Rack tom miking...

[nighthawk11]

Hello all, I have a question regarding mic placement for rack toms. Recently at a gig, I was fortunate enough to have a sound tech that ran mics, monitors, etc. for the entire band. Made my setup much easier. When I saw him miking my rack toms from the bottom, I questioned it. Now I realize my kit has some low cymbals and such, but I've never had an issue with mic placement. He agreed that if I didn't like the sound, he would change placement. Much to my surprise during sound check, they sounded quite nice.
My question is, does anyone here mic rack toms only from the bottom because of space issues, or other reasons? This is live/club situations only....not studio recording. He only did the rack toms that way. Both floor toms were miked from the top.
FYI, all toms have reso heads.

Thanks guys, Mark...

[funkyruss]

it would strike me as odd..how were you able to judge that you liked the sound during sound check? did somebody else play while you were at front of house? maybe you would have liked the sound if he mic'ed from the batter side..coulda been an awesome room..i cant see space being an issue..

[nighthawk11]

The sound guy is also a drummer, so he played them a bit for me after he set them up.

[longgun]

Was there less "attack" than normal?

[late8]

There's no hard fast rules for mic placement. The goal is how good it sounds to you and the only way to achieve this is by experimenting with different micing techniques. Some drummers will use multiple mics on one drum in some cases.

[kickinit]

I use internal tom mics... main reason is for isolation.
Some of the places we play, there is just too much reflection and bleed into the mics if mounted traditionally. The internal mics allows our soundman to bring up the toms in the mix

[markthechuck]

after taking Late8's advice I've not mic'd up my toms in a while, bass/snare & 2 overs had been plenty enough everything comes through fine.

[late8]

The last "pro" audio tech that mic'd my kit used a 57 on top to cover the 10" and 12" rack toms and one overhead to cover the entire kit:



Otherwise it's just three mics: (1x) kick (1x) snare (1x) overhead: