Snare/Hi-hat on one track...

Hi all,

I've just recently finished recording my band, and now it's time to get down to mixing. None of us are very financially well-off, so we had very limited resources. I was lucky enough to have purchased an M-audio delta 1010lt and Audition before the band formed, and besides that we could only rent so many mics, mixer, etc...
Anyway, my question is about drums. Since we did have such limited resources, we could only manage to get 6 tracks out of the drums:
Kick, Hi-tom, Lo-tom, 2 overheads, and one mic for the snare and hi-hats.
While I would have liked to have more mics on the drums, this does allow me enough room to work with each part of the kit as I like it, with one exception: the hi-hats.
What i'm wondering is if anyone has any advice on how to get a track where I can do a little something to work with the hi-hats individually... maybe pan it a little or eq without affecting my snare sound. I can gate the track pretty well to isolate the snare hits, but it doesn't seem to work too well trying it the other way around (you have to keep in mind that I consider myself eternally as a student/beginner at this stuff... this is the first time I've had more than 2 drum tracks to work with, and I've never used gates much).
I also notice that since the hi-hats are also picked up pretty well in the overheads, it seems that i may not have the freedom to pan them to anyplace I want... almost like I have to somewhat match the pan of them with where they sound like they're located as dictated by the panning of the overheads. Should I just leave them straight up the middle?
One more quick question while I'm on the subject of drums.... I know there are no hard and fast rules for anything when it comes to recording, but I am wondering how people generally (conventially) pan the drums... as in, about what percentage of the stereo field they usually occupy... and also, how the toms are usually panned... i often notice that it sounds like toms are a little bit outside of the range of the rest of the kit... keep in mind, this is for a rock recording.

So, as usual, the more I write, the more I confuse myself, and the more questions pop up... but I hope someone can get the basics of my question(s). Absolutely any advice, comments, or questions are more than welcome. I love this forum, and I honestly consider it my #1 resource when it comes to recording. Cheers,

John

How did you position your overheads?  Personally, with what you have, I would forget about trying to mic the hi-hat separately, and use that mic solely for the snare.  All of your kit will (should) be picked up by the overheads, including the hi-hat.  I tend to pan my overheads about 50% to opposite sides.  That seems to give it enough "wideness".  Hopefully the drums will sound close to how they are positioned in real life.... hi-hat more to one side, ride to the opposite, snare/kick middle.  For toms, I like to pan each close mic from left to right, just as they are set up in real life.  It sounds cool on certain fills this way, but it may not work for all players.

For me, drums are a royal pain. These links may or may not help you.  The first one is great though.

http://www.kimcheerecords.com/articles/drums/
http://www.guitar9.com/columnist302.html
http://www.recordingproject.com/articles/article.php?article=5

Feel free to post a short clip in the recordings showcase, it may be easier to get pointers from other members when we can hear what you are working with.

Hey, thanks for the reply...

I positioned the overheads in an x-y pattern, and did my best to pick up a realistic image of the kit, considering my limited experience. I have a short clip of one song posted in the recordings showcase. Panning is explained there. Let me know what you think.
Now I have to get a chance to read those articles... later tonight possibly, or tomorrow. Thanks again,

John

Recordings showcase link:
http://audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php/topic,6120.0.html