Okay, here comes Mr. Unorthodox....I'm the dissenting vote here.
What size drums do you have?
What kind of heads do you have?
Give me some examples of what you're looking for as far as drumsound (Start nameing bands and songs).
I had my kit tuned down really low, and had all this stuff close mic'd, gated, compressed, the whole 9 yards, and I was REALLY unhappy with the drumsound. I cranked the heads down pretty tight, I Mic my pair of kicks, my snare, and use a pair of overheads (only because my guitarist is whining about "Come on man, make it stereo! Please, I want the toms to pan when you do a roundhouse!"-(I never heard it calld a "roundhouse" before either what a freaking dork!) normally I would use ONE overhead.)
Anyway,
Here's where I'm unorthodox...invest in a "tension watch". I use a neary
drumtorque, but so many complain that it's "cheating", but for me, it allows me to put the exact same tension on each head, every time...a no brainer, and anything that makes my life easier is a positive in my book...Yes, I can tune my kit without the neary, but I can't tune them in complete silence, while the neary allows me to tune them without hearing them.
On the toms. I use 5 on the batters, and 10 on the resonant heads.
On the Kicks I use 5 on the Batter and 5 on the resonant.
On the snare I use 10 on the Resonant, and 25 on the batter, then I crnak each Batter lug 1 to 2 full turns at each lug....depending upon how tight I want the snare.
The first step, is getting the kit to sound good, with itself.
I've recorded in some god-awful places, and gotten some decent results.
The kind of sound I'm telling you about, is going to definitely be "in your face", and aggressive sounding.
The toms will sound kind of "tympani-ish"..sort of like Hugh Jackman's toms from that band The Outfield...they'll cut through the mix very well, without being overbearing.
Tim