Ok, I just used this over the weekend. Worked great. Some background...
First of all, I recently bought a Studiomaster 16-4-2 board. It replaced a Mackie 1604 VLZ with XDR preamps. I cannot believe the difference. In the past, all my recordings had a dull quality to it. Stuff I mixed was described as "dark." I could never get brilliant high end when I needed it. Well, the Studiomaster sure delivers! Cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, acoustic guitar... all of them are much clearer, yet don't have an annoying sizzle. I can't believe I spent nearly $900 for a new Mackie two years ago, when I could have picked up the Studiomaster for much less and had money left over for more mics. I got this Studiomaster board for $250, plus $50 shipping (it came in a flight case).
Back to the drum mic setup. I was reading "Behind the Glass: Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits," and noted that Eddie Kramer always uses a mic inside and outside the kick drum. My approach has been to use an AT4050 outside the drum. But then I was listening to the recent LP reissue of "Axis: Bold As Love" on Classic Records. It's the original mono mix. And I was really digging that bass drum sound. It sounded punchy, but not as though your head was inside the bass drum (a sound I generally hate). There's a perfect balance of punch and body. So I decided to augment this mic setup. I put an SM57 inside the bass drum, and still used the AT4050 outside the drum. Boom... automatically I got a full bodied yet punchy bass drum.
I'll try to post some clips here over the weekend.
