recording drums through a PA

[C_R_J]

fun ideas! im excited

[Burnt Ernie]

Very important to have the subs/pa lined up with the front plane of kick drum (not behind the kit). That way you're not screwing up your close mics with a bunch of PA bleed. Gating/expanding the aux send from the recording console to the power amp/speakers aids tweakability/envelope control,as well. It also helps to have an awesome (large) room to pump them in,otherwise you're probable better off running them through a delay,and reamping them.
All this relates only to RECORDING the ROOM.
It does rock playing drums along to a PA tickling your naughty bits with a bunch of whallopy/pillowy loud goodness. Makes even me think I'm good. Ha.

[Snarl 12/8]

I would think lining up the drivers with the kick would help with phase. What are people doing about phase with this arrangement. I hadn't thought about that before. It seems like you could either go for having the PA nestled right in by the kick, practically touching, or way far away to give you a "PA from the crowd" feeling, but in between would be a phasey nightmare due to bleed from the PA in the tite mics.

[Burnt Ernie]

If I remember correctly,the PA was almost/if not all subs,and they were lined up in a plane with the front of kick,1 on each side,about 1/3 from the kick to the wall. They were loud,but it wasn't completely blaring-I saved that for the punk rock bands I did in my own place.I can see where things could get phasey,but we had a few things helping the project:
1)Power Station,and a MOUNTAIN of drool-inducing equipment
2)Chris Shaw
3)Michael Beinhorn
4)a Budget.