Equipment Providers (Score 3, Informative)

I work as the technical director for an internet radio station (Brentwood Radio.com), and we have been doing the Digital->Analog/Analog->Digital thing for some time.
The equipment I suggest you acquire varies on what sorts of sounds you want to record.

• Obviously you'll need a good sound card, Creative's Sound Blaster Live! is comparitvely cheap for the value you get.
• You'll need good microphones, also (it's amazing the difference quality makes). Nice mikes will let you record any instrument, electric or not. I would suggest the company Shure.
• Next on your list would be a mixer, I would highly suggest Mackie boards, and for slightly cheaper tastes the Behringer line.
• Another key component is good cabling. It's tempting to just run over to Radio Shack and buy what you need... but I've found those cables to have crappy shielding, almost no jacket, and die after about 2 years. I would suggest Hosa cables, or, if you have extra cash, Monster cables.
• Lastly you might think of getting a headphone matrix. This is mainly useful if you want to record a band/mutiple people at once. It allows you to amplify the sound a person is making back to them.Also it will allow you to have 6+ headphones w/o splitting the signal.

Well, that's all I have to offer.

-Mark
P.S. Actually one more note, don't jerry rig things unless you really need to.