Has anyone ever purchased and/or used a USB mic for recording?  Would like to know since I'm considering getting one so I don't need a "middleman" unit to connect...however, a unit that offers regular inputs for both guitars, mics, etc. may be better...but then again, I am on a budget...

I ask because I get American Music Supply catalog which offers a Samson USB condenser mic for about $79.95.  So, what are your thoughts? Drum roll............

If I were you I'd get a USB mixer... so you can plug in any instrument you want and get the signal to you cpu.

bunch of em

Maybe the cheapest on will suffice... this one, but personally, I would go for Alesis. It's got more channels, which is very useful, is better than Behringer (quite an okay brand anyway) plus this one also has some effects built in. For $150 not bad to have a multi channel USB mixer with DSP onboard

Thanks for the tip PuppetX! Just was curious how to record vocals and acoustics in a simple fashion. With the model you suggest I'm assuming I can include a plethora of instruments...(Being a neophyte to all this, I checked the site and it looked like so many options I wasn't sure if I was little David battling Goliath...in other words, would I even know what to do with it once I got it?)...But in future sense of production and as I mature as a musician, perhaps it would benefit me...I do have a keyboard I haven't used but didn't want to buy the Apple keyboard that is supposed to be compatible with the GarageBand interface...I wonder if this Alesis model would take care of this problem...

Anyway, thanks...I might come back here for advice on how to use the darn thing once I get it...

yep , regarding mics the price is often directly related to the quality

not necessarily.....


      I use a cheap 8 dollar Nady Dynamic for all my stuff... and the quality is excellent...

  The only real issues in my recordings are my own laziness to sometimes cleanup the instrument track, which is caused by my laziness to move my amp and other gear away from all the dang power stuff... so it gets noise.... lots of it.... oh well.... my bad.. 

            Jim K

I did not say always jimk

Well, I think I might keep the mic and hold on to the MIDI cable after all for future purposes...I planned a while ago for people to come to my house for live music and good time (of course I'd provide the tunes).  It would be sort of formal, with my PA system and with my new Shure mic, maybe the sounds will be better then my old phonojack mic?....I don't know. I do notice a cleaner crisper louder sound... Thanks for the advice...As for gear (USB mixer), the Alesis I checked out I'm not sure how to interface that with my iBook and with the type of recent gear I just bought.  I mean, the input jacks don't seem to match those of my mic.  I guess I can use the guitar's regular phono jack but for hooking up my keyboard, the MIDI jack seems different from the one provided...I will have to look at the mixer that we use to connect our stereo to our tv for better sound to see if it's compatible...

Anyway, keep your tips coming. I certainly could use em.