Bater, the mic I sold was a Rode K2 Tube mic, I sold it because it was outperformed by a AKG C414 in a shoot out through my Great River preamp. Finding the right mic is kind of like finding the right women. Try one you like, stick with it till you find a better one, unless you can get away with having a couple on the go at the same time. Helps if you can try them out before splashing any cash on them, if not, you have to go by what they look like on the Internet... And they often don't look or sound so good close up in the flesh. But one day, hopefully, you'll find the perfect one for you.

I'd say probably it best to make the main studio your buddy's place, and let him learn the art of mixing, acoustically treat his room, get decent monitors etc, and you concentrate on getting good vocal recordings in your place. If you're gonna use your mic just for vocals, you really just need a cardioid large diaphragm condenser mic. You don't need a mic with switchable polar patters and all that stuff. And getting a good acoustic environment helps a lot, especially when using a condenser mic. Here's a youtube vid with a few low budget suggestions on how to do that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4de0Hmn3Wg

The best thing for you to do is just to keep writing songs with your buddy and improving that before you start splashing the cash, as it's important to never lose sight that the main objective is write great songs, not professionally record average ones - that market is saturated enough as it is.

Right, hopefully that glue's dry now on the Lamborghini style door of my vocal booth - The Sanctum - that's nearing completion, and I can stick another tile on it.

Lucian