Right, so I've got songs I'm working on. I want to record the things.

Now how I did this in the past was with some fairly straightforward, not at all great application, the name of which I forget, on my computer (I think it came free with a magazine, so you can imagine how gash it would be). So I ran the guitar in, recorded ****, ran the mic in, recorded ****, maybe mucked about with ****ty programmable drums if the song might need it, and then had a uneducated bash at mixing. And that was it.

Obviously there are better methods to all of this, even for someone with absolutely no skill whatsoever at mixing and general good recording practice. And that's what I hope KR can point me to.

Software? Hardware? Basically anything reasonably inexpensive is what I'm interested in. I'm not looking to make a masterpiece here so amazing quality isn't a huge concern.

r - e - c - o - r - d - i - n -g / m - u - s - i - c / i - n / m - y / b - e - d - r - o - o - m

There had to be one smart arse. At least we got that out of the way quickly.

sound forge is probably the most pirated bit of audio recording/manipulating software next to cubase. either of those are a good starter for ten, but soundforge is indefinently easier.

free software such as audacity is probably far more suitable for your recording/editing needs. small learning curb, providing your soundcard works its pretty plug and play, easy multitracking/fx/basic sound editing.

for beat based stuff, fruityloops is again simple, easily found/downloadable and good for programming beats. if you've no experience in step sequencers befopre you might find this tricky.
i cant remember off hand if audiacity uses vst instruments, but if it does then you should get a copy of a freeware drum machine called fxpansion guru which is easy and has lots of do***entation on the tinternet for quickstarts. have fun, elvis

audacity is good, but i prefer adobe audition - but that's mainly because i know how to use it, whereas i'm clueless to the other recording software.

i have a behringer podcastudio, which, while not all that great, was cheap and better than a PC mic. it comes with a mixing board, a mic, headphones, and a USB thing to connect the mixing board into your computer.