What mic????

The protools preamps are OK. They are better than say, a mackie mixer's pre , but not as good as an outboard preamp that is worth anything.
Stay as far away from budget preamps and compressor combos as you can. They are trash, and anyone who tells you otherwise has no idea what quality is. They are defending a product becuase they could not afford to use the real sh*t. Now, if bob clearmountain or Dr. Dre tells you to go get a $200 brand that they swear by, then by all means, do so. But NORMALLY, with stuff that only needs to do one thing, for example, amplify a microphone, you will generally get what you pay for. And the same thing goes for mics, in my book. But, if you buy a $500 mic, I think you will be pretty happy, as long as you tried it out first. It's like Morgan was saying, it might be a very good mic, but maybe it just doesn't sound good for that type of vocal or instrument. For instance, there are mics that cost thousnads of dollars, but the diaphram speed is not meant for
an MC. Or, maybe it's OK on vocals, but it's really for guitars. You have enough to get what you want.

as for cheap mics.... i know some $50 mics that will blow you away

price aint everything

in fact the mics i speak of are neumann rip offs that do some very good things

For vocals the large diaphram condensor is indeed the best choice for all around vocals. Which mic you choose will depend on the type of vocals, range and sex of the vocalist, and also the general volume level of your vocalist. There you will have to run mic comparisons if possible...if not independant reviews can be helpful. When I purchased vocal mics for my studio, I put 6 different units on a credit card. I then had several vocalists (Male/ Female /screamer / crooner) in over the next few weeks When they sang, they sang at the "wall of mics". I then had ample time to A/B the different tracks and ultimatly return the 4 mics I didn't like.