I have a real love/hate relationship with the hi-hat. To be honest I feel that most of the time it messes up what would otherwise be a great drum sound that I’m really proud of. It washes all over the place, and bleeds into every other mic excessively. However, I do really appreciate some good hi-hat work (Stewart Copeland?). There are a great many songs in which the hi-hat is so important to the arrangement. And it’s those rotten songs that make me have to actually like the ghastly thing.

Because of the excessive bleed, a lot of the time I don’t record the hi-hat at all. Even still if I do, I’ll keep it way down in the mix, and kind of take it as it goes-seeing how the drum sound and track is coming together, making decisions about how much hi-hat to put in the mix as things unfold.

Here’s how to get a useable hi-hat sound:

Place a mic at the 9 or 10 o’clock position (from the drummers perspective), on-axis, and about halfway between the bell, and the edge of the hat. As far as how much gain to apply to the mic-you don’t need very much at all. -10dB at the very most is all it takes.

Just jumping into this drum recording discussion? Here’s my previous posts on the subject:
The #1 Best Drum Miking Technique
Recording A Kick Drum
Recording A Kick Drum: Mic Selection
Recording Snare
Recording Snare: Mic Selection
Recording Drum Overheads
Recording Drum Overheads: Mic Selection
Recording Toms
Recording Toms: Mic Selection

//Jon
Twitter: @stsn