BriSmi75

just check the mics against each other on whatever you're recording, flip the phase and see if the low end goes away or comes back. I.E. if you're recording an acoustic with 2 mics, set up one and flip the phase on the other one and see what happens. Also, zoom in on the waveforms and check the image

I like the AT2020 - for $100 it's pretty good. The 2020/2021 pack is $149 I think. That's a good combo for $150..

That R24 seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea, but I think you would end up sending everything to the computer anyways. I'm a ProTools guy so everybody will probably hate my opinions as far as that goes. If you're planning on doing recordings in the future, then you might just want to invest in things you can expand and think about the future. A lot of my first things were wasted money b/c I was upgrading to things that made them useless..

Consider a band is writing songs for an upcoming CD (or just writing songs in general, maybe writing their first 12-15 songs). Do you think bands have to have "a sound"? Like a certain style? Is it weird or good if a band has some different sounding sounds - style wise? Do you think a band should sacrifice a good song because it doesn't fit a certain style?