If you are looking for affordable and copywrite free production music, you might want to check out http://music.podshow.com. There are thousands of audio tracks both instrumental and non-instrumental. I have found lots of great music for commercials and you can send the artist a donation if you like.

In 2001 I read an article in Pro Audio Review about the Marshall MXL 2001.  The reviewer seemed a little embarrassed  to say it, but he compared the $199 MXL to microphones costing “ten times as much”.

I have been using the MXL and other “cheap” mics for the last few years and have found them to be remarkable, durable and great sounding.  I use them for VO work and for guitars.

I used to dream of owning a U-87 but am pretty happy with what I have now.

I would love to hear about other affordable mics.

Val

What do you think about Pro-Tools? I have worked on it enough to know that it is not my favorite. I think that software should be intuitive and should not require “classes” or “instructional videos” to learn the program.

People who use Pro-Tools swear by it and believe it to be the most powerful audio recording system out there. DigiDesign was brilliant in their marketing of Pro-Tools. They got it to market first and got it into studios early. As a result it became the “Studio Standard”.

I use Audition. I prefer it. Its faster and every bit as powerful as Pro-Tools while costing much less. Audition supports an unlimited number of audio interfaces while Pro-Tools supports only their proprietary hardware and some M-Audio devices.

I would love to hear from folks who have tried both.