[steelcityrocker]

Just like DarkArt said, your software depends on what you're using to capture the sound. SM57s are nice and versatile microphones. Try checking out a matched pair of microphones like the Røde NT5s or the MXL 603s.

Audio interfaces from Edirol and Presonus are very good and last I remembered they weren't too expensive.

For software I'd say go with Logic. Even with Logic Express you can easily edit non-metric music, its just a matter of learning the software. It comes with a nice set of plug-ins (especially the reverbs) and it has a much faster learning curve than Pro Tools LE.

[JUKE179r]

Originally Posted by LoganM20

Audacity is a really good free software

Audacity is a great audio editor and is especially greta because it's FREE!

The very best audio editor I've ever used was Sony's Sound Forge but alas it's only for PC.
Even though in the past I've used Audiofile Engineering's Wave Editor and Audio Ease's Snapper, I've started learning and using Flex Time in Logic 9 for editing.

[Stringsmith]

a great track is a great track no matter what DAW you use. I use Logic because it's made for mac and I need to get ideas down not fool with software/hardware issues. Get whatever you feel comfortable with and start creating. If you're a Mac user start out with Garageband, it's right there on your machine so why not use it then move into Logic or whatever. It's really all good!

[Village Idiot]

actual playing skill will definitely be the determining factory in the difficulty of editing. Logic will work fine. I've recorded bands in a studio with Logic and the hardest part about fixing mistakes was how well a member could keep time. Your music may have different tempos and time changes, but if you have a section that's supposed to keep the same tempo and you're drifting from faster to slower or VV, you're going to end up having a choppy recording when editing if you have to chop parts.