I want to record, but am confused

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I play in a band occasionally, have a bass guitar and 65w Ibanez amp. I also have been getting into guitar and have an Martin M-16 dreadnaught acoustic. Just for fun I want to begin laying down some bass/guitar/vocals (possibly drums because my brother has a drumkit). I've been reading up for a while and am beginning to see how everything fits together.
I have a dell desktop with a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Sound Card, and am running Windows XP. According to my understanding, I need an interface (weather it plugs into the 1/8" mic. jack in the back of my comp. tower, or through the USB or firewire). I have a relatively tight budget though, and was wondering what I need besides an interface and software.
I was looking at buying the Traction 2 software with M audio fast track pro, or the line six software, and the line six USB interface.
I have read that recording directly into the computer would yield poor results, and am wondering if I need a mixer, or preamp, or equilizer. (im not sure if the USB interfaces already have preamps in them)
I am on a budget and am looking to get by with the bear-minimal cost, however, I do plan on spending the money to get some quality sound.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks for your time

 

[The Flame]

I heard some good things about the line 6 toneport 2. Check out the website to hear for yourself. I myself use the presonus firepod, having 8 mic pres at the same time helps me record my live drums, guitars and basses together, thats the way we like to put down tracks sometimes. I dont know much about pc cards, but i have owned three interfaces, 2 usb and one firewire. Firewire is better In my opinion, but it may cost more. The interfaces do have mic pres. Depending on how much you want to spend, and how many micpres/tracks you want simultaneously. If you put down stuff seperate go for a 2 track, you can get em pretty cheap. If you wnt to record drum set, I reccomend get an interface that has at least 4 mic inputs. I would go on musiciansfriend and check out some stuff, m audio is good, i love my presonus. Also the Protools mbox is supposed to be pretty good. If you buy any m-audio, you can get the m-powered protools which is similar to the industry standard. It all depends on how you are gonna be recording. I record metal, so i need to mic up my monster kit to get the sound i want, and that takes 8 tracks at once. Hope that helps man, good luck
Flame

 

[ssscientist]

Tracktion 2 and the Line 6 Toneport UX2 would make a very good starter combination.

Tracktion is easy to learn and use and the Line 6 Toneport not only has models for guitar and bass but microphones as well.

If you're going to shell out for a Line 6 interface you might as well pay the extra $70 and get the larger one --- the stereo one --- just because it has more of everything.

Once you get the Line 6 you should disable the SoundBlaster Live because the Line 6 Toneport will take it's place.

The Flame's reply is right on target, and he's right about almost every external interface for a computer having a preamp in it.

 

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thanks

thanks for the information (both of you), I'll check out the equipment suggested.