With the continuing interest in minimal mic techniques for recording a drumkit, I thought I would demonstrate my technique.
What it sounds like
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/DrumDemo.wav
You will have to forgive the playing, its terrible.
Equipment:
Drums
7pc M Birch. 22" kick with 8/10/12/14/16 toms. Snare is a blacrolite 14"x5"
Heads -
Kick - PS3 front and back
Snare - Coated Emperor batter with Hazy ambassador snare side
Toms - White suede Ambassador batter with clear ambassador reso
Room
12' W x 9' D by 7' tall
Cinder block on 3 walls with double framed / double drywalled 4th wall.
Floor is concrete with area rugs
An Evans EQ pad with the small end touching the batter of the kick is the only muffling on the kit
Mics
Kick - Shure Beta 52
Snare - Shure SM57
OH's - CAD M177 with -20 pad engaged
I use a blend of what is often referred to as the "Glyn Johns" method and the "Recorderman" technique. You will want to check the polarity on your kick mic. I find flipping the polarity on the either the kick mic, or the other three mics makes a difference in the quality of the kick drum's sound with this setup
The kick drum mic is located just outside the reso head port as seen here:
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/Kick.jpg
The snare mic is peeking just over the rI'm of the snare with the capsul directly over the rI'm of the drum as seen here:
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/Snare.jpg
The left OH is directly over the snare and pointed at the right edge of the snare drum. In my case the capsule is 44.5" above the center of the snare batter head
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/LeftOH.jpg
The right OH is directly over and between the 2 floor toms. The capsule of this mic is also 44.5" from the center of the snare batter. This is by design and is meant to help keep the snare in the center of the image. I was not concerned about maintaining equal distance from the kick drum
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/RightOH.jpg
A few more pics to help show the location of the OH's
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/OHPer.jpg
http://members.toast.net/dwyss/HowTo/OHPer2.jpg
Mixed with appropriate EQ/Compression to taste and a pinch of reverb as desired the result is the audio sample above. Nothing I do is unique or innovative. Its just what I have found to work well in my room on this kit.