[guitarfriendly]

One of the biggest challenges of recording drums is usually trying to figure out how to record multiple channels, because ideally, you want an audio interface with several different channels so you can mix each individual microphone afterwards in the software of your choice.

If you are limited to just recording four channels, assuming your recording a four-piece drum set, you can put a SM57 on the snare, something like a Beta 52A, D112, or even another SM57 on the kick, then a matched pair of pencil condensors like the Samson CO2's as overheads. In this case, the toms or the hi-hats wouldn't be mic'd but usually the overheads can do a somewhat decent job of capturing them.

Ideally, you want as many as eight channels or more to record a full set of drums: snare, kick, hi-hat, hi tom, mid tom, floor tom, overhead left, overhead right. However, it's quite possible your audio interface wouldn't have that many preamps or inputs unless you have something like a Presonus Firestudio Project interface or something that has 8 individual preamps and channels.

The other options is to run all your mics into the preamps on a mixer and run the output to your interface. The downside of this though is you can't mix the individual drums afterwards since you've mixed it down to a left and right channel out of the mixer.

As for micing the kick, generally you'll want to put one pillow in the drum to eliminate the drum over resonating. Generally, you don't want to bury the microphone in the pillows because you'll just get a really muffled sound. Assuming the head on your kick drum has hole in the front, point the mic a couple inches into the whole. The closer you point the mic to the beater the more smack you'll get. The farther you place the mic away from the drum the more boom you'll get. Sometimes guys will put a mic on the inside of the drums and then a condenser outside of the drum to pick up more of the boom and then mix the two mics together.

SM57's will work great on pretty much any drum if you are on a budget. You probably wouldn't want to use them as overheads but for snare, toms, and even the kick it's a great versatile mic.