Buying first mike... suggestions?
 

I'm a teenage musician, and I write a lot of songs and occaisionally play small gigs around town. I do some home recording, but I don't have a mike so I usually just record electric stuff through my amp and mix it on audacity or something. Anyway, I want to buy a good quality microphone for recording acoustic stuff and vocals. I don't want a really cheap one, but I obviously don't need anything redicilously expensive. The thing is, I have no idea what to look for. Any suggestions on brand names, or types of microphone that might be good for me?

Get the Shure SM57, its about $100. If you want to upgrade look at some of the more expensive models. Go to their website, check them out. Check your local Guitar Center. And it also depends on your amplification.

I am not sure if they have Guitar Centers in Canada, but I found another one for you, I see that you want to record acoustics, so try this one Rode NT3, it's also a Shure. It's a bit more expensive, around $250+ but you will get what you paid for.

Shures are industry standard for a reason. i'd suggest to start with xEMGx's suggestion, if it for some reason fails you or is lacking in some regard you'll have a solid point of reference that anyone in a music store should be able to use to guide you to what you're really looking for.

also, this isn't super serious, but when you shorten microphone it just become mic, Mikes are random dudes hehehe

I've seen people use both, using mike annoys me, not sure why. Loads of the tape-op writers use mike.

I prefer to use "mike" when saying "miking" because it just doesn't look as weird as "micing" or "microphoning", although I don't know if there are any rules.

Anyway, in regard to the OP...
If you're going to mainly be recording vocals and acoustic, it might serve you well to get a decent large diaphragm condenser microphone, although I wouldn't suggest using one in a live scenario. I'm not sure a 57 is going to be your best choice for vocals unless you're not too worried about dynamic range, although it covers instrument recording nicely, especially in a loud, live environment. At home, a condenser would be a better choice, imo.
Just remember that condensers need phantom power, so if you don't have a mixer or interface that offers phantom power, there are condensers that are self powered.

My friend does recording as a job, and the mic he uses when he records is AKG C535EB. Its probably the best condensing microphone i have ever personally used. I'm not sure how it would work if you used it at gigs, it seems as if it would be perfect. It's realllly small to.

I lol'd.

EDIT @ Freebase, there's a letter and reply in a tape op (magazine) I have about this, I'll see if I can dig it out for you, I much prefer using mic.

EDIT AGAIN: ok, I found it, it's shorter and less interesting than I thought it was.

letter - Can we please spell "miking" with a "K"? Sorry, but "mic'ing" looks really stupid.

Editor reply The word "microphone" does not contain the letter "K" (in English). It is an abbreviation, so we've always used "mic", "mic'ing" and "mic'ed". Sorry if it looks stupid, you may spell it any way you wish at home.

Great magazine btw, free or paid for subscriptions too. I may go start a thread on it.