For a year or two now I've been considering purchasing some equipment to allow me to record some music. Unfortunately sound recording isn't an area I have much (any) experience or knowledge of so I've spent a fair bit of time researching what's what so as to hopefully not end up wasting my money. I've reached a point where I have some idea what I'd like to get but I figured that there's at least some chance someone who know's what's what might read this and save me making a mistake.

What I'd like to be able to do.

I play the piano, guitar (electric and acoustic), violin (badly), ukulele (worse) and am teaching myself the harmonica (slowly). Usually, left to my own devices, I play the blues. I'd like to be able to record and play back these (and my terrible voice as well while we're at it) to a not-awful standard.

To give an example: I sometimes find myself playing some fun boogie-woogie on the piano and wishing I could relatively easily record it, loop it and get to improvising on the guitar, harmonica, or whatever really. Perhaps if that went well I'd put in a bit more effort and see what I can create with a bit more thought.

Budget.

As cheap as possible please but let's say £400 ish all in.

Current thoughts.

The following is what I'm currently considering. I already have a piano and a decent pc, a couple of guitars and amps and a few guitar cables but need everything else. I'm considering purchasing everything from dv247 as they have a shop locally and have been helpful and friendly in the past.

Computer Hardware.

I was initally tempted by the flexibility of getting a PCI sound card and a mixer but am currently thinking it would be excessive for what I want to be able to do so am looking at external USB boxes that do everything and are shiny. Top of the list currently is the Tascam US-144 MkII though I'm not sure if it's worth it over the slightly cheaper US-122 MkII (there's an extra dial? yay).

Microphones.

Microphones scare me, not least because it seems the entire world has been using the same ones for the last 50 years and apparently nobody has made anything better. Still, I'm not going to buy an SM58 or SM57 whether or not the POTUS uses them. They're too expensive. Slightly. Also, I'd like a condenser, but partly just because they look cooler. Currently deciding between the AT2020 and the sE2000.

Monitors.

Do I actually need to buy some monitors? Instinctively I wouldn't and would just get some nice headphones instead but everything I've read has said I should so well, I probably will. Currently I'm looking at the Edirol MA-15D or the M-Audio Studiophile BX5A deluxe's if I'm feeling rich.

Other bits and pieces.

Cables, a mic stand of some description, probably other things I'm forgetting (pop-filter?).

Software.

To be honest I wasn't planning on buying anything specifically just getting along with whatever happens to come with the audio interface while it's still sufficient.

Concerns and questions.

When thinking about these things my biggest concern is that I'm missing something in one crucial area that will lessen the value of everything else. That is, it's really difficult to balance the quality of the different pieces when I don't have a solid understanding of really how good everything is. I'm worried I'll make the equivalent of the 'decent PC but useless power supply' mistake i've made so many times before. So, specifically, I'd be happy if anyone could confirm or allay those fears but any and all advice is welcome.

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Well it's another place to post things isn't it. It's now a decade since my first web based experiments and it felt odd that the only place I could write anything for the world to see was limited to 140 characters. So, posterous, ta and indeed da. Judging by my previous attempts at websites/logs chances are that this is all I'll ever get around to writing but I haven't let that stop me so far so we'll see how it goes.

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