Lewitt - LCT 240

Most decent mics are around the $100 mark, which is already half your budget. These would be things like the Lewitt LCT 240, Audio Technica AT2020, heck even an SM58 would be fine. If you can find them on sale, that will help with the rest of your budget. Alternatively, a USB mic like the Wave:3 would get you mic + interface in one go and it's a decent enough mic (it's also made by Lewitt). You just have no upgrade path and if the drivers go wrong or something, you're out both a mic and an interface. With a condenser mic, just about any interface would be good enough in terms of quality. Again, most decent ones start at around $100. What you get by paying more is not just better quality but also more features and driver support. My favorite pick for streamers is the Audient iD 14 mk II. It has really good quality, but it also has the ability to route your audio to 3 separate outputs that you can mix separately for yourself vs OBS. You could also do this using Wave Link with the Wave:3 or Wave XLR, but you'll get additional latency and the quality on the Wave XLR is lacking by comparison to most other audio interfaces. Unfortunately, good audio gear is not cheap and these recommendations are pretty much the low end price wise. I'm not saying you have to go nuts, $200 will get you a decent mic and interface, especially if you wait for sales or shop used, but it'll be hard to get mic and interface and arm and cables etc, so you may need to shop around and buy things piecemeal.

None of those are bad options, but the Lewitt LCT 440 is an incredible mic that's still in that budget. Even the 240 is still great. They're just a bit smoother than what you listed and their nice and small. 440 comes with a nice shockmount and two pop filter options, too.

It's not the DAW or the app on your phone that makes the recordings better or worse in quality, it's the mic itself, the analog-to-digital converter and ofc the quality settings you've chosen for the recorded files. How exactly did you record the mic on your headphones? Did you connect them with a cable both to your phone and your computer? The best option either way would be to buy an audio interface and proper mic. The analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) in the audio interface that's built-in to your computer (usually called soundcard) aren't of high enough quality or have enough features for use in recording professional equipment, so you need a real recording audio interface to use better quality mics. USB-mics have an integrated audio interface, but they usually also have stuff like built-in filters that are tuned for speech and noise reduction circuits that you can't disable, so most of them are not very good for recording vocals. My best budget recommendations would be to get either a Lewitt LCT-240, Rode NT-1 or SE Electronics X1S and either an Audient EVO 4, Focusrite Scarlett Solo gen 3 or Behringer UMC202HD audio interface.

Line Audio CM4 pencil condensers $100/pair Behringer BA19A (best kick mic ever made at any price) $80 Lewitt LCT 240 for vocals $100 used Audix D6 for toms $125 used

Lewitt LCT240 - Top Choice for pretty much anything you want to use it for. Vocals, instruments, ANYTHING. Alternatives: Shure SM57 - good all-rounder. Rode NT1-A - Good entry level large diaphram vocal mic Don't even consider the SM7B. Not only way out of budget, but far better mics for less with more versatility.

Besides the obvious SM57 at $109? I have a lewitt LCT240 pro condenser mic that was only $150 but I’m sure you could find it for less. I’ve used it for all of the things you listed except voiceover and it sounds good.

Lewitt. Wide range of prices really good mics. budget/entry is the 240, and it sounds pretty good (I have 2). For live stuff ( and I've used it to record with) I use an EV ND767a. Way more balls than the usual vocal mic choices.

please for the love of god, just get the lewitt. do not listen to the people saying samson shure etc. look into the lewitt mics, their $100 entry mic is miles above the price. the best studio LDC mic for that low of a cost by far

no problem. they've become a prominent brand amongst engineers for their price - quality ratio. look into produce like a pro if you want an entry into the brief history of their mics. long story short, when AKG was bought out of their company some of the employees left & started their own brands of mics. (lewitt & austrian audio) lewitt has some great people behind their products.