Citaat:

Bluesky,
The biggest issue is going to be the sound card, not the mic. An inexpensive Audio Technica ATR-30 will sound much better going into a good mic preamp, than the best mic going through the cheap sound card built into the computer.



Errr, well here I very much have to disagree. All elements are of importance, the results of quality depends on the quality of the weakest device in the line, so a cheap crappy mic will still sound bad and no amp is going to mask that. So the most important thing is to make a good balance of ALL elements in the recording chain. When you don't have a huge budget to build your system, then find the best available quality within that budget for EACH element. There are plenty of soundcards for a low price, just as well there are mics for a low price, while still serving a pretty good result. For a soundcard that offers some quality, the minimal price might be around 100 euro, the same might be going for a mic. Yes there are soundcards for 50 euro's as well, and so this goes for mics. However, the lower the price, certainly influences the quality in both cases.

I'll be back...