As everyone else seems to be adding detail to their list, I had better do this to mine as well:-
This list is listed by manufacturer in alphabetical order.
Microtech Gefell2 x M 221 omni (stereo pair)
My absolute favourite omni (along with the MKH 20) - nickel capsule 'grown in place', and my No.1 choice for piano and organ (Josephson also use this Gefell capsule on their C617set mic.). Comes complete with 3cm and 4cm APE spheres.
2 x M 930 LDC cardioid (stereo pair)
Small in size but an excellent large diaphragm cardioid condenser that is actually very affordable. Equally good as a main stereo pair as well as being superb for vocals and voice-over. A very versatile LDC, which is why I bought my own pair to keep in the kit.
2 x M 300 SCD cardioid (stereo pair)
High quality and affordable SDC cardioid that is very flexible.
1 x M 900 hand-held LDC cardioid
Ceramic capsule LDC in a handheld format and equally good in the studio and on stage. I like the versatility and is one of the very very few handhelds that have a genuine large diaphragm capsule.
(I can raid the demo kit for just about any Gefell mic. I want 
but the above are the ones I have bought / will buy for my own mic. kit so I do not have to raid the demo kit.)Neumann Berlin1 x KMR 81i short gun
I have had this for many years and got it because it had a nicer sound than the MKH416; I don't use it so much nowadays, but would never get rid if it.
2 x GFM 132 boundary - half omni
Probably the best boundary mic. on the market and retailed for about £2k each - I managed to pick these up at a good price as everyone really needs a boundary mic. in the kit. Excellent underneath a grand piano where stage room is tight, as well as many other uses.
2 x KM-D AES42 module
2 x KK 183 diffuse field omni capsule (for KM-D)
2 x KK 131 nearfield omni capsule (for KM-D)
This is Neumann's digital SDC series - and replaces the KM100 series (also available as KM-A analogue). An excellent and flexible detachable capsule series - with the KM-D digital you get the sound of the capsule with no analogue colour.
Sennheiser2 x MKH 20 omni
2 x MKH 30 fig-8
2 x MKH 40. cardioid
The mics in this series all sound the same and only differ in polar-pattern. Very flat frequency response and polar-patterns that are so good they are close to the theoretical response. The sound is neutral and natural without the colour that other mics can give. The MKH 20 used to be my No.1 choice for piano. I often use the MKH 40/30 as an MS pair. The MKH 30 is said by most to be the very best condenser fig-8 on the market, being a single diaphragm design and truly symmetrical. All this series use Sennheiser's symmetrical capsule that drastically reduces double-tone distortion.
2 x MKH 800 switchable
Switchable symmetrical capsule mic. with a HF response that goes to 50kHz. Like the others is natual and revealing. If I could only have one pair of mics and no others, this is what I would choose - it does everything (it even sounds excellent as overheads on a drum kit).
2 x MKH 8020. omni
2 x MKH 8040. cardioid
These are Sennheiser's new series of symmetrical capsule mics and have a top end that extends to 50 or 60kHz. Even though they are only 19mm in diameter, they still have a 16mm diameter diaphragm (the same diameter as the MKH 20/30/40 series). Great little mics that have a natural and musical sound. I use the MKH 8020 for live piano recitrals where I have to be as unobtrusive as possible., These are all dark grey Nextel coated and can go almost invisible to the eye if properly placed. I also have the
MZD 8000 digital module for these mics so that I can have, together with a Y-cable, an AES42 pair of digital mics.
2 x MKH 816F long gun (these are very rare)
I picked these up many years ago (saved from the skip actually) - these have a flat frequency response that was designed more for music recording than voice. Sennheiser only made a very few of these and did not put them into full production.
1 x MD 421. dynamic cardioid (original)
This is an excellent cardioid dynamic that everyone should have in their mic. kit (in the same boat as the AKG D202 and Beyer M201) perfect for brass, excellent for Sax. great for speech (as used by many radio stations) and also great for vocals (it used to be the No.1 vocal mic. before the Shure SM58 came along) - the perfect "all rounder" that really everyone needs. Mine was actually a very old grey coloured original but, after I got it second-hand in the late 1970s, I changed the body to black and changed the Tuchel connector for the XLR insert.
1 x MD 431 ProfiPower dynamic cardioid
A great all-round stage vocal mic. It does not have the "cut through" that the SM58 and Sennheiser e935 and e840 have, but great for vocals that do not have a rock band behind them and also for backing vocals.
1 x MD 441 dynamic super-cardioid
A super-cardioid dynamic that can sound close to a condenser. Expensive now when new as it was designed in the days when labour was cheap and technology was expensive (it's the other way round now). Yes, I also picked this up s/h in the 1980s and. again, changed the Tuchel connector for the XLR module. An excellent and very versatile super-cardioid.
OthersAKG (not used much nowadays)
D 12 cardioid dynamic bass drum mic
Picked up s/h many years ago and I use only for bass drum - though I have seen it used as a vocal mic. by a 20s jazz band.
D 190. dynamic cardioid
An inexpensive dynamic cardioid workhorse that you used to see everywhere, long discontinued (the poor man's D202).
C 452/CK1. SDC cardioid
This used to be used everywhere by the BBC (the 452 is the 48V onlly version of the 451 that worked from 9-50V). Picked this up years ago and I alo have the VR1 extension tube with it. I have not used this for many years now as I now have much better mics (see above).
Beyerdynamic (not used much nowadays)
2 x M67n. dynamic cardioid - my first mics and almost 50 years old
These were my very first good mics which I bought in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Excellent dynamic cardioids that will do most things and Beyer only discontinued them when the tool needed replacing and was too expensive to make a new tool.
Calrec (not used much nowadays)
2 x C2050 SDC cardioid
Excellent and flexible SDC cardioids that, IMHO, were better than the AKG C451 series. The 2000 series I have have interchangeable heads, the 1000 series had fixed heads - the 600 series were very popular with amateurs. The 600 series were unbalanced with a separate power supply but were very affordable. The capsules were the same as the 1000 and 2000 series but, I think, were the ones that were just out of spec. to be used in the other series. So, instead of ditching the out of spec capsules, Calrec used them to make an inexpensive mic. for the serious amateur. Still a good s/h buy and these early Calrec mics. are sort after by quite a few.
I'm sure there are more mics that I have forgotten.
I still plan to get a stereo set of the
DPA 4060 tie mics as these are very versatile and come complete with boundary mic adaptors (excellent stuck to the lid of a grand piano where space is tight).
There are lots of other excellent mics. but this is my choice and what I have and, for those who baulk at the cost of such a kit, I built up little by little over a period of almost 50 years (and is still being added to, the M 930 were purchased only a few weeks ago). Some were bought second-hand when the opportunity arose.
I always bought the very best I could afford at the time and have kept in my kit every mic. I have ever bought and I would still be happy to use any of them. Some have appreciated in value with a s/h value way above what I paid for them (I think the MKH 40 were about £350 when I bought them and the s/h price is x2 or x3 that nowadays). Remember, the Neumann U87 was about £100 when it first came out, if you can get a s/h one nowadays you would likely have to pay over £6,000 - that's x60 more!
When it comes to microphones (and monitors) I advise never to skimp and always buy the very best you can push your budget to - as a microphone is really a purchase for life and, if you buy right, you will never have to get rid of and only add to. Computers and the like have a very short life and will continually need replacing, so items like these have to pay for themselves in a very short time.
I hope this helps.
