From my experence of recording Bands, Brass Bands, Artists, etc and from my experence at college doing a HND in Music and Audio Technology, i'll try to help you a little, however, I don't know your circumstances and the equipt you have, so i'll just give you a few pointers on what I would do:
Try using a spaced pair, set about 8 feet away from the front of the band, use cardiod mics, preferably good quality condensers.
Spot mike the Cornets, Bari's, Bones and Basses with 1 mic to each section, position for best balance, use cardiods, and again they should be condensers.
You may also use a Decca Tree to obtain a balance from the whole ensemble, the Decca Tree will capture the true location of the instruments. Put the Decca Tree just behind the Conductor.
Spot mike perc and timps. For drums, if you have enough mics, try to mik all the drum instruments (bass drum AKG D112 Prefered, you can use a Shure SM57 for the snare. Try to use dynamic mics on drums since these will be able to cope with the transients high SPL's of the kit.
One mic on a whole kit is not usually that satisfactory - but if you have only one mic for the kit, experement, you'll probably find that a mic above the kit players head is the most reasonable spot!
If you have only one mic for the recording, place the mic around 6 - 8 feet from the band, place it high up and pint the 'business end' down into the band.
If you have only 2 mics, use the stereo spaced pair as decribed as the beginning.
Be careful about phase! using more than one mic will intoduce phase against another mic (especially if they are in co-incident pairs or spaced pairs) Just listen to the sound, if a mic is phasing a little, move the mics a little further apart (or closer)
Try to calculate the resonant frequency of the the room and the standing waves that are present, all room will have a resonant frequency (and it's overtones) and standing waves - very problematic in recording on location!
I've forgotten the equations, but you can find them on the web somewhere, i'm sure :wink:
Only use EQ for corrective purposes during recording, and try not to attenuate or boost more than 3dB (That is DOUBLE the volume!) similarily try not to use compression while recording and if you do, only use it to get the hottest signal to tape without overdoing it.
Whatever you do, NEVER, do 'tracking' when recording a Brass Band. Tracking is when you record individual musicians/sections seperately using multi-tracking techniques! You will get a way with this for solos with band accompaniment - maybe!
If you need any other info about recording, mixing, or mastering (a very crusical stage of the CD makeing process) just pm me, and i'll give you all the advice.