Best condenser/Pre amp £300-£500

[Disease8]

Hi.
I know I know I know another "best condenser" thread.
But this time its different (for me anyway).
Because its about a more mid price ranged mic, I have a lot of cheap mics but really am starting to look for that "professional" sound.
I plan on modding some of my own mics and possibly creating a good mic pre.
But as that is a long term project I need something to get those really "nice" quality recordings that dont need a lot of channels but premium sound quality.

This deal seems good for a focusrite: Focusrite ISA One and AKG C214 Bundle | DV247

Thats for a pre amp and a mic.
I am also looking at just a akg c414 or Audio Technica at 4050 without the preamp but then it will be going through Focusrite pro 40 pre's.

Basically I want to get a good sound that'll be much better than a Studio Projects B1 going into a Focusrite pro 40 firewire interface for around £500.

Any advice would be much appreciated thank you!

 

[moresound]

What will you be recording mostly?

 

[Disease8]

Yeah just realised lol dodnt mention that...
But still ambiguos.
I really want at least one really nice mic that I can use on a big selection of sources and get a very nice proffessional sound bit of a swiss army knife.
I think I will mainly be recording:
Lead vocal.
Guitar.
Stringed instruments suck as violin, cello... etc

but as I say it will hopefully be my "go to" mic whilst I get the mods up to scratch.

What do you think of that deal on the Focusriute IPA? The AKG c215 any good?

Or put all the money into a mic such as:
Audio-Technica AT-4050-SM Studio Condenser Microphone on eBay (end time 18-Mar-11 13:22:31 GMT)

Cheers

 

[moresound]

You mean the 214 right? Gotta say I have a factory matched pair of the 414s and I thought that was going to be the end of my search for the swiss army knife of microphones but come to find out there really isn't such a thing. You can get close but to have a swiss microphone set up you will need a variety of microphones.

I tend to really like the EV RE20 for vocals and it comes in handy on certain instruments.

The 4050 that you mention is nice. especially when it comes to using it in omni for say like the cello or stand up bass.

 

[Disease8]

I guess the most important thing would be main vocal.
How do the AKG's compare to cheap mics such as the Studio Projects B1 ...etc...

Just opinion but I would be interested.
I heard that the AKG c414 is not the "go to" mic for vocals?

Thanks.