The great thing I have found is you can get that cool analog sound from digital if you use a good preamp, best of both worlds! A protools LE system (Mbox 2 for example) comes with consumer grade preamps. You can get a LE system for pretty cheap (about $500 give or take, even less if you get it off evil bay), and if you have a good computer (one that the digidesign site says is compatable) your real close to being there. I can not over state how important it is that your computer is compatable. Now for the bummers; 1. you should have an external hard drive, your computer's hard drive isn't really the best place for your audio, 2. Pro tools (or whatever you use) is not totaly easy to figure out, if you get a instructional DVD like secrets of the pros DVD on pro tools it all becomes very clear though. Why am I so big on pro tools? because you can take it pretty much anywhere and they can just open up your session (although converting files from cubase or logic,etc.etc. can be done)and it is almost infinatly expandable (depending on how much money you have). I would encorage you to invest in yourself, get an LE system, do what you can at home, and take your session to the studio for what you can't do at home (like drums). It's like owning your own studio, you have no time restrictions, and the next time you want to record it's as easy as turning on your computer. Oh yes, the preamps, if you get a good preamp your sound improves dramaticly. They are as cheap as $100 and go through the roof from there. Think of it like compairing a Jem 7 to a
squire strat, both will do the job, but one will give you less to worry about. And, if you have a small collection of preamps, like most of us have a small collection of guitars, you can use diffrent ones for diffrent applications. Just my opinion.
