<<Sorry, no experience of that scenario, but expect a very large transient on the striker hit. Maybe for the tone to 'develop' you will need to move away a few feet at least ....>>

I agree. Recently I recorded some samples of large golden (Titetan) bowls. The single hit samples produced quite a spike at the strike which I found needed a bit of editing later. I didn't use any limiting as I wanted the long decay the bowls produce to be as open and pure as possible. I would imagine the bell you are inquiring about would have some similar characteristics. I used a single Studio Projects C1 with 2 AKG 3000s as stereo room mics (3 separate tracks). The final mixes used only the C1 track which sounded beautiful.

drbam

Let your ears be the judgement for placement. Walk around the bell while it's banging away and plug one ear, and listen with the other and see what position sounds most natural. Once you locate the position, I would then use 2 microphones to capture the entire sound. I would recommend an AKG 414 and an Electravoic RE-20. Place the microphone diapharms as close together as possible to avoid phase problems. You will most likely need to add a pad on the 414, start with the -10dB, and move to the -20dB if there is distortion.

The 414, should capture the high transient initial hit of the bell, while the RE20 will capture the low thunderous rumble. So mixing the 2 mics together should capture the entire sound quite nicely.

Or, if that doesn't work for you, do it the easier way. Sample AC/DC's "Hells Bells", or Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and pitch shift it to the size of bell you are trying to record. Alot less work and still very effective. :-)