Have actually tried this myself, it having been explained to me by a producer I was engineering for. We used 3 x Coles 4038 ribbon mics. One was about four feet in front of the bass drum aimed at the top of the kick and bottom of the sanre height. The second was approx two to three feet off to the side of snare and hihats at about thir height and slightly behind the drummer. And the third was set up as a mono overhead more to the drummers right hand side. Reliably informed this was glyn johns method but don't hold it against me if I'm in any wrong. Good luck, sounding great when we did it either ways. Have since had succesful results with different mics and playing around with positioning.

Originally posted by Jesse:
I was wondering what exactly the mic setup was for john bonham. I know that they used 3 mics. I think they used one out front, one behind him about shoulder high and one overhead? Is anyone familiar with this? And what kind of mics did they use?

I've read a lot about the Zep drum miking technique over the years, and all I can reliably determine is: Minimal mics were used (I've heard 2, 3, or 4) and NO close micing was done. What this means in practical terms is that the ROOM is very important to the sound, as well as mic selection & drum tuning/tweaking. Best suggestion : get the sound from the kit and room (may involve acoustic treatment of the space) and when that's sounding perfect, try various 3 point mic tecniques with a variety of high quality LD condensers & ribbons.

Scott
"Hard work may not kill me; but why take the chance?"

check out my comments on the overheads thread...add a kick mic out in front and this is pretty much it ( minus J.Bonham of course...wich is the real trick in getting his sound)

I'm not sure it's a good idea to separate the drum miking from the overall approach Glynn Johns took to recording a group. He described this very precisely at the interview I attended that he did for NARAS in LA.

His method was to set the group up for basics in a large studio exactly as they would be set up on stage so that they could see and hear each other. Then he set out to find a way of capturing the ensemble sound that had been created in the studio on tape. He swears that he never worked by formulas and the folks I know who have worked with him have described a wide variety of specific drum mike setups being used even for the same project.

The beauty of his method was that it focused on the unique sonic character of each musician rather than drowning the band's character in some kind of stereotypical "great studio sound." He recorded the sound that John Bonham created. The choice and placement of the mikes was simply his solution to the problem of capturing Bonham's sound accurately in that studio.

On Fletchers site at http://www.mercenaryaudio.com there is a comprehensive article he wrote on this, I've done it and it works great...as long as the drummer, room and kit are up to par. check it out well worth the trip.