What are good mics for vocals and acoustic guitar?

Question:i am looking for a microphone around $50-$150 that will be good for both vocals and acoustic guitar. i'm sure it would be much better to have more expensive ones but that is my price range, so what is the best thing i can get?

also i could get 2 mics that add up to about that much if that is better.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i am looking for a microphone around $50-$150 that will be good for both vocals and acoustic guitar. i'm sure it would be much better to have more expensive ones but that is my price range, so what is the best thing i can get?

also i could get 2 mics that add up to about that much if that is better.

As far as the previous two answers - I have used both and am thoroughly impressed with them. The microphones, that is.

The Shure SM57 is the industry standard for mic'ing instruments, the SM58 is the industry standard for mic'ing vocals. They are both rugged, durable microphones - they can take abuse and keep working night after night. (I know, because we've dropped them night after night and they still work lol).

They are dynamic microphones, however, which means that they will provide some coloration (ie, they won't be flat). That's good if the EQ boosts they provide match your instruments (the SM58 boosts the upper mids of the human voice, for instance, which is why it works so well) but bad if you want a flatter response.

You might want to look into a condensor mic. At this price range, there aren't many high quality ones, but the Sampson C01 isn't too bad (a tad noisy, a touch thin but it works great for non-pro recording... good detail compared to a dynamic mic). Sampson also has some pencil condensors for just under 150$ i think, but those are going to work best for cymbals and other hi-freq sounds.

You'll need phantom power for condensor mics, though, and that's an additional expense.

The tradeoff is more detail, more intricate sound, but at increased cost, less durability, and needing external phantom power (from a mixer or direct box, for instance).

Don't buy ridiculously crazy microphones... if you don't have the equipment to take full advantage of them, you're wasting your money. Sink your money into a good quality sound card and a decent mixer. Preamps below 1000$ are basically overpriced overdrive/EQ boxes, and you should treat them as such. It's better to have 10 okay or decent microphones than 1 super awesome microphone - once you learn how to use your different microphones, and when to use them, you can get just as good of results from 10 decent to crappy microphones as you could out of that 1 super awesome way expensive microphone.

Um, yeah. I'll stop there. Good luck!

Saul

The Shure 57 is an industry standard. Has been for years.

The Shure SM58 is the industry standard vocal mic. The SM57 is basically the same without the pop screen so it's used for instruments, but the 58 works fine.. They are both around $100. Another good mic is the Sennheiser e835 - it has the same specs as the Shure but doesn't have as much "boomyness" at close range (proximity effect) - it's $99.