Something often neglected in sampling and recording is the less expensive side of microphones. For example, when wanting to produce a track with an early jazz sound matching the era in which it was written a bit closer, I turned to this interesting mic I picked up at a tag sale years ago, which appears to be a late model or descendant of the Shure Hercules.
Check out the results (unaltered) and a parallel stereo recording with the XY capsule of a H6. That trumpet solo at 50″ sounds straight off a 78, minus the distortion and cracks. It also worked well on another period piece.