How would YOU mic this kit?

[Neverpurified]

I would say do this

1 - Kick
2 - Kick
3 - Snare top
4 - Snare bottom (preferably with a condensor if you have an extra one)
5 through 9 - Toms 1 through 5, respectively
10 - Hat, over or under, whichever sounds best
11 - Ride, same as hat
Use either 2 or 3 tracks for overheads, anymore than that and you can run into some nasty phase issues if you're not careful. I've found that 2 usually give me all I need. Then use 1-2 for your room mics, place them 5-10 feet away from the kit (to capture the.....well...the room)

I wouldn't worry about triggers during tracking, try to capture some great sounds, get them sounding as good as you can. If all else fails, you can always replace them later on. Though, if you have 2 free tracks, you may want to just trigger the kicks anyways, and blend then in with the originals.

 

[Executioner213]

You know, I agree with that. I should just go for a more natural sound. Problem is, I don't have a localized place to record, so I go to the client. Then, 9 times out of 10, you show up and the drummer has the same beat-to-fuck heads that he's had on for the last 2 years. I encourage them ahead of time to get new heads, but alas...
The best I can do is use my Drum Dial on thier beat-to-fuck heads beforehand to get at least *some* life out of them. It's also less likely to get a drummer with a 9 pc kit to get new heads...I'm sure I don't need to explain the logic behind that. Finally, the time factor is an issue. Since I'm not exactly established, and have a real job that I can't take incredible amounts of time off from (and the fact that usually some bands practice/basement room isn't a world class sound room), the time and resources are extremely limited and I'm usually having to make whatever I get work. Sure, if I had a better grasp on getting things nailed the first time through, there'd be less problems to worry about at mixdown: thats why I asked this question in the first place.

I honestly would like to be able to sample thier kit and use the samples from thier kit for a more natural sound. Until I'm rolling around with more than some cheap mics, a set of triggers, 2 Presonus FP10's and a laptop, I'm probably not going to have the most pristine results there. As I said before, more work = more experience...it also means being able to afford more toys to make my projects better. The other kicker would be when I can get a localized venue for recording and a good drumkit I can have there at all times...in case some Mongo has shitty drums or something, as Oz said in his drum thread. Until then, I'm having to make due with what I can.

In the case of the original post on here, this will be my drummer, and he knows how to tune his kit....so, I might be able to go for a more natural tone. Maybe even sample his kit simply for replacing the fucked up hits rather than whole tracks. The problem still exists though: I'm not proud of what I've been capturing for OH tracks as of yet, and I want to amend that. If I can get better OH tracks, that will put me one step closer to the goal of using little to no replacement. Some people here might be completely down on it and think it's laziness to use replacement, I'm looking at it as that it's within my means now and until I can get to the point that I don't need to use it, thats what I got.

So again, thank you to those who are giving true input rather than criticizing people for using more than a 4 pc kit, as that had nothing really to do with the topic.

 

[Trep]

...and in a perfect world, replacement wouldn't happen. Unfortunately, most of us are working with shitty musicians, and our job is to make them sound the best they possibly can, otherwise next time, they just might go to the studio down the road who will.

110% Completely agree. It is the harsh reality of how easy it is to be a "Musician" and be in a "band" no matter how good you are of an player.

I think in this day and age us as Engineers have to be as savy as can be with editing and replacement coz at the end of the day if a band comes in sounding like balls and goes out sounding amazing that band WILL be happy, and will return.... as OzNimbus Said.