What microphone is best for just recording one track...that of classical guitar?  Should it be a USB connection?  I'm just learning on my Sonar X1 Essentials and my microphone is garbly..it's an old one and has an 1/8th inch plug..  Thanks for any suggestions.. I'm going to check out Best Buy tomorrow by phone to see what they have.

In general, USB microphones aren't recommended for recording.  They are fine for podcasting etc., but not music.  Not only are they cheap (and inexpensive) but the USB drivers are generic and usually suffer from large latencies (the time between you sing to your backing track and when you hear your voice.
 
There are lots of threads on low cost music interfaces and separate mics, which is the way to go. 
 
@

LOL! I just read this and was thinking, dude really doesn't like USB mics!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edit to add:  Duplicate posts to which you were referring, now deleted.  Karyn

Not chosing a USB-mic means that you need to have a decent audio-interface.
For classical guitar you need a condenser-microphone, which requires phantom power feed (which your PC doesn't have).
 
USB-mic is just as bad an alternative as the PC:s own sound chip. Neither have good drivers for DAW-work.
In case you decide for a USB-mic anyway, make shure it has all the inputs and outputs for monitoring etc, just like any audio interface. Your PC sees it as a soundcard, and you must be able to monitor your recordings through it. If you try to monitor through motherboard soundcard, the signals go out of sync.

I have to say that USB mics have improved considerably over the years. They used to be cheap and, as mentioned, mostly designed for podcasting. However I picked up an Audio-Technica AT2020 USB mic a few years ago to take on the road for doing narration, and aside from being of great interest to the TSA when you have a cylindrical object in your luggage, it's been a really rugged mic that sounds like, well, the non-USB 2020. I also checked out an MXL 007 which is an inexpensive stereo condenser mic, and it performed much better than I expected.
 
However many of these are made to be class-compliant, which means they use non-specialized drivers. As a result there is latency, so if you want to monitor the mics, you'll want to use an interface's direct monitoring.
 
There's no technical reason why USB mics can't sound good, but there are cost constraints - a company is not going to put a $100 A/D converter sub-system in a $200 mic. But as converters get better and cheaper, USB mics will follow suit.

I picked up a CAD condensor mike from Musiciams Friend Stupid deal of the day for $30 ,, it is very good, as good as any $200 mikes I have. 
But first you really do need an audio interface, don't waste your money on 3rd rate systems. 

Question for the original poster quick... could you help us by providing your system specifications (System model, O/S, equipment you are using)?
 
I am making the assumption that "1/8"" jack means you are plugging into the onboard audio or an internal sound card, but "garbly sound" can be attributed to other aspects of your system as well. I am concerned to trudge down the path of "mic" alone here.

USB mics have improved lately, but I caution everyone that if you get one, make sure it has a "headphone out"
 
that way you can monitor using the headphone out instead of using your onboard soundcard.  if you choose a mic without a headphone output, or if you choose to monitor using the onboard soundcard, then you are using two different soundcards, one for input and one for output.  using two different soundcards will cause your tracks to drift away from each other in sonar (or any other recording medium) because the two soundcards will have two DIFFERENT clocks and they are NOT sync'd.

I would look into Earthworks QTC 30 (Matched Pair). There awesome and are excellent for capturing classical guitar recordings and can be used for many more things.
 
Stay far away from USB Mic's. Do not like them!!! 
 
CJ

kslampi
What microphone is best for just recording one track...that of classical guitar?  Should it be a USB connection?  I'm just learning on my Sonar X1 Essentials and my microphone is garbly..it's an old one and has an 1/8th inch plug..  Thanks for any suggestions.. I'm going to check out Best Buy tomorrow by phone to see what they have.

Do yourself a favor and buy some external soundcard where you can plug real microphone. For example Focusrite Scarlett Solo or 2i2. For the mic, I am using Rode NT5 on regular basis. it is great mic. You can also look for some large capsule microphones {Shure, AKG, whatever}