Audio Systems: audio, shure sm57, guitar questions

Question
Hey,

I'm buying a microphone for vocal and acoustic guitar recording. It's the Audio Technica AT-2050 for $129.99, which is normally worth $290. Thinks it's a good mic? Since I'm a student this is in my price range, but it's still a lot of money for me.

I am looking now to buy an interface to connect it to my laptop. I cannot spend more than $150 dollars and I know this really limits me. I play guitar, sing and may want to also record various other things (piano, drums, electric guitar).

QUESTIONS
1.For my purpose would it matter if I got a USB 2.0 interface compared to a firewire interface, since firewires more expensive?

2.Also, it seems I can get preamps for less money than interfaces; could I by a preamp and then purchase and 'XLR to USB' cable and run that from the preamp to my laptop. Would that work, and be cheaper?

3. Also, do I need all of the mixing knobs and buttons on interfaces/preamps, or should I just get a direct XLR to USB box with phantom power? Can I do all of the mixing stuff on my computer with Pro Tools anyway or is it different manually?

4. Also, my room is just 4 painted walls, drywall, window, door. What should I do that is cheap for better recording?



Please give me any other tips/info that you can for starting out recording (on a tight budget) and feel free to go in depth.

Thanks so much for your help.

Answer
It is a decent mic for what you are wanting to do.
A Shure SM57 and SM58 could run you about 125-150 for BOTH so you may want to keep looking if you want to have industry standard, Shure mics and having two individual mics (one for vox and one for instruments) is a good thing for recording enthusiasts of any caliber.

#1 and 2:
I would go USB with something like this:
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/M-Audio-MobilePre-USB-Portable-Audi...
This could be your preamp and much more.

# 3:
It depends on how much control you need/desire. However, flexibility can equal too much interface to learn quickly for novices.
A XLR to USB would work but you might not be to happy with limits of such a simple device for recording. You get what you pay for.

# 4:
Try hanging carpet pad off the walls and ceiling, if plausible.


My best advice on recording is to go after 'maximum meter swing with minimum overload'. This will give your recordings much more audio dynamics.  
If you are multi-tracking to an application like Cool Edit Pro or Audacity, be sure you do not try to run the inputs of any channel above about -3 DB. You can easily end up with an overload on the mixdown if you are not careful.
If you are doing a single track output to mixdown, you can go up to very near -0 Db.

Bottom line:
There are a LOT of good mics out there but until you learn to set them up and use each of them correctly, I suggest not getting too deep in them as to price.


If you have any further specific questions please ask.
Good luck and thanks for the question.\

JM