Many of these microphones are similar. None of these are high end stuff until you are paying well over $1000 US per microphone. And none of us utilize a single brand or type of microphone, none of us. We can't tell you which one is best because they all are and they all aren't. In your budget, it's whatever you can afford. And with your budget, I'd go for quantity over quality since everything in your budget is budget oriented already. I don't even personally like condenser microphones on everything since dynamic microphones can be far more appropriate on more things i.e. guitar amplifiers & drum sets even vocals. This is where I would instead recommend an entry-level USB audio device that includes an XLR microphone input. This way, you can purchase an industry standard SHURE SM58 dynamic microphone to utilize on vocals, drums, guitars. Then you can purchase an inexpensive pair of Chinese/Russian condenser microphones to utilize for drum overheads or breathy sounding vocals, more present sounding pianos, acoustic guitars and such. If you purchase a USB microphone, you are permanently locked into that sound. That's okay if that's what you want but I don't think that's versatile enough for anybody. But a USB microphone might be versatile enough for you to record an acoustic guitar part and then go back and record a vocal part, then another guitar part, then some percussion, etc.. I think however, with a single selection microphone, you'll never be happy with what you record? Equalization is only there to tailor something not to fix or completely change something. Band should you ever get any kind of microphone emulator software, that software generally suggests the use of a SM57/58 since it's a known quantity device. So instead of a dedicated USB microphone, you can also now purchase a dedicated microphone XLR barrel to USB output device such as made by BLUE, MXL, others. These are basically external USB audio devices that simply accept the microphone input from whatever kind of microphone you decide to plug into it. But I think an integrated USB audio device that also features real-time pass through monitoring of all input signals is the smartest purchase you could make in addition to a couple of industry-standard type microphones. When it comes to music, you don't want to limit yourself unless it's of a dynamic nature.

I'm completely unlimited in a limited way.
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD, post: 379202 wrote: But a USB microphone might be versatile enough for you to record an acoustic guitar part and then go back and record a vocal part, then another guitar part, then some percussion, etc.

The problem is that unless the mic has hardware monitoring the user is stuck with software monitoring and generally terrible latency. USB mics are okay for podcasting and other situations where you don't need to monitor what's going into the mic.

Wow thank you for that reply. Some of it went a little over my head but I understood most of it.

So the two mics that I linked to by Blue would not be recommended? Really, are they good enough to achieve decent recordings? The reviews seem fine. I don't want anything on a big scale. Just a simple mic that will record with clarity (better than my built-in MacBook mic!) and that I can have in my room and simply record from. I have no plans of making a PROPER studio and in the near future all my recordings will be done via the mic connected to the laptop.

Based on that what would you recommend? Especially out of the Blue ones or any similar budget ones?

Having said that, I just found the Shure mic on Amazon for less than £100:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CZ0R42/?tag=r06fa-20

Is that the one to go for? (seems it form the reviews)

Although, how would I go about getting the input from the SM58 onto my macbook to record?

The Yeti has a headphone output and claims zero latency monitoring. That would make it work for overdubbing.

But if you ever want to try another mic you'll need a way to get it into your system. The more common way to do it for music production is to use an audio interface. It's sort of like your built-in sound card but with features and quality better suited for music production. Most interfaces would accommodate almost any microphone.

So you neither read nor understood what I just got through talking about for you? While some USB microphones offer headphone outputs, not all do. This requires monitoring through the other parts of the computer which cause " latency". Latency is the time delay of the processing of a digital signal through the computer. This can be adjusted within Windows Control Panel of numerous operating system variables that need to be changed on a grand scale, separately & differently for recording & playback. Whereas an outboard USB audio device can be obtained with direct pass through monitoring with less/lower buffer levels while recording and overdubbing. Then for mixing, you increase your buffers/buffer time to be able to utilize software processing & effects which you cannot do during recording except on the most powerful of computers that have been specifically configured for audio purposes and not for general purposes and the Internet.

So you can keep asking what microphone to purchase and still keep receiving these types of answers which are murky at best. All USB microphones do a great job for basic general recording purposes. They don't necessarily do a great job for the music recording enthusiast due to latency issues when monitoring. It's great for a podcast in which you are going to go blah blah blah blah. But that's not music recording that's blah blah, talking heads which has nothing to do with David Byrne. They can still record you playing guitar and singing but you might find it quite a challenge to play guitar first then go back and sing. That's why we are recommending an external USB audio device and you get to plug in the microphone of your choice that's a regular microphone be it condenser, dynamic, ribbon or a USB microphone with an analog XLR audio output. Remember people don't just use microphones for recording music. Much of it is for spoken word which doesn't require some of the features we need for music recording. So just because the music store sells them doesn't mean it's a viable studio device for music purposes. Some work better than others, it depends on their features and how much money you got. Obviously not much by indication of your budget. But a separate microphone and audio device can virtually be had for the same price as a single USB microphone. So take some advice here instead of giving it to us since we don't need your advice. We are professionals and we have dozens of microphones each since each microphone sounds different from the next. It's sort of like trying to create a rock 'n roll band without bass or, drums. That ain't rock 'n roll even if it is a jam. That's like a Symphony Orchestra without any string section. You can record music with any microphone that you can't necessarily affectively do overdubbing with any microphone.

Is this making sense?
Mx. Remy Ann David