Re: Want to start recording... Advise PLZ!?!?!
Be careful man, you're about opening Pandora's box for yourself
A quick run-through for a start:
0. For reaching even the lowest level of satisfaction in your recordings you'll have to unload some $$$ on gear that do their jobs well. Otherwise, your recording attempts will be a series of dead ends.
1. You need a DAW. These days all mainsteam and not so mainstream recroding softwares do quite a decent job. The only limit is your $$$ and the platform that you prefer. I don't want to go too deeply into it and overload you with (at this point) unnecessary info but for PC take a look at Reaper. For MAC check out Garage Band (or Reaper, it's multiplatform).
2. You need a decent audio interface. If you don't have one all of your projects will be haunted by latency, noise, glitch, dropout and in general, quality issues. Doomed, sort of. A simple audio interface saves you from it as it just does its job: fulfils the full duplex principle (simultaneous playback / recording), has low latency, stabile driver and usually decent line / microphone preamps. Check Focusrite 2i2 or Line6 UX2, PODstudio and the like. They should give a nice consistent performance, if something goes wrong in your mix you can be sure the interface is not the weak link.
3. You don't want to record a full band at this point. If you want a good result in this application not just doing some **** somehow, you'll need a big audio interface with at least 8 microphone ins, 8 microphones (of course), 8 mic stands, cables and some extenisve experience of how to set up mics properly, room acoustics, acoustic separation, reflection damping etc etc. For a decent result you must handle all of this on a good level. It means a lot of traps and money burn that you don't want to step into. Not yet. You need experience first. Use a simple stable 2in-2out interface and 2 mics to learn the basics as well as using DIY problem solvers like using simple blankets as reflection absorbers, put the ripped stockings of your girlfriend on some large ring as a pop filter for vocals, etc etc. Most of the time it is all about running into some issue and thinking then working around it. You need no money for that.
4. You need your machine optimised.
http://global.focusrite.com/answerbase/search/optimise
5. You need some decent monitors. Without going too sky-high with prices, look around the $100 range, read reviews, ask people about their experiences around. If you mix your stuff on hi-fi speakers they will divert you from an optimal balance as they colour the sound heavily. All of them. Monitors don't colour the sound (so much, to be exact) and they react rather neutral so they reveal a somewhat usable average of how the material will sound on various listening gear in the real world. Check entry M-Audio monitors and AKG K141 headphones. Don't suspect some super high listening experience. Maybe a lot of albums will sound crap through them. But, well, that's the truth revealed. They are about mirroring not enhancing. Once you have them your ears need to "learn" them. Listen to a lot of tracks through them that you know, analyse what you heard use the tracks that you know as reference when you mix a track of yours.
6. You need one multi purpose microphone (or preferably two different ones, if you want to record stereo you need two similar ones). For recording decent guitars they are not essential to have (as you can just plug your guitar directly into your audio interface and use Line6, Amplitube, Peavey ReValver etc amp sim on the clean signal) but so is the experience with them if you want to develop. Starting recording means starting experimenting all the time. If you are serious about that, gaining a lot of experience with microphones is essential. Check Shure SM57 and Rode M3. The Shure is an industry standard for a good reason, the Rode is a great multi purpose budget microphone.
Finally check Ola's tutorials. A lot of practical hints and it's very straight to the point:
