What is the best way to mike a drum set?
Well, I’m hardly an expert. “Best” is partially a function of what kind of sound one wants, what setting (ie a stage, a studio, an outdoor space, etc.) and how one sets up one’s drum set. What I used to do for Fat Lewy is set one mike between the snare and hi-hat, one generally above the two mounted toms (which also covered the ride and splash cymbals), one over the floor tom (which also covered my crash cymbal). The one thing that I did which was unusual is put the mike for my bass drum next to my foot pedal, rather than in front of the drum, but that was because I had a front head on with no hole and putting a mike up there made it WAY too boomy. It is best to try to keep the mikes “in phase” meaning all pointing in the same direction (although that was not the case for the bass drum mike near my foot-pedal). Jazz drums would not get “close in” miking. When I recorded jazz groups for my radio series a few years back, I typically just did an overhead stereo pair and one on the bass dr
