I have access to ProTools every day at work and I am even the engineer who installed the system- and still I don't use it because it takes many many hours of concentration to learn the system. I install software on a fast and expensive Apple CPU, hook up the midi cables and interface cable to the motorized mixing console; connect microphones and line inputs from the Foley room (sound effects room), hook up 4 monitors for sync to video, go to the configuration menus and set up the whole system- and still can't actually do anything very interesting with it. Why? Because it takes hours and hours to learn to make it do interesting things.

If you buy a system, be prepared to spend the kind of time the musician spends getting proficient at his instrument of choice.

I think a lot of people who are willing to spend a small fortune on a home studio would be better off buying a $200 recorder with a click track. If you are a decent musician, then play and sing your song to the click track and send it off to someone like Sub.
He can take your click track song, lay it down into a time line and add all the parts. He can send it back to you minus vocal and the original reference track. You can then practice your own song until you have nailed the vocals and/or honed the lyrics. Then hire a vocalist or do your own vocal and let Sub mix down the final. You can do this a lot of times for the same money it would take to build a home studio.

If you love technology and the songwriting craft equally well, then maybe a home studio is for you. But my warning is: you had better love the technical part of recording because you are going to spend way more time doing it that you ever imagined, and unless you are good at playing all the instruments, you are going to understand the meaning of creative frustration like you have never known.

Here is my favorite way to record: 1. Know your song like you know your own name 2. surround yourself with the best musicians you can find. 3 teach them your song. 4. Get a crowd together who like you. 5. Play you ass off. Don't forget to push the record button.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein