@Byronsos:
That's funny, 'cause once upon a time I did recording for motivational speakers and had a couple of Sony ECM-44bs. They're over $220 now! Besides having a monsterously long cord, they also had an inline AA battery to power them. I sold them a year ago, not anticipating this kind of use.
The Countryman B3's are in the ballpark, esp. as they can handle high spl and are small and apparently have a good reputation for good quality sound- I know their tiny headset mics are well spoken of. But in keeping with wanting a minimalist setup that I will actually use, I'd prefer something like the Sony ECM-DS70P I mentioned in the last post, or something that has a binaural mic setup: 2 mics, 1 cord, one input for the recorder. I also wonder if I'm going to get more realistic results using a cardioid.
@ Acidjack:
It's the outdoor music jams that I need microphones for, though I have to say that with proper fundage I would love to have any of the mics you listed, esp. the 2022 for the price. I've got an AT 822 that I've had forever, and unfortunately it's busted at the moment. I pulled the windscreen off and found 2 out of 6 wires had pulled off their solder joints. I soldered them back in place, but for some reason the whole mic, which powers off an AA, has pretty low output. It's beat to shit though- the threads holding the battery sleeve in place are toast, the foam in the windscreen foam is crumbly, and like I said, the output is un-useably low.
Basically in the outdoor drum circles I go to on a regular basis, the volume level goes from super loud drums (including me at times), all the way down in volume to guitarcentric jams (there's some surprisingly good guitar players) playing at moderate levels, with me on my flutes/vox playing into a mic> amp (SM57 >little 10" battery powered crate).
I want a super simple setup for these outdoor jams that would just be a stereo feed for my pocketed recorder, something I could wear in some way- hat, in ear, on jacket, etc., so that as I move around in the jam playing different instruments, I get a good representation of what I'm playing and the whole group. Not having tried this setup, I'm concerned/wondering if it's going to pick-up too much of my flutes/vox/drums relative to the rest of the jam given their proximity.
Another option, riskier in these settings, would be having a 4 track recorder sitting by the amp to record the amp output (which the Crate doesn't have unfortunately), and a small, unobtrusive mic that hopefully wouldn't be seen, to capture the rest of the jam.
Thanks everyone for all your input!