barny15

It might just be me, but when it comes to overheads mic placement has more to do with an unbalanced sound than having a matched pair. Obviously if you're looking at the most balanced sound possible, you're going to want two mics of the same make and model, but if you can get the best possible stereo image that you can with proper mic placement, it wouldn't be absolutely crucial to have a matched pair in order to get a great drum recording. That said, if you have the money, picking up a matched pair of sdc's wouldn't be a terrible idea if you started getting serious about recording drums.

Sprinkle the spice into the suace for the mix. Do not make the spice the mix. Compression is a great tool to add glue to stuff but its a spice not flavor. If you get hung up that one tool will be your deliverance your deluding yourself. If you need lots of compression and EQ on the mastering end something is very wrong a the track or mix level.If you're responding to my above post, I'm fully aware that going overboard with EQ and compression at the mastering (and mixing) stage can be a huge mistake. As a rule I'm generally very conservative with any compression, limiting and EQ. It's a mistake I've admittedly learned over time with much trial and error not to make.

Studio Projects B1 (~$100). I rarely use it in place of more expensive mics, but it can be useful for many things (including acoustic guitar and vocals). It's not used commonly by pro's, but since you are asking about $60, I doubt that is a concern.I would second this recommendation.

If you're looking for a detailed read about mastering, pick up Bob Katz's "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science". Pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about mastering, although it's geared less toward the home recordist and more toward the studio recordist. It provides a world of knowledge on the subject though. I'm learning how to use a multi-band compressor at the moment. I've always just used a basic limiter and some gentle EQ to "master" my recordings, but the multi-band seems like it's really the key tool for mastering (if I could figure out how to use it correctly...) I prefer trying to master my own recordings no matter how hard I fail, because someday when, after trying and trying, I finally get it right it'll be worth it not to have to pay big bucks to get a recording mastered.

I'd have a hard time saying it'd be worth it to buy a $60 condenser... those MXL990 mics for $50 are that cheap for a reason. If you're looking to do bare-bones demo work and not overly concerned about having good audio quality, it'd get the job done but that's about it. It certainly wouldn't be worth it to buy another Behringer dynamic mic. If you could get yourself to the $150 mark, you might be better off. There are a few condenser mics at that price point that can at least compete (but not necessarily out-perform) with mics in the $300-400 range. If you can get yourself into the $300-400 range, then you'll be much better off.

I'd reccomend the Presonus if you're just getting into home recording. That way, you can easily use it with a variety of recording software. Plus, it's cheaper and has more preamps (you won't have to buy another 4 seperate preamps in order to record 8 simultaneous tracks).