Songwriters PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!
 

I'm a college student that writes songs on the side, and I'm trying to record some of my stuff just for my own enjoyment... I guess you could say it's a hobby of mine... anyway, I don't want to waste the money to go to a professional studio, but I do want my stuff to sound halfway decent. What kind of equipment do I need to get? I have a computer with Windows XP Professional, what software and other equipment do I need? Most of my music has only one or two vocals and a guitar. Thank you!

i have a program called cakewalk, its pretty good, you can record guitar tracks over one another, compose other beats (drums, keyboards etc.) and you can record vocal tracks as long as you have a microphone. if i were you i'd invest in a good one, makes the vocal tracks sound alot cleaner, and for the guitar you just plug it into the computer like you would into your amp. if u'r using accousitc i guess you could just record it with the mike, but i've never tired it with accoustic

do you have to pay for cakewalk or is it a free download somewhere?

There's a trial version available here:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Download/

Hope that helps :)