Recommend a microphone/usb setup for recording voice to accompany piano

So here's the thing with USB microphones (and really any recording/audio equipment): price ranges from $25 to $3200. I mention $3200 because that is the cost of the mic Mr. Arnicae is recording with this week, I'm sure the price can go well above that. Since we don't know what your budget is, Mr. Arnicae (a musician who gets a little geeky about equipment) says to purchase whatever BlueMic you can afford. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dmi&field-keywords=bluemic&sprefix=bluemic%2Cmi an amazon link, the amazon offerings are quite affordable and range from $35 to $179. He also says that the BlueMic is only for vocals, your son will need something else for the piano. Hopefully you already have that handled because he says that piano mics get very expensive and there is nothing very good (for piano mics) that is USB. All the real mics are XLR, but BlueMic is a solid choice for podcasts and amateur home recording.

I see you're in L.A. - if you want to kick it up a notch in terms of quality, you could also consider renting a microphone. The fancy mic Mr. Arnicae is using this week is a rental and there are a ton of places that rent pro audio gear in the L.A. area. If you want to go in the professional direction, you can get something likehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BB2QBLI/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ to connect your computer to the microphone (it turns the mic signal into USB).

I might have misread the question slightly -- my advice was mainly about miking voice. I'm not sure that a SM-57 would be that great for recording piano (I don't know what would).

sorry, to clarify - it's only to record voice. The piano is USB and we're good there. Thanks for the answers so far - very helpful!

Again, it would really help to know your budget, but if you can spend $200 I would recommend the http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/mic

A mic must also match the voice. Only certain microphones such as a Neumann TLM 170R are good for just about any voice, but then again, that's an expensive mic that doesn't really help the voice. So it would be great to try out a few with your son that are within budget. Sometimes music stores can be very helpful in this regard. The Apogee mics can be very good. If he has a loud voice, a Shure SM58 might work, but for more subtle singing I would go for a large diaphragm condenser mic. Maybe an http://www.mxlmics.com/microphones/studio/V67i/ if you already have some input/pre-amp that provides 48V phantom power. If that's not an option, I would try out different USB microphones, such as those from Samson or Apogee. http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/microphones/usb-microphones/ http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/mic Good luck!