On Tue, Jan 02, 2007 at 12:11:59PM -0800, st wrote: > > > > >The Samson C01U seems to get some variable reviews though.. > > This may work well for you, since you are on a budget, but > I wouldn't recommend it for the long run. You would be > buying a Microphone, preamp and USB audio interface all at > once, and *when* you decide that you want to upgrade one of > those features, you will have to do them all at the same time. > > The Soundblaster line input is fine for recording. Don't > even consider the mic input. It is too noisy. Unfortunately > you are looking at about $200 for a low cost preamp and > large-diaphragm condenser, which is out of your price range, > but would really give you a nice sound, even with the soundblaster > line in. Later, you will find out that the mic pre is too noisy, > so you will spend more on a better one, then you will find out that > the mic itself is generating quite a bit of noise (not dynamic of course, > but they expose more preamp noise due to gain requirements) so > you will upgrade that. Finally, you may want to upgrade the sound > card because it will become evident that the soundblaster has > an annoying limiter built in that makes it tough to overload the > digital signal, but does squash the loud parts of the signal, > changing the sound without your permission. > Thanks for all the input everyone! I have plumped for a Samson C03 and a Behringer minimic 800 preamp (the tube MP sounded like it was somewhat delicate and fairly unreliable from a breaking down point of view from the reviews I read..).. For headphones I decided to get some Audio-Technica ATHM30.. Sounds like they should be adequate to my requirements.. So fingers crossed it will all work.. One last thing.. I was puzzling how to connect the mono output from the preamp to the stereo line-in on the sound card. In the end I bought a dual mono 1/4" to stereo 1/8" jack lead. This seems most sensible to me, though I was wondering if a straight stereo-stereo would have worked?? Anyway, thanks again for the amazing help! James
