Just thinking about experimenting here, and I'm sure someone has done this before... I've seen live drum setups that use 2 pairs of LDC mics (Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater for example) but I don't know if they're as concerned with phase as we are around here...

I'm thinking of using a left-center-right setup with my overhead mics. My drummer has a fairly large kit, and getting an even sound with 2 mics has been problematic- a coincident pair in the middle loses the stuff on the outside, and a spaced pair set too wide has the opposite problem (although I think I've found a decent spot with a spaced pair, I'm always looking to improve). How many of you guys have tried doing this? I've been thinking about it, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. A couple things have come up in my mind...

1) if I keep them all nearly the same distance from the snare drum, there shouldn't be too many phase problems. If I have them too close to the cymbals, there might be problems there, so I'd think I'd need to keep them up pretty high.

2) if I set them up so that the left and right mics have a good image of the kit on their own, I can just drop the center channel if it causes more harm than good.

Leaving hardware choice aside for the sake of this discussion, is there anything I should strive for or avoid?

Thanks in advance!

Kase
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