TAE
All you have is now
Two resources you might check out are AudioTestKitchen.com, and the Sweetwater Microphone Shootouts. You can compare a $200 mic to a $2000 mic and see if you hear a difference worth paying for.
Can I have a halleluiah AND an Amen!
I do have a $500 ADK mic I bought used for @ $25O and never use...and a a few sm57's I always use.
If you have aspirations of getting the highest quality recording you can get...then yes you can spend a lot of $$$ to attain that.
If your aspiration is to get your music recorded so people can enjoy listening to your art...what I have found to be true and wholly believe is content and performance is far more important than what mic, compressor, software you use.
In my old fart, dumbass perspective a mono iphone recording of a great performance of a good song will pale a piss poor performance of a shitty song recorded with the most expensive mics, hardware and software in the world... As someone once said...garbage in , garbage out.
Get a good song , perform it well on any decent recording set up and move on...In the end I would suggest asking yourself "what are my expectations when I press record?" For me it is no different than if I was sitting playing a piano and singing in a small pub somewhere. Just sharing my craft, hopefully touching the people listening inner souls and maybe if I'm lucky, get a smile, a hoot or some applause of affirmation that I succeeded in conveying the magic that I feel when I play. That's the shit all the money in the world can't buy.
Sure I still have Champagne dreams and Caviar wishes, lives of the rich n famous...ain't gonna happen but a guy can dream can't he?
As I move into my sunset years I know I wasted way too much time in analysis paralysis...when I should have been pressing record..Hope the Lord lets me have enough days to get what I want to get done before my time has to come.