This was very informative... but you hit on a key point...im a usb based recorder,thus, I consider my gear fairly cheap I would say. I record with a SE USB1000a which I copped two years ago. I am looking to purchase new equipment but I have a slight dilemma. I was looking to purchase a USB2200a for its versatility as a USB/XLR mic and copping a pre-amp as well or purchasing a regular XLR mic and copping a pre-amp too. Thing is, Im on a tight budget...lets say around 300 bucks and I have been indecisive. any suggestions?
I'm a little bit out of the loop and I'm not too familiar with those mics. I know SE had some hidden gems before. I think it was them that had the Fat Man mic? And that thing was sweet on certain instruments.
Here's my opinion on mics. If X manufacturer has a mic at $200 and Y manufacturer has a mic at $200, chances are that they'll perform similarly. They'll sound different, but that's neither a good or bad thing. Take for example
the m-audio Nova and the MXL 990. Both mics are pretty cheap and similarly priced. The MXL990 lacks some definition all throughout and will not do anything great. The Nova has some decent mids, poor lows, and harsh highs and sounds filtered for some reason, but it can work great for plain spoken vocals and horrible with most other things.
The other thing you have to consider: the SM58 is a great mic. It's a cheap mic. But it's a proven mic. It can sound great with a lot of stuff. But, you need a decent pre amp to drive it. Personally, I think it's sort of dull so what I liked to do was drive it a little harder on the pre so that I could get a little added saturation. The problem is that if you do it with a super cheap pre, you'll get a lot of noise and it'll distort. So you pre has to be able to handle it too.
Without ever having used your mic, I'm guessing what you have and what you want to get is almost the same. Frequency response on yours looks like a Rode NT2 clone. I really loved the NT2 for its smooth sound and though it had a spike in the upper range it still sounded really transparent and natural. Without knowing much, I wonder if
the USB2200a is the same as the USB1000a since the specs and response are similar except for a difference that may be due to cosmetic design. The SM57 and SM58 are practically the same except the SM58 has the grille and that's what affects its frequency response at the higher end.
Decent pre amps that you might want to consider the is the RNP real nice pre amp (if they still make it). Then there's the M-audio, I think it was the DMP, which was liked by a few people. If possible, get a little mixer and a non-usb mic. I have a cheap art pre amp (which worked okay at first but sucks now) and I'd send one out to a mixer and the other straight to a recorder so that way I didn't go through the mixer. Keep your signal as short as possible. A mixer will help you route the signal that way you have a monitor mix and you can hear what you want to hear while still keeping your signals adequate for tracking.