The only issue I have with Focusrite that I have experience with, which is the Saffire 24 Pro DSP, is that the mixer applet that comes with it is pretty confusing to me. I basically was allowed to use this for free from my workplace. I had it for a couple of months, with probably 3 or 4 hours of time trying to get it setup properly for my simple monitoring situation. These 3 or 4 hours were probably split into 3 different sessions over those couple of months. That's about the amount of time I have access to my 'studio' at certain times of the year due to family visits to our house.

Before I really got the hand of it, my laptop that had firewire capability died and then I couldn't use the Saffire any longer.

I'm sure I would have eventually got it working to my satisfaction but I do recall that rather complicated mixer application as a point of frustration.

There were some great features that I wanted to take advantage of like the Virtual Room Monitoring stuff and to see how quiet the preamps were.

Back to the mic:

The reason for my suggestion with the SM58 with the room question is that the SM58 will be significantly less sensitive to off-axis sound than most condenser microphones. Why does this matter at home in a small untreated room? You'll pick up less sound reflected off walls, floor and ceiling than with the condenser - meaning you will have more direct field sound recorded with the SM, and then you can treat it in the DAW software.

This has been my home recording microphone journey:

1. First mic I had access to, but wasn't mine: Sennheiser MD-421 dynamic. Loved the mic, had to return it to the rightful owner
2. CAD M-177 Large Diaphragm Condenser: Great mic, still have it - used to be the only mic in my arsenal
3. Cascade Fat-Head ribbon microphone: Thought I would use it for M/S recordings, but I didn't have a pre-amp that could supply enough quiet gain for it, and the whole M/S processing is a hassle in the DAW. Sold it after I won this next mic
4. EV PL80a Dynamic mic: This is designed to be a competitor to the SM58. It has a little more gain than an SM58, built like a tank, and has become my preferred home recording mic. I won this in a local music store drawing.
5. Samson Q2U dynamic mic - looks like an SM 58, but has a 16 bit USB audio interface built in. Got it at Target department store on clearance as part of a recording pack with a set of circumaural headphones. Cost to me was $39 total for the mic and headphones. I will use this mic in concert with the EV for stereo micing of my acoustic guitar.

Since I've gotten the EV and the Samson, I haven't used the CAD condenser - I can simply make better recordings with these rather cheap dynamic microphones at home, than I can the CAD - at least on the fly, in whatever room I can use. I will still use the CAD for close-micing my voice in my makeshift booth that I have.

Here's some comparisons of the two microphones in a double-tracked acoustic guitar recording I did to kind of do a 'shootout' between them, recorded just sitting on the couch in my living room: http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/misc/demos/StereovsDoubleTrackAcousticDemo/

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