Thriller (and tons of music before and after) was recorded on the Shure SM7. You can buy that mic for $400. In fact, you've seen this mic used by podcasters eve

Thriller (and tons of music before and after) was recorded on the Shure SM7. You can buy that mic for $400. In fact, you've seen this mic used by podcasters everywhere. The mic cost is almost irrelevant though. A good mic will last decades unless abused. Let's say you want a variety of sounds. You buy a bunch of instrument mics (probably $100 each) and a few matched pairs of all the most popular vocal mics (most of those will run 1-2k per pair). You'll probably not spend over 20k in total. Over 20 years, that's only $1,000 per year or less than $100 per month. In that same 20 years, you will have upgraded your digital equipment several times at an expense far greater than $1,000 per year (upgrading your $3,500 macbook every 4 years is the same amount of money). If you make your money with those mics, that cost is hardly worth mentioning. It's like people complaining that ergonomic keyboards cost $300. The keyboard will easily last a decade or more (only $1-2 per month to save a lot of future pain). In that same time, you'll probably spend 10k+ on other equipment. Same thing with monitors where $1000 will far outlast that same amount of money put into the computer itself.