depends on what you are trying to achieve!
they are ok... nothing special...
if you have around 1000 $ to spend go for it... but first what is the resto of your gear?

my gear

I have the aardvark 24/96 interface and breakout box. I am close to purchasing a rode nt1000 mic. I am running Cubase SL on Windows xp Home. I am reording southern gospel music. My family has a trio.Here are the computer specs.

Intel celeron 1.7ghz
512ddr ram
40 gig hard drive

That's all the gear I have. what do you recommend?I want as close to "pro" as I can get on a budget.

with that kind of things don't expect much!
don't buy the rode! only if it is the new one or the old one! maintiger says they're not so good!

as for spending money i'd recommend you look at some monitors! you'll have an ok sound if you manage to try and have a real look at all the stuff but don't expect that much...

inLoco wrote: don't buy the rode!

I'd have to disagree. I think the R0DE mics are some of the best budget mics out there, NT1000 included.

david i'm talking about the nt1000 not the nt1000a

for what xavier aka maintiger says they changed capsule and the sound changed drastically...
i've heard too the rode and decided not to go with ti cause i didn't think would be a great upgrade from my shure sm-58! i saved the money and bought now at 8th street music the old akg c414 TLII for 645$ which is really a bargain compared with what the new version's costing here in europe...

i think there's a big dilema between brands but i'd take a look first at the studio projects and the audio techinica 4033!

inLoco wrote: nt1000a

Looks like a little model number confusion here. There is only one NT1000. There is an NT1 and an NT1-A and I believe those are the two that Xavier was talking about. The NT1000 has the same capsule as the NTK with transistor amplification instead of tube.

Where do I need to improve at first as far as my gear(or lack of it). I have been looking at the m-audio bx5's. what do you guys think?

The single biggest improvement to your sound that you can get will be through acoustic treatment. Good monitors will help, but only if you have an environment that will not destroy the signal coming from them. Good mics and pres are great too, but again, only if the the sounds that you are recording aren't already messed up before they get to the microphone. So, how are your acoustics?

I am currently looking at building a 12'x16' sound room. I guess the material for adequate sound treatment would take us to a whole other ball game, huh? Do you think my computer specs are good enough for my trio using mainly pre-recorded master trax?

You might want to rethink those dimensions if possible. Don't worry about it if it's not possible, but if you can change the room's size a bit, it might be easier to treat the bass problems. As long as your computer is stable, it should be just fine for your purposes. If you want help formulating a plan for acoustic treatment, see our crack team of acousticians and construction experts up in the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.recordin…"]Acoustics & Design Forum[/]="http://www.recordin…"]Acoustics & Design Forum[/] . Honestly though, I doubt there's a person here that would disagree that acoustics is the most important part of good recording, aside from quality of the music and of the source.

double post :roll:

sorry david! you were right! i was confusing the mic!