There are some real benefits from very close miking sources like snare drums and combining takes with traditionally placed snare mics. People have mostly stayed away from this because of phase issues (which i never understood as you can phase align stuff in post) and because each and every condenser i tried craped out at this position (milimeters away from the head). Dynamics are too bulky, and don't have enough high end detail.
Combining these mics by mixing them at different levels, playing with ADSR, and placement you get a sort of snare design tool and can avoid bleed and control different aspects of the sound such as initial snap transient, ring, rim....
My latest project for a band i produced lead me to this approach as the drummer was a total wuss on the snare, and as usual every cymbal's worst nightmare. Needless to say, the absolute non-negotiable thing was NO SAMPLES!
Just when i thought i was covered with mics, this opened another can of worms.
