Can I pull it off?

[Snuggleblade]

ok i got 3 sm-57s, one kick drum mic, a 4-channel mixer and only two inputs (two tracks) to work with on a tascam dp-01. basically i would not be able to mix each individual drum track, only the two tracks (stereo drums from mixer). would I be able to still get a strong mix with this set-up even though i dont have one extra mic for the toms? ( I figured the overheads might pick these up)...please let me know if you guys have any suggestions. you can hear my previous attempts at recording drums with one overhead, one tom mic, bass and snare at our bands websites- http://www.myspace.com/snuggleblade and isound every song was recorded to a tascam dp-01 with a somewhat crappy mic set up for the drums, except for "5 lbs."

 

[cusebassman]

As far as I've read (never mic'd my acoustic set), you can get perfectly fine drum sounds using mics on kick and snare, and two overheads (sometimes one, but I think most go for two). You will have to do a decent amount of positioning and test recording to make sure your mix of the drum mics sounds good before putin anything on tape, as you will just have a stereo mix of all those mics, but yeah, should be doable.

 

[Greg_L]

It's very doable. I used to record my drums through a little mixer and into two inputs for a stereo drum track. It takes a lot of trial-and-error and test runs, but you can definitely get it down pretty decently with time and patience.

This is a totally ass-backwards suggestion, but if you want to mic your toms for a big tom sound, you can play around with it and position the mics in a way so that they pick up cymbal bleed thereby needing no overheads. It's not ideal, but I've personally had it work for me.

Also, look up the "recorderman method". You can great a great drum sound with 4 mics using this method.

 

[zacanger]

Check at the top of the drum forum. I bump that thread regularly.
Definitely doable. I record through the crappiest of the crappy -- Alesis Multimix 8USB -- so I've only got the stereo send. Like both the other replies said, it will take a bit of trial-end-error, but once you get a feel for the room and the right mic positioning, it's really quick to set up, adjust, and be ready to record.