I use both...It depends on the situation....the SD's are generally a more 'focused' sound as they have a much smaller footprint than the LD's....As for which mic....it depends on what your ears tell you is right...My favorite throughout the years has been a pair of Neumann U87i's as overheads.These are good mics for nearly everything and for this purpose they are GREAT....I also like the SM81 sd's ....AKG 451's....ADK SD-1....ADK A51 LDS are also very good overheads...They have a great curve that makes the cymbals come out very natural...

I concur with Mr Davedog in every regard

Some of my fave's are a pair of km84's, a pair km-86's, an sm-2, a c-24, a pair of coles ribbons, a pair of royer ribbons, an sm69fet, any of the audio technica 40 series.......and so on

It also depends on what you have available to you (if you don't have $ for rentals).

the real issue is in the room...if you have a nice big sounding room you will be able to use a LD omni condenser...can get a full sound, but, if you room is a little no so well with a tend of some reflections you have to avoid the omni thing...and stack with a SD...is just my experience...the KMS184 are great OH mikes...and recently i`ve been tryng a pair of AT4033...not so great, but, good...perhaps because the diafragm have a mediun size...is not that large but is not small...worth to try...

LD: If you want to pick up most of the kit with the OH's...like in minimal mic'ing techniques.

SD: If you want to only pick up the cymball's.

Cardoid: If you have a bad room or don't want to pick up much room sound

Omni: If you want more room sound in the OH's

Thanks all,

djui5, I do only get the cymbals in the overheads. I want more drum/snare sound so i will try some LDc's soon. thanks!

i prefer small diaphragms on overheads, and, if placed correctly sd condensers will capture the entire kit (except kick) very well. mic choice matters, of course. to that end, sennheiser mkh40's are god's gift to mic cabinets. extremely low self noise, high sensitivity, flat response... you point it at something, and that's the sound that comes out your monitors... can you tell i'm in love with these things?

I've actually found small-diaphragm omni microphones to do a great job of picking up the entire kit. They're nice because you can move them closer to the drums than you would cardioids and I haven't found the room to be as much of an issue as you'd think.

-Duardo