Newbie shopping list

[Heavy T]

Hello all:

This site is great -- I've learned so much in just a few days!

I have two basic questions:

1) Our household has two pentium based computers, one of which we're going to dedicate to digital recording.
To start off, we're recording bass and guitar, possibly phasing in some drums and sax later on. (Already have the guitar & bass amps, of course!)
What I want to know is -- what basic equipment would we need to get started? The following is a "wish list" I've compiled so far --

SM 57 mikes
aark or layla
pre-amps (if needed)
CD burner (already have a Yamaha CDRW, but what good is that?)
Software (either cakewalk or n-track studio)
...

2) For the purposes of recording directly to a CD burner for live performances, is the Tascam/Teac CDRW combo the only way to go?

Thanks in advance!

[c7sus]

Sounds pretty good so far.....

Are you sure you need 8/10 I/O's at once? You could save some bread by going 2/8 or 4/8 with the I/O.

Also, I guess I wouldn't call Layla "basic". That's well beyond basic. Also, think about software. A lot of folks here use N-Track. It's about $35US. I haven't used it but a lot of people here love it.

So how about monitors? With all that I/O you will want a mixer, too..... unless you want to mix with a mouse.....

And maybe a projected budget. There's lots of options out there. Keep reading.

[Heavy T]

Thanks for the feedback --

Actually I hadn't decided on a mixer yet, although the omni sounds cool ... Since I've read some more, it seems that a Delta 66 would be an adequate sound card. Anyway, I wanted to have the option of recording some live performances -- so I thought the multiple inputs would be good.

I'm still wondering what you need to record live sessions directly to CD -- getting closer to the answer though!

As for monitoring, we'll probably try using headphones at first. We're going to want to get those monitors eventually, anyway.

Also, we basically want to buy the best equipment we can afford (uh oh!).

***Now I just need to figure out how to set up a dedicated hard drive for audio, and which one to get?

And for a final twist, I think we'll want the option of doing some fun stuff with MIDIs -- like for playing drums and other instruments -- so any pointers to help us get it right the first time are greatly appreciated!