If this is a home studio, most of your stuff will be in a computer. So start with that - multiple hard drives, as much memory as you can afford, the fastest chip you can afford and try to find a quiet case. I opted for dual video monitors which I like a lot. Get a decent burner.
Microphones
starting out? Look for an MXL package of large and small diaphragm condensers. That is inexpensive and will give you lots of versatility.
mic stands
To get started, spring for a set of five or six stands with short booms from one of the catalog suppliers; it's about a hundred bucks and you will always have an extra when you need one. They're light weight; go to walmart, pick up some cheap barbell weights and slide one down each stand to the base feet. The extra few pounds will stabilize the boom.
preamps, audio interface
The sky's the limit. I started with M-audio Delta66 card and breakout box years ago and still use it. If I were starting today I'd probably begin with a small USB mixer or a Mackie Onyx mixer with firewire to allow multiple tracks to be recorded at once. $ 300 - 700 for a good small mixer to use as an interface. Whatever you do, avoid the computer's built in audio circuitry - it's lousy - and avoid gamer sound cards like Audigy and so forth. They are not good enough for this work. They might play back fine but will not record well. USB and firewire interfaces allow you to bypass analog circuitry altogether and gt you better results with low end equipment. If you do a sound card style interface, go with a decent quality card. m-Audio, RME Hammerfall, Lynx audio etc.
software
I started with n-track and it's fantastic and inexpensive. Today I use Reaper for recording on the computer and do more complex work in Adobe. Reaper is probably the best bang for the buck in an all around recording software package. There's a forum here for all those products.
studio (sound) monitors
First, get a decent inexpensive set of headphones; I use
AKG K-66 for everyday stuff. You can learn a lot and do a lot with headphones.
But don't assume that they tell you the whole truth. Look for a set of 8" studio monitors to show what the 'phones will miss. Behringer Truth powered monitors are pretty nice for the buck and are good starters. A smaller monitor may be tempting, but you will be missing low end that an 8" speaker will deliver, even at low volumes. I bought 6" monitors and if I were to do that again I would go with 8" units. Don't confuse home stereo speakers with studio moinitors; they serve different functions. Homes stereo speakers will color the sound. Monitors are intended to be tools to analyze what you're doing. They don't sound good! They sound accurate. Big difference.
Cables
I started with economy cables to begin with. There is a decent cable vendor on ebay (the biggest one) in this market segment. One of the early things to learn is how to solder your own cables. Once you feel comfortable with that, you can build very high quality, relatively inexpensive cables that will not fail like economy cables will. But to begin with, the cheapies will get you up and running until you can make good decisions about this stuff. It can get expensive.
Start with the absolute basics in gear and let your accumulated hours become your best teacher. Good gear and little experience = little experience. So don't go crazy on gear at first.
