Extra mic for "ambience" and detailed sound needed

[Olivier]

Greetings to you homerecorders,

I'm in the process of buying a new mic to balance a little bit my small collection (I have two sm57's and that's it). I play mainly electric guitar with analog effects into either a Fender Blues Jr or a Champion 600, but I'd also like to be able to record nicely acoustic instruments like a didgeridoo, guitar, vocals and so on. My audio interface is an apogee duet 2.

Anyways, I have like 300$ and I have been looking at condenser mics as well as ribbons. I was attracted by the CAD e300, for the big sound (I'd like to do some movie soundtracks..) as well as the Cascade Fat Head II (I know this might be an irrational choice for all the stuff I'd have to record with it - maybe be its not versatile enough, but I like that "vintage" vibe so much...)

I know this might be not exactly a new question, and I've been reading a lot in this forum already, but I felt like I had to express my particular situation.

So I'd like to capture sounds in a less direct way than what the sm57s are already doing, I like richness but also low end a lot.

Do you think there would be an obvious choice for my third mic?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you very much!

Olivier
Quebec, CA

 

[Massive Master]

SM81. A "desert island" mic if there ever was one.

 

[Mo Facta]

Or an Audio Technica 4033. Affordable and good sounding.

Cheers

 

[clivus]

I think both of the mics recommended are good choices. I will add that, to my ears, the SM 81 has a flatter, more accurate sound, while the 4033 has a bit of boost in the the high-mids, and has a 'bigger' sound. I will also plug the AKG 535 EB, which I find to be a very versatile good sounding mic.

 

[Steenamaroo]

I don't know the AT mic, but i can confirm that to my ears, the sm81 just records what's in front of it.

It doesn't really have a 'character' AFAIC.

If an instrument and room sound really nice as they are, i'll reach for my 81s,
but I can be sure that if they don't sound good, the sm81 will shine a big light on that fact.

 

[Sonixx]

You may want to consider a Multi-pattern mic like an AT-4050.

 

[Spare Dougal]

Check out the SE electronics range. The SE2200 or SE2200a (or tube version SE2200T) or the SE4400a for a multi-polar pattern mic (not sure how much these are in the states but might be a bit more than budget)