(I haven't really ever done anything with mic'ed drums, this is all speculative.)

I had always thought that the reason you put a mic on the batter head was to get the attack like you said.  That's what really needs to be heard in my opinion.  Let's say you had mics on the bottom of the toms.  It seems you would get sort of a "whoooooom" sound if you're only on the resonant head, and not only that but there might be a perceivable delay that makes the drums sound like they're lagging behind the beat.

But now that you've raised that question, I have no idea why it seems to work for bass drums.  Granted, most mic'ing situations with bass drums will have either a ported head or just not even have a reso head.

Boy, I've been on both sides of the coin with this matter. I've done 5 recordings over the years. Have very good mics, enough for all my drums plus overhead mics. In just about 90% of my experience I end up with a bass mic just inside my ported bass. A mic just a little above my snare head, and two overheads to pick up the entire kit. I rarely use my drum mics unless I'm doing an outdoor gig. Indoors, that's all that needed. I've experimented with mics on the reso side, but end up doing my micing on the top heads. I've got a son-in-law who is a sound man. He's helped me with my decisions what is the best use of mics. I'm willing to bet, both Bart and Bermuda will come to the same conclussion. Do it with a bass mic, snare mic, and two overheads....But I've been wrong before. 

  Thank you all for the replies. I figure it is a "subjective/situational" type question at the easiest. Was just curious because it does seem the batter side at least for toms, is the "accepted" method. Was wondering how it came to be I guess.

  Chip, I quoted you as I am interested what kind of overhead mikes you use(d). Not necessarily brand, but type. Condensers? I have only ever used/had my condensers when recording for a CD in a "studio" room. Of course I had all my other mic's also. Are condensers are too directional for a live gig (with no tom mic's)? I always interpreted their use, at least how I had them aimed, for picking up the cymbals.

  I do like the idea of just the snare, kick and two overheads though. I have heard many full sounding kits this way, albeit though I think only in the studio, just never tried it myself.

As far as I am aware it’s because most engineers preferred the sound, simple as that really..

I don’t get much useful stuff from bottom tom mics as a rule… mainly it’s all the rubbish I am trying to get rid of when it comes to mix time but YMMV

Whenever mic’ing anything I always say throw a set of cans (headphones) on a get hold of the mic and move it around until it sounds the best…

I am always very suspicious of any of my engineering brethren if I see them aligning a mic by sight rather than sound.. (if time and the situation allows of course) an inch can utterly change the sound with mic positioning, and although I can get a pretty good sound setting a mic position by sight and experience, I can always get a better sound setting it by ear.. 

Snare bottom mics; a lot of the time they can have a lot of stuff you somtimes don’t want in them, lots of kick etc. A nice trick is to sidechain a gate on the bottom mic from the top snare mic with a slowish (25-30ms) attack & fast release, so when the top mic pick up the hit it opens the bottom mic just after the attack of the hit to give some nice snare wire buzz during the main hit but disappears quickly before getting too much rattle in the tail, oh and e.q. the bottom mic to taste/heck..

Phase alignment is a problem with resonate head mics especially if they are breaking the 3:1 rule, and the polarity button is generally not your friend, it’s just pretending to be.. But correct phase alignment of drum mics is far too deep a subject to go into here…

Directionality is to do with the polar pattern of the mic not whether it’s dynamic or a condenser.

Lots of drum mics are cardioid or hyper-cardioid, dynamics are generally a fixed polar pattern like the Shure SM57 (cardioid) or Shure Beta57 (hyper-cardioid) the hyper-cardioid is the more directional  & omnidirectional is the least. It’s common to find a switch on Condenser mics that allows you to change between polar patterns.

Condensers are used a lot for overheads because they are usually quicker and more accurate than dynamic mics.

 

N

I rarely mic my toms live- I normally just have a Kick, snare and overhead. But, I HAVE used mics on the bottom when I was trying to get different sounds [and had some free time] in the studio. I guess you could call it a "rounded" sound. It WAS nice to have the mics out of the way.

Modern Drummer did a review a while back for some kind of hole thing that you cut a hole [like a small bass drum port] and put this protective ring around it so that you could mic the toms from the bottom [but I guess technically it would be the inside]

Personally I'm no sound engineer.  But every one I've ever worked with (and I have worked with some phenominally great soundmen) have always mic'd from the top.  Occasionally in the studio the snare is mic'd both on top and bottom.  Just a bottom mic on the snare is awful but in conjunction with a top mic can sound killer.

Live you usually want to limit the number of mics used.  I figure if every sound man mics drums on the top there must be a good reason for it.  I've also never noticed bottom mic'ing by touring bands except in the old days of concert toms where the mic was stuck way up inside the drum.

There is a great article on getting snare and kick sounds in Sound On Sound magazine this month. Check it out, they deal with this exact topic and get opinions from some heavy duty producers. Well worth the read.

Very interesting! Thanks

I think I stated earlier, that as with all things in sound, that's a decision that your ears should make. Flip the phase, try it, flip it back, decide which one sounds better. But not because it just seems to be some matter of fact.

I just started miking my snare drum from the side, you get the sound of the stick hitting the top head and the snares on the bottom at the same time! I no longer need to mic my snare top and bottom.
How cool is that!?