Problem with cheap USB mics is that they're doing two jobs at once - namely capturing sound waves AND analogue to digital conversion. A2D conversion is a very delicate process (some preamps that do this go into the tens of thousands) and it's unlikely that they'll go out of their way to do the job well, depending on the market that they're aiming for (e.g. dictation).

Give it a go and see if it works, by all means, but I reckon you'd get a better job outta a proper mic plugged direct into your soundcard, which is just as plug and play imho.

Or Joyboy's suggestion might be good, actually. Though if you were going for that, http://solodeals.com/PreSonus-FireB...anic&utm_source=froogle-GB&id=uk might end up being a better choice, Presonus have a good reputation for quality preamps and this would give you an incredible amount of options as your skills and requirements develop.

The most disturbed shoe-gazing music that you've ever not danced to, in glorious low fidelity
http://www.simonfairbairn.com