Starting to record- basic help please ?!

[Korki]

Hello to every one !
Im starting to record my own "stuff" and im a guitarist...
You can call me a "neebie" because only this night i realised what monitors are for... thats realy bad - i know...
But the help ill try to get here is basicly about what equipment i should get/buy so i could record guitar/bass/piano/drums in a medium+ quality.
I want to make my own tracks/songs with guitars and what ever other instrumentals that i would like to add. I play instrumental rock, much like Steve Vai, Joe Setriani and John Petrucci. But ofcures, with my own style and feelings.
Im almost 18 years old and i have 8 mounths before i recruit to the army (Israel damn it lol ), so i wont buy crazy/so expensive equipment but i never buy cheap equipment either.
So i bought the ESI Waveterminal 192M card to start recording music, i know barely any thing about sound cards but i have many friends and people telling me thats a good card for what i need (Instrumental recording) and that i bought it in a good price.
I started recording with the soft ware Cool Edit Pro but now im going to move to Cubase SX.
I have a very old music system that sounds realy bad and the speakers are all wreked...
So i read today and understood that : " Hey monitors is your goal now?!"
So you see... i know very litel from any thing...
So im just saying all i have to say and im asking for some help about basic things that i need to know and need to get/buy so i could progress and record some good music. Monitors what kind (i thought about 300-400$)
I would realy, realy realy !!! apriciate any one that will help me with this thing, thank you ahead !!!

Koral

[Kasey]

so right now your looking for fairly inexpensive near-field monitors? I would look at the M-audio BX8's. ($300). Also, if you dont have any yet, you'll need a small arsenal of microphones. (maybe you realize this, maybe not, but if you're playing any kind of distorted guitar, don't even think about just plugging your guitar directly into the soundcard.) Get yourself an SM57, and probably a large diaphragm condenser and you should be fairly set. I'm not quite sure i know what you still need besides the monitors so... yea, if you already have microphones, cool.

[Korki]

Thanks man, i have P.O.D - if you dont know this, then its a very neat box that gives perfect sounds of deferent emps (Fender,Marshel etc...) and effects and just good sound.
I do have a mic but i poor one, how much should ill spend on a medium (like quality) one ?!
And... monitors... yea i figured that i need to get 2 so ill hear every thing i play, altough i can sence those extra enoying sounds in my poor sound system lol.
Thank you for your help !

Koral

[Matheon]

i'm real happy with my wharfedale 8.2 active monitors.
a lot of people will back me up on that.

and as far as the BX8's. i've heard just as good about them.
just research and go listen to some if you have a dealer in your area.

as for mics this article helped me out a lot at one time.
http://www.hr-faq.org/

i suggest reading through it thorougly

but don't buy anything unless you know what you're buying.
you probably for sure want to get a shure SM57 or two though. (they should be about 80 bucks a piece)

MXL is trying to push their LDC 2003 mic right now and you can get em bundled with an MXL 603 at a lot of places for under 200 bucks.

if you're into that sort of thing.

i know the 603 is a great mic.. not a lot of people seem to be fans of the 2003 but i like it just fine at times.

hope this helps a little.