KEL HM-1's are a C note each, so they might be a good choice. They're a 1/2" condenser.

I like em, but I'm not among the experienced, though the talk around here among the experienced seems to corroborate that. And Kelly's a great guy to deal with(you don't get "The Man Hisself" when you e-mail Sennheiser, if you knw what I mean)

I got a matched pair and am quite pleased. They're pretty flat except for a dip at 150. It doesn't hurt my feelings at all to be a little low there anyway.

Keith

The kel audio mics look like a good choice for OH in my budget

Maybe I will get a pair of them and the use the rest of my budget for a lead voice microphone....

so new question...

what are some good choices for lead male voice in the $200-$400 range?

Have a look/listen to the Audio Technica 2020's also for guitar, OH. etc...I bought a pair from an ebay store for $82 each, they're amazingly flat response except for a bit of low end rolloff. I've used them for OH and also grand piano (an experiment, wound up getting a very good sound with them).

As for male vocals, so hard to generalize on a vocal mic, it really depends on the particular voice. I'm unashamedly an AT fan, so look at the 3035, 4033, 4050 (this one's a bit higher than your budget, but nice to have a multi pattern mic in the closet).

I have just read the specs on the at mics...

I really like the idea of the at4050 and I agree the extra patern would have their usefull moments. Eeventually adding another mic would make a nice pair of large diaphram condensers. In the meantime I could use the pair of kel hm-1 to do stereo duty. I think it might be worth saving a little more for my first LD condenser but a $600 that opens up a lot of options...

I would be willing to spend that on a mic but I just want to know if I am making the best choice.

For that amount I would really like something that had paterns.
I really like smooth sounding mics for voice and that is primarily what i would use this for.
I would like a mic that lets you get right on it when singing, for example I've used the rode classic II tube mic and it sounds much better if you distance yourself from the mic where as the Neumann tlm103 I can get right up on.

The other thing is for the cost of the at4050 I could buy two Studio Projects C3 or something along those lines so I just wonder how much is too much for me right now? I sure I can only decide that, I know.

All that said i am really interested in the at4050 right now. i know that the Neumann has transformerless design as does the 4050. Would that make them sonically similar? I guess my question is what does the transformerless design do sonically to the mic?

Thanks for everyone's help...