Recording Drums

[quagmire77]

First off, sorry for my ignorance...here is my question.
For now I have decided to go with the Audiophile 2496, but I am wondering how I should record drums with 4 ins. Since I have more mics than ins would the best strategy be to just run everything (5-6 mics) through my mixer into one input?

 

[lykwydchykyn]

Well, first off the audiophile doesn't have 4 inputs. It has two analog and two S/PDIF inputs, so unless you have a device that will convert analog to S/PDIF, you will only have two inputs.
The best strategy is dependent on the style of music you're doing, since that affects the sound you want out of the drums. If it's rock, you want a solid kick and snare and a nice stereo image out of the overheads. Try some minimal mic'ing techniques first (like maybe the kick and two overheads). If you aren't getting the kind of presence and in-your-face sound you want, start adding mics.
As for condensing it down, a lot of people in your situation just make a stereo mix of the drums and track that. It comes down to either having stereo overheads, or having your kick and snare on a separate track from the overhead(s). I would prefer the latter so I could do what I need to to the kick and snare to make them solid and fat. But that's just me. You might prefer to have stereo everything and close mics on all the toms. At that point, just stereo submix it.