we're recording some demos for a next album soon and I want to try something different. we usually go for the roomy sounding drum thing and close mic'd amps. This time I want to flip it around - close mic'd drums and roomy guitar/bass just to see how it works for us as I have been enjoying this kind of sound lately. with the drums I want to achieve that kind of that old vintage jazzy drum sound that's tight and a little boxy.

we have limited channels to record with (I think we have 6 - 8 to work with) and so far I was planning to use two on the kit, close mic the bass and guitar amps, and then have a condenser a few feet away from both of the amps (maybe a stereo one) to capture their room sound together.

the drum technique I was planning on trying was the one where you put a mic on the front of the kit in between the kick and the snare to pick up both of them. does anyone know what this technique is called so I can google it/do a search on the PRF? or does this even exist? am I making this up? I also want to do this as I really sweet on the sound of mic'ing the shell of the snare at the moment... and then maybe a mono overhead

...and then one close mic for the vocals, although I am considering overdubbing these with a solitary room mic, maybe a stereo one - however we have time restrictions and the vocalist is more comfortable singing with the band and gets better takes quicker that way. I am however fond of very roomy sounding vocals which I suppose could be acheived by mic'ing the PA.

The mics we have to work with will be a bunch of 57s and 58s, a large diaphragm condenser, and a small diaphragm stereo condenser. all our good recording gear is another country so we will be borrowing what we can from friends.

how does my approach to this all sound?
does anyone have any suggestions on other techniques to achieve the sounds I am talking about here? those being boxy tight drums and roomy amps.

how would you set up the amps/drums? at this point in time I am thinking that everything will be in a straight line to avoid phase problems from having things facing each other (which is how we normally set up for jams - although the band is well-practiced and tight so will not really need to hear each other quickly to perform well) and then have the bass amp and guitar amp directly next to one another to capture them together in one mic a few feet away. would you go stereo or mono for this purpose?

the room is relatively large square (about 15 foot) with a low ceiling, and is perhaps a little bright.

please kerble away if necessary.
sorry if some of this is disjointed - I am recoving from a 15 pint hangover.

if the amps and drums are in the same room and you plan to mic the amps from pretty far away to get a roomy sound, i have a feeling you will get copious amounts of bleed from the drums, thus getting a roomy drum sound instead due to the intense loudness of drums.

just a thought.

yes, I know but I am planning to place things in such a way to minimise spill from the drums. we play with our amps very loud too so this really isn't a massive concern of mine.

however, if spill from the drums ends up being a major concern I suppose the room mics for the amps will just be a room mic for band and I guess my little boxy drums experiment will be a failure.

but yeah, still interested minimal mic drum recording techniques to acheive this sound though...

thanks!

Well I would say the easiest and most effective way (...if not the only way) to get a tight boxy drum sound is to play a set of tight boxy drums. If you've got a standard rock-sized kit see if you can borrow/rent something smaller. The reduced projection of the smaller shells will not only give you the sound you want, but will help reduce bleed to the amp mics. Won't help you in the wash of cymbal department though, which I suspect will be the headache. This approach will certainly be one if you indeed track everything together.

I would get an appropriate kit regardless. If you do have to track live, I'd look into dropping around 100 bucks on constructing some gobo's. If you don't know anyone to borrow from, of course. Packing blankets too. As many as you can get, kind of cutting the room in half, to keep the cymbals out of the amp mics.

I record in a room similar to the one you describe,with loud amps and generally get pretty fair isolation between amps and
drums.All of the amp cabinets are closed back.

Try the large cond aimed in at the kit from behind the drums
to get a close sound of the kit and a distant sound from whats beyond it(amps etc.). I have tried this with both a mg 930 and an at4033,both times the drums sounded good and was
a reasonable amount of the amps coming through.Experiment
with the amps position to control the amount of bleed.this is not a sound I personally prefer but it did sound pretty good if
thats your thing.