Another member of my band lent me his drum mics so I could try em out. I set them up how he used to use them for live use
A beyer kick mic
a Shure pg56 on the snare
Sennhieser e904's on the toms
a 57 on the hats (which I thought was wierd to start with.... but I tried it anyway)
and beyerdynamics tgx 5 clip on type mics under each crash/ride
 
As for the drum micing I did learn a bunch tonight.... mostly about what I do like about the mics and what I don't.
firstly I couldn't get enough sizzle from the Beyer tgx5 cymbal mics and they seemed really mid heavy without much highs... I did some research on them and the frequency response on them is from 40 hz- to
only 12 khz where the majority of a cymbals sound signature is from like 6khz up through 20 khz (unless I am wrong there) so they aren't really capturing enough highs. They might work fine life for reinforcing the sound in a small to medium club but not the best for cymbals on recordings.

 
I like sennheiser e904 the tom mics alot, though I may for shizz and giggles try the Sennheisers on the toms just to see what they get since they are also designed for that too.


 
On the snare I am not sure I like the pg56 yet. I couldn't get much snap out of it and was getting alot of the snares ring and overtones.


 
I may try the 57 on the snare and a pencil condensor (the one I got with the ARC system!) on the hats, my 2 big condensors (vocal mics) as overheads for the cymbals and see what that gets me.
 

As for the kick mic, I put it inside, up about an inch from the beater head like he told me he liked to do and was getting a really clicky sound without much depth, I then brough it into the drum a bit more and it got better. I am going to keep messing around over the next week or so and learn all I can.   Pretty cool stuff and I love the challenge.
 
I can tell you because I took a track I play drums on that we have already finished (using my V kit and ez drummer) muted the Ez drummer tracks and recorded along with everything else that it is not freaking easy to overdub the drum tracks! mybe it would have been easier to leave the existing tracks in to play along with....?  
Any advice on any of this is cool guys!   

I've never mic'd a kit either, but I've watched/read a lot of other folks doing it. Seems like you'd definitely do better spending time working first on a minimal overheads plus kick setup and get that sounding as good as you can, really playing with mic positions and watching some tutorials on the various three mic configurations that are known to work well, and there are quite a few. And then add in the other directs only to reinforce that where you really need it.

The fewer mics the less phase issues as well. Folks like us who learned from using things like BFD probably tend to just assume that you always need 15 mics to get a good sound, because well they are there so obviously we should use them. But I would definitely learn what I could get with a three mic setup first.
I look forward to the day when I can explore this world as well, though the bum lottery numbers I was sold didn't help on that front.
 

Just getting it myself Chuck. Lots of helpful stuff on youtube as well.  What Ive found so far:

Overheads- Apprx 1 1/2' up off the cymbals Pointed toward sides of the cymbals to keep from getting a swooshing/in & out sound. Less up and down motion toward the mics when pointed to the sides.

Snare-Id use the 57 at a 45 degree angle just over the outer edge pointed toward the center of the skin apprx 2 inches off the rim. Make sure it is not pointing toward any other toms, cymbals, etc.. that might reflect bleed directly back up into mic. Also if available, Id place one directly under the snare pointed straight up at the center. (Same with the toms minus lower mic)

Ive found it interesting micing the kick with a close mic inside pointed directly at the beater about an inch away from the skin and a far mic on the outer skin. One cathes the attack and lows and the other gets the boom-I guess.  Cover the end of the kick with a heavy blanket. Works great blended together.

Yeah but here is my issue... because my studio is a Room inside a room (4 walls and a ceiling within a garage) I have low ceilings in there around 7'3" tall.  it is treated with acoustic foam and is more dead than anything but I figured that close micing would cut out the small sounding room, it might be better off that way.    I also need to pic up and Adat mic pre to expand my anolog ins from 8 to 16 very soon.  I used all 8 tonight and if it were a client/band... that wouldn't work well for getting drums+ anything else.    Always an adventure as they say!   Thanks guys.

Chuck, my hat is off to you.

I'm wondering if, perchance, I'll ever get a valid percussive set-up some day ... as I spend more time on percussives then anything else.

Its the 'kick' and 'snare' world that consumes me most.  So I'll lurk as this thread progresses.

I hear ya Philip, I was not happy with the snare sound I was getting down and while the kick was ok, I still need to experiment with other placements.  I also came to appreciate how the sample sounds for EZ drummer/session drummer are already processed to the point of near completion where live drums need some heavy EQ work and compression to make it happen.  Here is where I may end up putting my live soundboard in the signal chain to get some of that Eq work out of the way on the way in.

At some point you may decide that mics have more in common than they don't.

This may lead you to scrutinize the sound coming off the kit to make sure it sounds like what you want the recording to sound like.

Setting up a snare so that it sounds just right is a really big deal. The drummer usually has one impression of what it sounds like while everyone else hears it from afar.

If you want sizzle from the cymbals you'll want to listen to the cymbals very closely and check out what they sound like. The sound you hear from 10 feet away is totally different from the sound you hear from a 12" away and it is absolutley totally different from the sound you hear 2 " away.

The closer you get to the cymbals the deeper and darker they will sound.

If you get too close you may hear an endless deep bodied drone tone that almost sounds like feedback is about to swell. That's too close. :-) Unless the cymbal is labeled "dark ride" or something like that. :-)



Have fun!


best regards,
mike

I always used the SM57 on the snare.  For cymbals, I used an overhead pair at 45 dgree angles about 2' above the drummers head or so).  If all mics are mixed right, you will get natural bleed of cymbals in the tom mics anyway.  The overall sound should be pretty natural sounding if you are in phase with everthing.  

Rimshot

The kit, player, and room all combine to create the sound. Take care of those three sources first. Then you go about recording it. If the first three have any problems, that makes the recording all the more difficult. If it doesn't sound good to you live, it certainly won't sound good on the recording.

i've been micing up kits since 1980.

the one thing i can tell you, is that more important than anything else, the drummer has to have a well tuned kit, a quiet kit, a dialed in kit...

and know how to mix himself as he plays.


after that, mic placement is really trial and error, and when it's right, you'll hear it.

pay special attention to overheads, and how they interact with the other mics on the kit.
understand polarity and phase, how to fix and manipulate it, and you're halfway there.