I have a digi 001 which has 2 mic pres with  phantom power which I can use for overheads. In the past ive used my pair of rode NT5's in XY for doing this. I have a BR8  ( fairly old digital 8 track with a single pre ) an old AKGD112 I can use for kick. Ive got a Joemeek VCQ1 and a sm57 I can use for my snare. In the lounge room there are floorboards, rugs, Ahh a lounge. I can put the pc and pre's in a sep room.

 I have a half decent Tama kit with Zildian20 ride/16 and 17inch crashs and fairly nice sabian hats.  Unfortunatly I have a  pearl brass 13 inch snare ( the black beauty went missing!!!!AHGGGG )

 Not the most elaborate gear & conditions to work in but Im sick of using my crappy digital kit and pluggins for recording.

Ive always had trouble getting a good snare sound. Obviously, there are a few reasons for this.

Most importantly, im not an engineer with plenty of experience, to get the most out of the gear I have. Im also not and experienced mixer, Im a hobbiest.

I tune my snare to the best of my abillity, Ive researched many sites and Im pretty sure mic placement is in the zone ( Ive experimented heaps with this).

 So if your still here after reading my dribble, I ask.

Is snare usually compressed when tracking? And Is there a way I can reduce the spill coming from hats when recording the snare with an sm57? ( or is this bad mixing ) I usually experiment haveing the mic  half an inch away from the rim, about half an inch above the rim and pointing at the strike zone of the head. I have the mic placed under the hats pointing away from them.

Anyone know of any sites I can listen to a snare top mic'd only before a mix and then in the mix with the rest of the kit and instrumentation?

Im not expecting a million dollar sound, I just feel it could be better than what Im getting with the knowledge or lack of that I have.

Jason

Here are my thoughts:

I mic the snare from above and below using Shure's drum mic kit.  The snare mics are essentially SM57s, but shorter and designed for drums (high SPL...sound pressure level and tight capture pattern).  This is important since other mics may have a wider pattern and more subject to bleeding.   The top points at the strike zone at about an inch and a half and the bottom clips closely to the snares and points directly at them.

 These two tracks will form the basis for your sound.  You adjust the levels of top and bottom to get a desired sound.  More top mic for snap and more bottom mic for "roundness".  There should be very minimal bleeding from other things on your kit since they are mounted so closely.   If there is, you can apply gates (hardware, software or physical) and set a threshold so that other things don't bleed in (HH, bass, toms, etc).  For physical gates, I sometimes use egg crate foam.  You can place blocks of foam between the mic and the source of the sound.  For example, on a kick I'll sometimes tent a large piece of foam over the front of the kick and over the kick mic to shield it from the toms.  Sometimes though, bleed in is desireable....like recording jazz for example.

 OK, now for some opinions.   The sound you'll get with that setup  isn't what your ears hear, so mixing it is difficult.  To bring in some ambience, you need to mix in overhead mics.  That delay will help quite a bit.  I use a good set of condenser mics placed overhead the kit at about 3 feet.

Once there, you play with a mixture of EQ, compression and reverb  (and other possible effects  like flange, chorus, etc) to get the sound you want.

 Sound simple?  Yeah right.   It is fun to play around with.  Once you get something you like, take good notes and store them in a safe place.

Thanx for the reply RB, its appreciated.

I think my next purchase will be another snare and a mic to bottom mic it.  Ebay is my friend!!

Jason.

Some final tidbits: 

1. If your sound is flat, get new drum heads....snare heads get rather card-board-ey after a while.  Also, for snares, you could replace stock snare wires with PureSound snares.  They're excellent.

2.  Light compression is key to drawing out punch in drums.  Apply it to individual tracks and experiment.  

3.  Use EQ with a higher Q value and hunt around for problem resonance (kicks and toms especially).  Draw back those frequencies.  Pulling some of the mids on a snare will warm it up a bit.  Boosting the lows slightly gives it warm punch.  In general though, avoid boosting freqs when in reality you should be cutting problem freqs.

4.  For the most part, keep reverb off the kick drum track.  Let the bass player do his work of carrying the needed resonance...you're mostly emphasizing his part not trying to muddy it up.

5.  Another engineering trick for fatter drum tracks is to route the output of the drum track to a second track (or just copy the track).  On that second track, apply some distortion (or other crazy effects work too).  Mix that in lightly with the original track.   Think Phil Collins toms and you'll get the idea.