Great topic!
I did a bit of research before I went out and bought myself a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 (8 mic pres included and lots of I/O), and I also got myself a Focusrite Octopre (to have another 8 channels of mic pres since I sometimes need more than 8 mics for what I want to record).
I record and mix all inside Logic Pro 9 on my little Macbook Pro 13" (from 2009). Works quite well - even when recording all 16 mic pres at once.
I wanted to go a step up from just using my portabel Tascam DR-100 recorder (more on that below).
But for this other thing, I have invested in a couple of Audio Technica AT-4050 condenser mics (but they are quite exensive, but very good for various uses, OH's, ambience, and even in front of the kick).
But I was also really impressed with those very cheap Oktava MK-012 cigar mics. A bit darker sounding for OH use, but that can also be a good thing.
I absolutely would like a couple of Ribbon mics though, but they are usually quite fragile and expensive. But I dream of a pair of Royers R-121's, or Beyerdynamics M-160's or for the hell of it: a pair of Coles 4038 ribbons.
I also recommened checking out the Glyn Johns recording set-up. You can get really great sounding kit with a minimum amount of mic's. It also helps for all the phase-problems you very quickly get into when using multiple mic's.
I also feel that some sort of ambient miking can help quite a lot. I sometimes like it to be a bit "dirty" and not too clean sounding....
For an example - here is a clip I did (with a basic backing-track) with me just playing a simple half-time shuffle with this set-up. All done and mixed very quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOdLVIyI ... AAAAAAACAASteve - does the recorder you have have XLR outputs for recording with external mics?
For a much simpler and a cheaper solution, I have a little and very similar Tascam DR-100 which sounds so much better with putting on some external mics (which was my tom-tom mics EV 308's).
My first test with this set-up was this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nlfz9x ... AAAAAAARAAI mixed it inside Logic Pro 9 and added some reverb and EQ and compression....You can do quite a lot (to a degree) to enhance and make it sound a bit better by mixing in a DAW as opposed to just the raw audio signal from these portabel recorders.