MIcrophone Design II Reading

9. Mic Choices at home

What to do if you don't have $100k to make your own mic closet?

There are all sorts of mods that one can do to their mics to convert them to sound like another perhaps more expensive mic. Like the "turn your sm57 into an SM7B" tutorials you can find online.
There are companies that make knock offs of very expensive microphones, like our Wunder CM7 at the studio (though it's still terribly expensive, it's a far cry from a real Telefunken)
There are now mics with software that emulate a whole bunch of different types of microphones with software at the press of a button. Slate has two mics that they make with downloadable mic models for extra cost. Antelope has a few mics that model different expensive mics at a budget price. These are just two companies that are currently building these mic modelers but be on the lookout for many more companies doing the same.