1. Maybe this is completely obvious to the seasoned pros, but I think
it's useful to other folks building a home recording setup:

After reading through all the responses to my microphone question last
week, I was thinking something like this:

"Sure it would be great to have a mic with a really flat response, but
it's not that important in my situation, since I'm not trying to please
a lot of different clients in different styles. If my workhorse mic
has some idiosyncracies, then that just becomes my 'sound'. That's how
I picked my upright piano afterall."

BUT THEN IT DAWNED ON ME: In my home "studio" situation, we have:

*Fewer mics total than in a pro studio.
*The same mic used repeatedly in the same piece, overdubbing different
instruments.
*A building which is a residence first and a studio second, therefore
having irregular room acoustics (esp. resonances) in recording and
monitoring.

If I use the same idiosyncratic mic over and over, those idiosyncracies
along with the problems of the room just add up at the same frequencies
in every track! This is why I really need the flattest mic I can get
to be my "go to" mic.

2. OK, so I go out and get a couple good, flat mics-- one condenser
(maybe a matched pair) and one dynamic. Now I need a better preamp
than the ones built into my little Behringer eurorack mixer.

I could get a standalone preamp... I think this is a pretty
straightforward option. Browse the RAP archives; get something as
uncolored as possible.

....but there are two other things that might bring preamps in as a
matter of course:

I'm considering a small mixer so I can track drums (Gina only records 2
channels simultaneously and the Behringer I have only has two mic
channels). Such a mixer would have preamps built in. I wouldn't
expect to need more than 4 mic inputs. Who makes a mixer that small
with decent preamps?

I'm considering upgrading my Gina 20-bit A/D/A hardware to the new
24-bit/96-kHz model which also has built-in mic preamps. Are these
preamps worth having?

3. Where's a good place to go in the Chicago metro area to audition &
maybe rent some mics?