JonD
vanceen
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Some people might disagree, but I would say that going from a half dozen SM57s to using 14 expensive mics on a kit can take you from "good" to "very good"....
I agree with your logic, but not that you need 14 mics or that they have to be "expensive". For example I have a pair of CAD M179s that are a thing of beauty on Toms. I paid $300 for the pair. That's just one example. Definitely agree, though, that SM57s will only go so far.
I might have expressed myself poorly. My point was that better mics and more sophisticated placement can indeed make a real difference, but not the difference between "crappy" (as the OP reports) and "very good". (Always barring bad phase problems.) If the recording sounds terrible, moving the left overhead two inches to the right (or even replacing it with a U47) isn't going to make it sound "very good". Something else is wrong.
The fact that I've upgraded my microphones and tried to learn something about placement says that I think the improvements you can get with those tactics are worth it. Speaking very roughly, they might take you from a "6" drum recording to an "8" or "9". But they won't take you from a "1" to a "9".
(And of course, "expensive" is definitely relative. For some people, any mic less than $3k isn't "expensive". I'm using Sennheiser e604's for toms, which go for less than your CAD M179's. I like the results I get with them, though!)