Lend me your ears for a moment and tell me what you think the ride pattern is here.

[stream=256,256]http://mywpages.comcast.net/chrisodonnell/peg.mp3[/stream]

It's the classic Steely Dan song, Peg. The great Rick Marotta is the drummer on the track.

I've always loved this groove but I'm torn about exactly what is going on with the hi-hat and I've never seen notation on it.

Thanks.

I've always thought of this as simply Rick playing two-note groups on the "& ah" of each beat, occasionally using his left foot to add another subtle note on beat 3.

Great groove, isn't it?

I hear him sometimes slightly open the hat on the "ah" of 2, in synch with that cool counter-melody.

 "FEZ" is so cool too!

Well, I think Rick "wins", as far as I'm concerned; Dennis' groove is too smooth (while certainly excellent, per se)[edit:I failed to realize initially that Rick's groove was not live.—j.].  I like how there's that tension with the hi-hat and the very slight opening, as well as the slightly muted snare (a rim-shotted birch Gretsch IIRC.)[edit: it was a Ludwig with Canasonic heads—j.].  I also like the ride bell pattern in the bridges.

Lovely groove.

Mr. Marotta has my respect for being able to carry an accent in the middle of three-note groupings alone; never mind what else he did.

Didn't he start playing when he was 21?  

It's just barely audible; it's right smack-after the second note and easily confused with a squeeze-box.

Okay, I'm interested—is there a way to isolate the hi-hat track somehow from an mp3 of this file using software?  Such knowledge would also be applicable elsewhere, of course.

I was just messing around with Winamp per your suggestion, Christopher, and I was able to hear the hi-hat with more clarity with 6K through 14K a little higher (or, in this case, 'red'), and everything else at green.  You might try it?  

I'd post it, but I don't want to overrun the bandwidth.

I'm going to take that back. I sat down at the kit yesterday and tried it both ways. It feels better to me to play it with one hand on the hats. It's amazing how you can visualize yourself playing something one way, but change your mind when you actually try to do it.

I don't play the tune and never would have tried if not for this thread. I've never seen ANY Steely Dan drummer as I've never seen them live. As far as I've heard, many drum tracks were taken apart and reconstituted, and layered, spliced, different sounds flown in, etc., etc., so it's possible some of these tracks were never played as we hear them on the records.
I had to actually try to play it to get a perspective. Just THINKING about it, I visualized myself doing it one way, which didn't feel as good as I thought it might. It seemed it would be more relaxed, but it wasn't.

I don't think that's quite right. I've heard stories of them sometimes building up drum tracks drum by drum. They certainly are very slow working and meticulous to the point of obsession.
They definitely have flown things in. The fills on 'Hey Nineteen' are very overdubbed sounding (snares flamming etc..). The main kit even sounds like a loop (tape loop perhaps), Rick Marotta is the drummer, but Steve Gadd is also credited.
Talking about awesome ghost notes, what about Purdie on 'Babylon Sisters'. Great snare ghosting, then he adds an open hat towards the end of the song, VERY difficult to make sound smooth.