Drums - SUB MIX or TWO MIC METHOD

[Naagzh]

I think what I'll try is direct mic on the kick into port one and a submix for the rest of the drums.

From there I will see what I can do... lol

If all else fails I'll try to program the midi as close as I can to the real track. I've got BFD lite and a full version of reason. Which do you guys recommend for the best sounding *hardcore drums*

Also, any additional tips for the midi programming?

Just so you realize, the "rest of the drums" will be mono, just like the kick, and there will be no good way to get it stereo afterward. IMHO, the approach you mention is the least effective of your options. You would be better off using two carefully-placed room mics panned left and right and nothing else, and then beefing up your sound with kick and snare samples. Put on some well-engineered hardcore records (Mastodon, for example) with closed-ear headphones on, and listen to how the toms a panned from left to right, or how a china or crash is off to the side. Hi-hats are usually not center, but slightly off to one side.

You're probably thinking to yourself "I really need a good kick sound, so I'm going to mic it and record it directly to ensure the quality of the bass drum when it comes time to mix." But you haven't considered what will happen in the context of the entire mix.

The dead-end into which you'll eventually run is that too many elements of your mix are panned dead center. The kick, snare, lead vocals, hi-hat, ride, toms, crashes, and bass guitar will all be forced to live in the same place, and your mix will quickly seem "crowded" and you'll wonder why you can't hear the individual instruments as much as you want to. By recording the drums in stereo, you'll create some sonic "real estate" for other center-panned instruments to inhabit, because the toms and cymbals will be more to the sides, and the whole mix will sound wider, bigger, and the other elements (vocals, bass, guitar leads, etc.) wll sound fuller and more present.

Take a stereo approach to recording the stereo instrument that is the drumset.