Amping a Mic

[rusty289]

I'm curious as to what the cheapest way is to power a mic. I only care about it for band practices, so it doesn't have to be fancy, just get the job done. Right now, I'm running my mic through micro monitors that have a 1/4" input on them. I have an XLR mic but it is useless to me right now (probably terrible, got it for free) and a $20 Radio Shack non-XLR mic.

Cheapest solution keeping in mind im only looking for enough volume so that it can be heard during the practices?

[action n00b]

only condenser mics need extra power. a live vocal amp gets its power from whatever it's plugged into. like a guitar getting its power from the amp

[Aes820]

You can get away with running a mic into an old guitar or bass amp for now.
It'll do the job, but it wont sound all that great and after time you may wear out the amp.

It'll be fine for the time being, but eventually you'd want to invest in a simple PA systems.

[rusty289]

I've tried that, and it just didn't work. The volumes weren't loud enough and it sounded terrible.

I guess I have a similar question too: What is the cheapest way to record good-sounding vocals?