Question for percussionists out there (by the way, Treena - thanks for pointing me here).

I am a bass player, and have a 4 year old son who loves playing drums. I got him a cheap Pulse 4-piece kit - snare, kick, mounted tom, and cheap hi hat and mounted cymbal. He also has a good ride cymbal, compliments from my drummer.

I am in a rock band, but I would like to do some acoustic gigs. I know usually when bands "unplug" the drummer keeps his trap, and underplays. Are there some latin or other percussion instruments that lend themselves to rock music? I have heard congas and bongos and a djemba, but that's about the extent of my percussion knowledge Any ideas?

Can some of you give me some suggestion of what the best mic set up for recording big Gong.

I am doing post for a short film and need to recording these gong sound. The percusionist is creating all kind of weird and interesting sound from a big gong. She is running a piece of rubber on the surface of the Gong to create this ghost sound and I like to capture it right.

hi, I am newbie here and i wanna ask to experienced people here.
what would be the best mic for recording verious percussions? I am working with latin percussion player. my budget is limited..s o I need one mic, which can record various kind of percussions.
thanx, yasu

Many "pop" songs I have been listening to recently

e.g. "Here with Me" by Dido
or "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia

and a lot of backstreet/nsync/britney-esque songs start with a fairly low level drum/percussion loop, and then later the main drums (big kick and snare) come in over the top.

Percussion is an area of special interest for me. Anyone have any questions or topics to discuss?

Greg