanise the rhythm.
Some drum instruments offer hi-hat articulations that emulate a drummer hitting them in different ways, such as with the tip and shoulder of the stick. Add this variety to your groove by alternating MIDI notes, each one triggering a different articulation.
//
a high-shelf boost,
the amount of transient affected by it, adding brightness to the hi-hat’s initial attack and leaving the rest of the tone unaffected. Thus, the character of the sound is retained, but that essential ‘snap’ is enhanced - an effect that’s difficult to achieve with regular equalisation or transient shaping.
Adding depth using subtle reverb
In the real world, we’re used to hearing sounds reflecting off nearby surfaces, creating tight echoes – an ambience that dry hi-hat samples can lack.
To alleviate this dryness and place hats in the mix, add a tiny touch of short room reverb. It should only be applied very subtly, but it can add a professional sheen to electronic hi-hats.
Super-wide hi-hats
To add width to sounds, many producers will employ the Haas effect. Take a signal, duplicate it, pan one copy hard left and the other hard right, and delay one side by just a few milliseconds. The ear will be fooled into hearing the two as one single, super-wide sound.
You can also use this trick with two similar - but not identical - hi-hat samples. Choose a pair that sound roughly the same, then pan one hard left and the other hard right. No delay is needed in this case, and phase cancellation is minimised because the two hats are different.
If you find this effect too extreme, try careful stereo placement of hi-hats through subtle panning instead - this can really inject width and space into the high end of a mix.
Removing treble harshness
Just as excessive low frequencies can clog up and muddy the low end of a mix, treble and presence areas can often clash and build up, causing fatiguing brightness when several sounds compete for the same space.
The 2-6kHz upper-mid region can add bite to cymbals, but beware of excessive presence above that point - overdo this area and you could make your mix sound thin.
Saturation can add drive and remove shiny treble frequencies, bringing grit and bite to hi-hats. A dry/wet mix control is particularly useful in this scenario, enabling you to maintain the unprocessed signal’s brightness while blending in some upper-mid crunch and thickness.
Most DAWs offer some kind of swing function, moving the notes on every second and fourth beat slightly later for a jazzier feel.
Creative sidechaining
Got a rigid and unnatural-sounding hi-hat pattern that needs loosening up? You could dive in and edit the volume and length of each hit in the piano roll or sampler, but there’s an even speedier solution to be had using sidechain compression.
Simply place a compressor over the hi-hat channel and set up another single-sound rhythmic loop as a sidechain trigger. The loop triggers the compressor’s gain reduction on the hi-hat each time it plays, ducking it and providing movement.
“
musicradar magazine article
sorry to not be of any help, but that there’s a whole science behind putting a bit of reverb on a hi hat is just beyond me. But again, probably why I will never really make a proper commercial mix or whatever.