stevetdunn said:
I've been playing guitar about 20 years (off and on) and now want to take the leap and record digitally.
Steve, you have a couple of options if you want to "go digital" with your recording. It'd be helpful for people here if you give them an idea about how much money you're planning on spending, because there's a HUGE range of things one could go into here.
One option is to get a standalone digital recording unit like the Fostex MR-8, which is a relatively inexpensive but digital equivalent to a standard inexpensive 4-track tape machine, except that the MR-8 is an 8-track recorder and is easily hooked up to computer via a USB connection. But there are lots of other units out there too, some with hard disk drives, better built-in effects, capability to record more tracks at a time, etc. So it all depends on what you're planning on using it for. For example, will you ever be recording drums, or just your guitar?
Another option is the one you hinted at...connecting your gear to your computer. However, again there's a huge range of options here, from just plugging directly into your factory sound card, to replacing the card with a decent recording-quality card, to using a USB interface, or even a PCI interface like an Aardvark, etc.
I'll echo Phyl's statement that it's going to be tough to get what you want by just using your computer's sound card, especially if you have to use a mic, because the pre-amp in such sound cards are generally pretty noisy and low quality. So if you're just interested in doing things similar to what you did with your tape machine, I'd probably recommend just going with a standalone digital recorder like the MR-8. You can pick one up brand new for under $300. Again though, it'll be helpful if you tell us a little more about what exactly you're hoping to do.
I hope that's helpful!
-Tom
