[wwittman]

It doesn't HAVE to be a mirror image but it makes it easy to get the phase relationships right if it is as close to that as possible.


Really you want to check the relationship of the top mic to the REST of the kit, for phase, and get that right.
Then if you need to flip the bottom in relation to the top you do.

It's not just a question of the two mics against each other... they have to sit relative to the rest of the kit and the leakage as well.

It's only logical (as Shelly Yakus once pointed out to me) that most drum mics look DOWN at the batter head, so that the head moves AWAY from the mic with the strike.
The bass drum (with a mic inside) and the bottom of the snare do the opposite... that is, the head moves TOWARD the mic with the strike.
So it's really only logical that these mics will see inverted 'phase'.