How do you treat your overheads and why?

[JG96]

Interesting stuff with the 3 reverbs. I'll have to give that a shot next time I am doing a mix.
I think in terms of placement I may go for a modified recorderman type set up. I am thinking of having an overhead pointing directly down at the floor tom and one pointing down at the rack tom. Both would still be equal distances from the kick and snare. I am thinking of doing this as the drummer in my band really rides the toms and a lot of close mic can add some nasty bleed. In terms of eq I will probably roll of some lows and add some sheen. I never compress overheads either.

 

[Mo Facta]

Late to the party but I don't worry about "phase aligning" the overheads too much. I usually use LDCs so it becomes a little difficult to get them close enough for X/Y. Sometimes instead of putting them above the kit I'll set them up in front of the kit aiming down at around a 45 degree angle in a coincident configuration.

Otherwise, I've been tending towards a spaced pair lately. I'll try and position them so that the kick and snare are as equal in level as possible from side to side while capturing the entire kit.

As far as processing goes, I don't really do much to them, provided my positioning was correct to begin with. Since I compress the drum buss instead of individual channels I'll adjust how much I want the overheads to push "into" the buss compressor. I don't mind a bit of cymbal pump as long as it's in time with the song, particularly for rock. For lighter styles I'll just leave them alone or omit them from the drums buss altogether and give them their own group.

Cheers