This isn't a new trick, but I have found that I can get a lot of attack on the drums from over compressing the room mic. My question is; when I do this, I totally send the fader into the red on that track, but as long as I keep the Master Fader out of the red, it seems ok, so how far, and by what means do others over-compress drum tracks? (does anyone bus each track individually too?)

I can't comment on the gain structure issues but I would be very conserned about the room mic high end smearing the high end of your overheads and destroying the stereo image.

I still have my stereo overheads in the mix which should protect the stereo image and the high end.

You have to be careful not to overbalance the mix with really up front drums. By nature drums are a dynamic instrument, so while a bit of compression is fine overdoing it may make the drums sound unatural. In my experience compression is the most overused tool. Dynamics are a natural part of music so elimnating most of the dynamics for the sake of a 'loud' mix is not always a good idea.

I agree with vonbleek.. I have overcompressed a lot of my mixes and they just don't hit when the music gains emotion