wow, that's a lot :)
im wondering...do you need them to mic your drums live or in the studio ?
i'm the sound engineer for two small clubs (mostly hardcore and metal bands), and i never used 12 mics on a drum kit :) now...i prolly would if we had that many good mics :) hehe ok ill tell you what i do...i believe this is pretty standard :
snare drum / toms : shure sm 57s ... i guess most people use those ... i mic from the top and try to point the mic as close to the rim as possible, since it gives a more ringin snappy sound...now for the tomes i try point the mic closer to the center of the tom the lower the tom gets...(that make sense?)
some people use the old sennheiser 421 for toms, i never did that...
the good thing about the sm 57 is...you can use it really well to mic guitar speakers as well...standard choice
bass drum: akg d 112 ... nice and fat sounding ... if you have a hole in your resonance skin (is that the right word) then experiment with different positions scootin it back and forth...the nearer you get to the beater pad...the kickier...the nearer to the resonance skin the boomier...if you want to hear the attack of the beater, you should have a hole, if you want a soft warm tone without a lot of attack, you could also mic the resonance skin (i never do that)
now this is a matter of personal preference but i often use the shure sm 57 on bass drums, since it gives you a really neat "ticking" sound (think pantera) plus it doesnt feedback easily, which is sometimes a problem with mics inside the bass drum
for overhead mics i sometimes use akg c 1000s which are alright...might wanna check out different c o n d e n s e r mics...however in small clubs i almost never use overhead mics because those cymbals are always loud enough :) i put up overhead mics so the drummers are happy, but i always switch em off on the mixing desk :) now dont tell anyone...btw a lot of people say if you use overhead mics, you should put a lo pass on those channels...i dont think this is true all the time, since they also get a lot of signal from the toms and the snare...which then sound "thinner" ... depends on what kinda sound you want.
for hihats ... theres special mics, mostly condenser...however i never use them not even on big stages, since i find that the hihat sorta takes care of itself...its pretty loud and tends to bleed in all other microphones, at least snare and higher toms...its prolly different if you do some serious recording...but for live i think you can save a few bucks here
...
make sure that you get tom and snare clamps for those mics, you can adjust the angle of the mic to your liking, screw it tight, then remember where you put em on your shells and youll get the same mic position every time...plus theres not so many mic stands that are always in the way :)
hope this helped some if you got any questions go ahead
ike
