Some other information: OH- 2 Oktava mk012 (knockoffs, unfortunately). SM57 on the snare. Blue Kickball on the kick. I'm running it through a presonus firepod into an IMac G5/Logic Express 7. It works nicely, but I haven't had much luck with the mics (had a CAD kit, which sucked, I just don't have the money for much else, took that back and exchanged it for the Blue and the Shure. The mk012's I had prior to that purchase, and they work nicely. They sound better than a lot of more expensive mics that I've heard.) Any advice on mic placement? And, once more, what is the issue with phase? And, for the effect that I'm trying to achieve (Keasby Nights-era Catch 22, Streetlight Manifesto type stuff,) will I need more power in the toms than I can get out of the overheads?

Thanks.

You probably need to google for stuff like "x/y" "mid-side" "spaced pair" and stuff like that.... you'll get some idea of what people USUALLY do with the overheads.

Then do whatever you want!

Phase in short is when waves start cancelling each other out.
You lose some part of the spectrum... Could be any part.

In a DAW, you can move the waveform around by tiny increments and hear as it cancels different frequncies as you change the offset by nudging it. This sometimes "fixes" it, more often it does not.

Thing is, all kinds of crazy phasing issues come up with EQ, using outboard gear, adjusting for recording latency, etc...
Just make sure it doesnt sound hollow!
Phase can be your friend too?

Jake

If you have more than 1 mic on the kit you can have polarity and phase problems. A simple check for polarity is to have all drum tracks in record and hit the snare or kick once hard. Then examine the first part of the waveform on all tracks. If one is pointing the opposite way that mic needs to have it's polarity reversed, which can usually be done at input but can easily be fixed after if missed with the invert funtion or the phase switch in an EQ.
As to phase, it is still going to be occuring because sounds will be arriving late at nonsource open mic's and combining with the source out of phase, causing comb filtering, the degree of which will vary with the frequency and the distance between the mics. I believe the rule is a minimum 3 to1, i.e. your 2nd tom mic should be at least 6 inches from the 1st tom mic if your micing 2 inches above the drum.
:D