been branded about. They're good all round microphones but for home studio recording you should really be looking for a large diaphragm condenser microphone. The cheaper options are actually perfectly fine for what i'm sure you'd be looking into, and can pick up something really simple like a Behringer C3 for about 35. If you want to do it properly, i can't recommend a microphone more than the NT1A. For it's price, it's perfect. http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/produc..._\\... If you need any more info just PM me, i've just finished my third year of Audio & Music Production. Not tried USB mics but from a quick look I can't seen anything obviously wrong with it and at least it's a cheaper way to get started. To get good results it's probably worth investing in a mic stand and pop filter. But the same is likely to be true for other setups (mic stand is good for any mic, pop filter at least with any condenser mic) Personally I'd start off going down the SM58/e845 route but then I already have the Audio interface and/or mixer to use with them and I'd potentially be wanting to record multiple streams at once (The Audio interface I have can record 6 separate analogue inputs at the same time). Ideally I'd also look at condenser mics but I'm not sure if they'd be as suited in a home setup (Potentially too much background noise).