um with the sound card you'd of been better off getting something like the m-audio audiophile 2496 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41784&item=3773174060&rd=1

i made the same mistake as you and got a soundblaster for recording. These soundcards are more for gaming rather than recording. Dont get me wrong. You can still record with the soundblaster.

Now as for microphones you should really start off with a Shure SM57 as this mic can basically record anything. And a similar price as the marshalls and id bet my life its better.

anyway mate my 2 cents.

re soundblaster

I bought a soundblaster extigy, (i know its not the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum PRO) but I got this box so I could use the optical input for sending my recorder's optical spdif output into my laptop so I could raise overall level and do makeshift mastering. But this box sucks. It cost me $200 and when I would plug headphones into it to monitor what was going on the computer it sounded like crap, It was all lows and boxy sounding and distorted when the volume (of the extigy) was turned up it would distort, It didn't sound like that when I plugged straight into my recorder's headphone output or my laptops headphone output either. Plus I tried running an optical cable to my home theater receiver too and it wouldn't even send a dts or pro logic signal, the only 5.1 it could send was via the analog 5.1 out put which sounded like crap and all the connection were 1/8 stereo and it didn't come with the cables so I had to go buy 1/8 stereo to stereo rca. That was some BS.

But hey that is just my opinion of the soundblaster card that I have had for 3 years, and I agree with the other post that recomends the card for games. But I wouldn't buy it anyways for gaming or especially for recording.

And for the mic, it really depends on what you are going to record, and if is just you and a guitar then I would just save up a little bit and get a studio projects c1 or a rode nt1a and maybe a little channel strip to apply mild compression on tracking (before the a/d converter).

have fun
Bobbo

i rap..no one really answered my question...and i didnt like the quality of the shure that i was told to look at..but i got the V63M...nice quality from what i haveheard