I just use a pair of beat-up old SM-58's. I run them through a Behringer Ultragain for the tube preamp and EQ and I've managed to get a decent vocal sound and some nice acoustic guitar tracks with them. The whole setup cost me just around $100, but the preamp was a clearance and the mics were used.

Anyone have any experience with the cheaper condensers? The low-end Rode and Octavia models are the ones I've looked at.

utah_man wrote: James, Have you ever run mics directly into your recording device - be it tape or digital, or whatever ? ...Or is it even possible to do that ?

it's possible- with typical analog inputs, you have to turn up the volume on the recording to the point that a lot of noise is audible. Some equipment has higher level inputs; built-in mic preamps on a mixer or recorder isn't uncommon, and most soundcards have a "mic input" that is better than nothing. My Echo soundcard has fairly good quality high-level inputs, but I wouldn't use my SB Audigy mic input unless I had to (for one thing, I'd have to dig up the XLR-to-1/8" plug adapter ).