mic placement for recording metal drum kit.

There are all sorts of ways to do it, but since you need articulation with most metal drumming...you will probably need lots of mics to get the sound. With a big kit, you will probably get lots of reflections that are hard to control in the mix with tons of bleed also.

Basically, if you have time to experiment, I personally would try to isolate and deaden everything you can. Forget trying to pick up room reverb, it will be much easier to contol with plugs or whatever in the mix. Might look a little funky having shields and blankets all over everything, but might be worth it in the long run.

There is a load of info on drum recording and some downloadable sessions http://www.recording-microphones.co.uk/recording-Polaris.shtml

John

Funny...there is actually a lot of advice being given here that I do the exact opposite of....no offense to these other guys. I'm sure they get great drum sounds when they record heavy rock. But for ME....

I DO want drums to sound good SOLO'd.

I DO want drums to sound like drums....and not something that I deadened to all hell.

I DO want to pick up the sound of the room. Most killer drum tracks are completely related to the room and the sound of the room. The ROOM - I would argue - is less important than the player, but more important than the actual drum kit.

I don't worry about bleed....I use good mic placement and the bleed is what it is. If the drummer is decent, the bleed is usually acceptable, and your HH will sit just fine in the OH mics.

If I were YOU...and I only had 7 channels to mic the kit. Regardless of how many pieces the kit was, I'd do the following:

Channel 1: Kick
Channel 2: Snare Top
Channels 3 & 4: OH mics - spaced pair or XY
Channels 5: MONO room mic - as far away from the kit as possible
Channels 6 & 7: Split between toms if necessary (You could also go with MONO OH mic as well if you'd rather close-mic all of your toms...or if you really want to mic that HH.)

My main focus would be to get the kit sounding as good as possible with ONLY the OH mics and the ROOM mic. I'd not compress the OH mics. I like transients. But I'd CRUSH the hell outta the room mic with my fave compressor and blend that in with the OH. (I don't time-align these tracks as some would suggest....let it be...)

Once I had that, I'd add in the close mics to taste. I can tweak/gate/compress/EQ/trigger to my heart's desire on these if I want....it's all good.

The bottom line is that if I don't have the sound of a good drum kit in a decent space to beging with, I can't get a drum track that sounds right to me. Great drum tracks start with the room - in my experience.