Stereo drum OH Mic'ing?

Hello, first post on this sub but frequent reader!

So first, a bit of background on myself. I'm a complete amateur "engineer" (if I can even call myself that) I have no formal education or anything of the like, just loads of youtube videos and trial and error. I'd like to think my ear knows what it wants to hear most of the time, and I've been messing with DAWs for a few years now so I have some knowledge but I am moving out of the box this year as I am completely bored of DAW's as my main production resource and want to fiddle with outboard stuff. Anyway, I am soon to embark on my first actual recording project with my band and we want to record a demo at a buddy's house upstate. Im gathering gear and so far I have a 12 channel sidecar mixer (SW 1280) going into a Quartet so I can process the drums in the box (compression, transient designer etc) and then out to an old cassette mixer thats got two FX sends (reverb etc) then out to a Tascam 38, only thing is I'm kinda stumped on drum mic'ing.

I will be limited to 4 channels for drums; Kick, snare, and either 2 mono overheads OR a stereo XY condenser for OH and a room mic. Now the question is, will a stereo microphone provide a realistic portrait of the kit? as in, will I be able to hear drum rolls actually going from left to right as played, or will it be a mono signal and be stuck in the center of the stereo image? I am completely new to the microphone world so forgive me if this is a dumb question. Would two mono overheads be any better since I can pan them left and right?

In my head, I see the X/Y condenser as a big plus because I can then also have a room mic and I want that ambience on the drums, but I also want to make sure I get a proper stereo image of the kit as that will be a huge part of the sound we are aiming for. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhYntBcZ7bY something along these lines) If two mono OH's are a better choice then I am also able to add room reverb to the drums but It'd be nice to do it all as natural as possible and with as little effects as possible.

Any input helps! Thank you guys in advance

Posted Mar 12, 2018, 9:21 PM UTC · edited

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