I have got great results with an old “Realistic” PZM mic I bought from Tandy (Radio Shack in the USA) years ago.
http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/data/pzm.htm
I first saw one when I did a BBC recording session and they had them mounted around the studio as ambience mics and was amazed they were using something from such a budget manufacturer. I thought "if it’s good enough for the BBC…"
It is mounted on any flat surface (preferably smooth/shiny) and picks up sound from anywhere in the room. That particular model has now been discontinued but I have seen similar ones for sale which must use the same principle.
JeffM. Is that the same as a ‘boundary’ mic ? I’ve seen a few advertised which can be placed on a table or hung on the wall.
dhj
Yes, they are also called boundary mics. The only thing to be careful of is that some are designed for recording speech and may overload when confronted with a full band.
I found an Audio-Technica boundary mic, an AT871R, on ebay for $20.00. Kind of a surprise find, since they might go for more like $150.00 +! I made a shockmount for it out of a piece of lexan plastic, some shock-cord, and a 14" ring of Masonite. Looks like one of those Indian “Dream Catchers”.
I haven’t fully tested it yet, but so far it’s great for picking up environment/ambient sounds. I leaned it up against the house one night, and recorded the “peepers”, little frogs that make a great din of peeping, from the woods across the street. The mic picks up just about everything in it’s vicinity with pretty impressive detail. Soon as my studio space is done, I want to try it as a mono OH for drums. Anyway, you can find all kinds of stuff out there, if you’re into just being in scanning-mode for long enough.
And after all I’ve heard about them, I do kind of wonder if I should’ve gotten the Studio Projects B-1 instead of the B-3. But- when I got it, I tested the B-3 in all three modes recording the sound of my dying mini-van’s ragged muffler, sticking the mic between a low stone wall in front of the house, and the side of the van- and it sounded the best in the B-3’s omni mode. So there you go!
EDIT: Hmmm… If you think about it a minute, it might be obvious why the B-3 was best in omni mode in this case, stuck as it was sort of in (and above) a little closed space like that- even though it was outside. It was in a little chamber between the wall and the van; the sound bouncing from the terrible muffler, off the wall, and back against the side of the van, retained for a bit in that small space. In the omni position, the mic caught the sound from all sides. In cardioid mode, the back of the mic was to the wall, and the sound coming back off of the wall was fairly cancelled out by the cardioid pattern. Therefore there was less signal coming in from the mic to the recorder. In this case, a fuller sound, with more bottom and more detail, was had in the omni position.
And THERE you go. 