To revive an old thread, I've been messing around with a few of the computer-based programs lately...this after years of tape recording.

The most important element I've learned about recording tracks directly to computer seems to be the speed of your processor. I have a Pentium 4, which is now considered about the minimum recommendation for multi-track recordings with plenty of editing and effects.

I do have Cubase SX, and like Big Jim says, it is one of the top of the line offerings, by a trailblazing company, Steinberg. Yes, ProTools is ALWAYS referred to as "the industry standard"...and I've been hearing this like a pre-recorded message from anyone who mentions it, especially those who don't really understand what that means. But for little folk like us, even the very serious little folk, there are several excellent options: ProTools, Cubase, Sonar, Logic...all top notch once you learn them.

That said, I think Cubase is one of the most difficult to learn...drives me nuts. I have heard Sonar (about $140) is probably the easiest to learn and use (I haven't used it). Audacity is an excellent freeware program, but lacks the ASIO drivers for overdubbing in real time---so when you play along to an existing track, you hear it doubled up with a half second delay...the dreaded Latency. Maybe this has been resolved by now, but I don't believe it has. But Audacity is an excellent free way to digitize your old tapes into MP3s or WAV files, and also edit, enhance, add effects...really a useful program.

I'm an old school, Beatles-influenced songwriter and recorder, and I really like to throw down a track as immediately as the spirit moves me...that's a Right Brain thing. Computer recording is still a very Left Brain activity. I have a real hard time doing both simultaneously. As a result, I'm STILL recording originally on eight track analog tape... But that will change eventually.

Here is a really amazing interview with Pete Townshend of The Who, one of the original pioneers of home studio recording. I was stunned at how much he knows about all the new computer-based stuff...he's like an encyclopedia, very deep hands-on knowledge of all the trends and all the new programs...and yet he still incorporates tape in the process. It's the only way he will START a recording, before going through several other computerized processes.

http://www.eqmag.com/article/tracking-townshend/Aug-07/30620

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman