This is either genius or really stupid, I know not which:

My advice would be don't over-think it. Concentrate on finding one mic that sounds good on each source and getting them to work well together. Really not sure there's much point in double miking each tom, you'll just get into a tangle. Good luck.

JohnnySomersett wrote:The decision to top & bottom was made purely on the fact that we have the channels and some mics and if it's there we can use it if we like it.My gut feeling is that you might be better off spending more time getting things right with fewer mics than filling up every last track...

If you are recording bass, drums and guitars live in the same room, all the more reason to keep the number of mics and channels under control. You will make far more of a difference to the end result by being careful about things such as the relative levels and positions of the amps in the room, and...

One other thing... if I was tracking an entire album in a day, I'd probably want to give some thought to the ways in which I could stop it all sounding the same. I'm guessing you're unlikely to have the time or resources to swap over drum kits and amps for different songs, but perhaps it would be wo...