[madtheory]

What's overspill? Cymbal bleed onto other mics? To minimise that, make use of the "rejection" that a cardioid mic has. The most difficult one is hi hat bleed onto the snare mic. Totally possible to make it work though, when you bear in mind that there is such a thing as "good" bleed. The other mics are easy given care. I usually screen off the kik with a mattress or a broadband absorber. You'll probably end up spending a day learning how to mic the kit that way, after that you'll be a lot quicker.

Just be careful of drastic solutions like overdubbing the cymbals- you risk making it sound like a seventies disco record. If that's what you want, it's all good.

[fitz]

Originally Posted by stateofflux

thanks for tips, ill check out all the mics mentioned. my drummer insists on complete cymbal seperation so he overdubs all cymbals one by one (like on qotsa song for the deaf) as we had nightmares in the past with overspill....it has made mixing very easy thus far...

Too much spill from the cymbals (which is what I'm assuming you mean by overspill) may suggest that your drummer is being heavy handed or the cymbal selection isn't right. What works live might not work recorded. Try getting him to not hit the cymbals as hard, or use lighter sticks, or smaller cymbals.
 
Listen to No One Knows...those are not big washy cymbals. I'd imagine the crashes/rides used were all a couple of inches smaller than what would be used live. 

I've got a fantastic AAXplosion crash that I love the sound of, but for my band's stuff, the smaller AAX Studio crashes I have always tend to sound better in the overheads/room mics when played with the same intensity. Far easier to control. Same goes with My HH Duo hats over my HHX Stage hats. Both great, but I know which are going to give me less of a headache when recording.
Any idea what cymbals the drummer uses?

Seperation is all well and good when you've got the room/kit/gear/Dave Grohl playing/production values that go into a Queens record, but it's not always going to sound great, and particularly not as a remedy for the drummer not being able to balance his playing.

As madtheory said, the biggest spill culprit is the hats into the snare mic. Overdubbing cymbals isn't going to solve that problem. Spill in tom mics can be cleaned up by editing out everything in between the tom hits for those channels.

I wouldn't let the drummer dictate the recording approach based on his inability or unwillingness to change what he's doing to get the best results, or based on his belief that by doing it a certain way, he'll get the same sound as the Queens record.

Again, can we hear some music?

[if6was9]

Been very pleasantly surprised by the samson Qkit mics. Had to use them for a couple of gigs when my usual mics were busy in another venue and I was very impressed. Could do worse than get 2-3 for toms when on a super tight budget.

If you are on a really tight budget get the best overheads you can and get cheaper tom mics as the OH's will have much more of an impact on the overall drum sound and you can use samples to help the toms if they aren't the best sounding. Bad overheads are impossible to get sounding great.

In my experience though, it's worth saving up that bit extra and holding off for a good deal on something really good. I got an Audix Dp5a for under 400€ from ebay in the states, perfect nick still in the plastic.