drum mic internal or external?

[fldrummer]

For close up mics on the toms and snare what is the best sounding way for studio recording?
I would guess external cause you have much more flexabilaty(sp?) then having them inside and a bitch to adjust.

 

[Jeyan]

Exactly! external is very flexible and in studio recording, the tone a recording engineer is gonna print absolutely differs with the preference of the drummer or producer. Everybody likes one particular tone and to get that you may have to place the mics and experiment in different distance from the snare or tom. So I would say external is better.
If you are the only drummer who uses that setup and you like one particular sound, then you can close mic it internally and leave the setup unaltered to preserve the preset.
Hope that helps!

 

[Track Rat]

Internally mounted mics are only handy for playing live. They're not horrible but you can achieve MUCH better sound with external mics. You can change/optimize positioning, change mic types for different sounds, etc.