[KeyserSoze]

I just started messing around with 2 and 3 mic setups this week. Here's the little I've found so far.

A) My Fender dynamics that came with my Passport PA sound better as overheads that SM-57's do. Go figure.

B) Further away is better for your non-bass drum mic. If you have it 6 inches over the cymbals the dynamics of the kit get screwed up and it sounds like it's close mic'ed. No room sound at all.

C) A single overhead would be great if there's a high ceiling (at least 10') and you could get the mic way up there. The drums project up and down more than they do out. Cymbals project in all directions and can easily drown out the toms if the toms aren't close mic'ed. The opposite solution might be a mic near the floor out in the room. It will catch the resonant side of the tom projection (which sounds a lot different than the batter side).

You'll probably happiest with a mic somewhere between 6 and 18 feet from the kit, depending on the size and sound of the room. What I do to experiment is set up the mics, hit the red circle button and before I play, say into a mic what the setup is (mic X is 5 feet away and 6 feet high). That way you can skip naming all of the tracks in your software and focus on the sound. Then once you've tried a few different mic placements, you can A/B them to see what sounded best. That's my novice way of doing it. I just made my first glitch/pop free recording last night though. I still have a ton to learn.