http://www.wikirecording.org/Mid-Side_Microphone_Technique
I learned it out of Recording magazine & they said use an omni for the mid. Cardioid can get
real bright in my drum room. Omni's tend to soften the cymbals a bit.
...but as you can see, according to the wiki, there's no hard & fast rule for the mid mic. I only recently got a pair of mics with extra capsules (EVERYONE should get some omnis. Sooooo cool!) & I've always wanted to try this technique. Maybe I'll grab another ribbon & try that: Dual figure 8's... ...that will definitely cut down on the cymbal hash.
I went with this technique as my drum room is very long & I can't quite get a spaced pair wide enough. ..sounds a little goofy. M/S technique really allowed me to add some ambiance without destroying the image created by the overheads.
Here's a pic of the mics:
The snare.... where do I start with this? It's a 1974 5" steel Tama Imperialstar. I borrowed it off the guy who works next to me on the line at Chrysler. He plays in a classic rock cover band, is a huge Neil Pear fan, & was complaining it was 'too cracky' for gigs. I asked to borrow it to try it out: He's not getting it back!
The insane thing is, it has one of those crazy "parallel snare" throwoffs & still had the original beat-to-hell snares on it. Thankfully puresound makes a replacement! It took a little while for them to come in, but once they did, damn!
The other thing I learned: Back the snares off! Let them rattle. If you tighten the snares too much (as my old drummer from long ago insisted & taught me to do so) you'll choke the transient of the drum. That & you'll never hear ghost notes, or will be able to play the drum expressively.
I've really gotta thank Steven Slate for bringing this to my attention: I was messing with his outstanding sample set & thinking to myself "damn, there's an awful lot of sustain on those snares, I wonder if there's something to this."
So, I tried it on my own stuff, & bingo! There's the transient attack I've been looking for!
Bass: Fender Jazz, with a Peavey Max 450 Bass head, and a Peavey TVX 410 bass cab with the horn dialed in about half way. Miked with a Studio Projects C1 about 2 feet back placed halfway between the horn & the woofer. Then into a Great River MP2NV & EL Distressor.
Vocals: We tried a few vocal mics, & wound up going with my old Rode NTK (first gen, has a Phillips tube!) & a distressor in Opto mode. Oh yeah, they're not old guys. They're all 17.
