starting my home studio

[runner]

I am a musician who has always been interested in recording. Our group has recorded four professional cd's and I would like to be able to record my own using my PC and the right hardware and software.
My PC is a 1.5 GHZ with 512 MB of Rambus ram, and 40 Gig hard drive. My sound card is a lowly sound blaster live. I have been reading up on Cakewalk software,..the Sonar 3 looks great from my first read!

Not sure where to go from here??

 

[christiaan]

Decide what instruments you want to record, what kind and how many inputs/outputs you need. Then get a decent soundcard that fits your requirements.
Get decent studio monitors.
Read up on room treatment. Acoustics are important.
Microphones, mic preamps... Which ones depends on what you're going to record and on your budget.
Finally: Come back daily and read every post on this board that seems remotely interesting to you. Lots of questions have already been asked so be sure to use the search option.