Crash cymbals!

[Birdinator99]

Is it a good idea in general to record crash cymbal hits in mono? I only ask because I hear drums are a good thing to have as mono sounds so they don't overpower other, more important sounds in the mix.

[Buoy]

I think the standard setup for cymbals is a stereo mic over the cymbals and hi hats (overhead mic) to capture the placement of each cymbal in stereo, and then a stereo mic further away from the kit (ambience mic) to capture the sound of the room.

I guess you could record the cymbal itself in stereo but you'll have to do some panning afterwards unless you want the cymbal itself as an impressive standalone sound effect or something.

[Chris-V2]

Depends on the purpose of the recording.

If recording one cymbal seperately as either sample-hits or midi triggers for triggering other samples later a one mic-per-cymbal setup is prefferable. If part of a drum kit you can use overheads close up, where I'd call them cymbal mics, or backed off to give a feel for the whole kit but generaly with a focus on the cymbals.

[Retrospective]

If you want the recording to be used as part of a drum machine preset, then get it in stereo, but for general recording, as long as you're getting the tone and sound of a crash, then any mic, although I wouldn't mic up a crash directly, if you have a few crashes, set them up close to each other and overhead mic them.