Drum mic question

[Zoofie]

Hey all
Im looking to be treating myself to some mics and a mixer this christmas , and i was just wondering a few things.
1) Theres a t-bone mic set of 5 mics , and i was wondering if they are any good?
2) If you mic your kit with 1x bass mic , 1 x snare mic and 3x tom mic , would you still need two condenser mics to pick up cymbals or?
Thanks alot!

[drew510]

As for the t-bone mics, I'm not familiar with the company so I can't tell you anything about them, but as for micing your kit, honestly you'd be better off with and bass mic, snare mic, and preferably 2 condensers as overheads (2 overheads instead of tom mics). I think you'd be happier with what you get. The overheads can do a good job of picking up toms, depending on positioning and how you EQ them. I've used this 4 mic combo plenty of times in little home recording projects and it works well, using sm57 on snare, pg52 on bass, and 2 MXL 993 condensers as overheads. Also, you may want to look into the Recorderman technique, which uses only 2 condenser mics... I found out about it on this forum and tried it and I'm extremely pleased with the results. It sounded pretty good and had no phase problems for me, as the more mics you use, the more this will come to be a problem.
You can see it here...

http://www.hometracked.com/2007/05/12/recorderman-overhead-drum-mic-technique/


Youtube is down for me right now, but you probably will be able to watch the video soon.

Also, how big is your kit? Because I'm speaking from experience recording a pretty small 4 piece kit with 2 crashes, hats, ride, and splash. So it's easier compared to like a 7 piece with 45 crashes.