After some digging around in the used microphone selection up here in Seattle, I came across a steal of a mic for voice-overs: the Neumann BCM104. It took me about two hours to get the oh-so-obvious “first thing you should do” when you then install an external Audio Capture Box: disable the existing sound card in your current OS!  I can confirm that the firewire port on my Lenovo / IBM X61T does work with the Edirol FA-66 firewire box, and runs on Vista 32-bit without a hitch. I had to unscrew the base of the microphone cable attachment to flick a tiny switch to ensure that the base defeat was off, etc, but other than that it’s a fantastic tool, with breathtaking clarity.

The same can’t be said for the  M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB, which I never could get to work on Vista, and promptly, and to my complete satisfaction, returned. In comparison, the Edirol is a solid aluminum device with solid switches, dampened dials, and perfect stability. It’s funny that with all these external devices, the only ones that seem to have any track record as a Vista-compatible audio interface are the Edirol line and the E-MU line, which I did not get to try.

I also picked up the O.C. White microphone broadcast boom with the gold springs, which is also a great, silent, and handy boom. One warning though – the internally supplied mic cable is only terminated on one end, so buy your own end, and get ready to crimp!