All the replies so far offer good suggestions, but as absolute beginner, I would hate to see you start off with recording to PC.

Why? First you have have 'know' if your current PC can handle recording without latency. Ok, what is latency? In very simple terms, it's the the delay your computer introduces between the time you hit a note on a keyboard/guitar, and when you hear it come out of the speakers.

If you have PC with a dual-core processor than you won't have any problems.

You'll also need some sort of audio interface, a device will transfer/send a mic or guitar signal to a computer based recording software.

Than there are 'plugins', plugins are software that, for example, emulate guitar amps, bass amps, reverb, etc in recording software.

I hope I'm not scaring you from recording, just listing the facts.

So, now you're thinking "What should, I do? I want to record!"

Here, I suggest the BOSS BR-600. Ok, why? The control interface is set like a cassette recorder. You select a Input, either guitar, Mic or Line-In, when you press the Input button, the recorder will/can apply any effects.

Than all you do is press Record and than Play button. Oh, what about percussion/drums? The BR-600 has a built-in drum arranger that is very ez to use.

It records to a 1GB CF card, you can either transfer songs to your computer via USB or the free Boss Wave Converter Software. If you use the BWCS software, you need an external card reader.

Plus, I've created a series of BR-600 video tutorials on Youtube BR-600 Tutorial Part 1.

This way, you'll send more time recording, than learning to record.

Tony Houston
The Primetime Blues Band
http://www.primeblues.com