I would like to start putting together my own home studio.

What low cost options would you recommend?

I've already got my Mac G4 setup, what music s/w would you recommend?

& what hardware would you recommend eg. Audio card, Audio devices & so on.

Pls help.

Thank You!

what are you recording (types of instruments, midi or not, musical style, etc..)?
how much do you want to spend?

looking to produce techno music, some world music stuff too.

But basicaly want a setup that can pretty much produce any kind of music.

MIDI's cool. Not sure how to use it tho'

Budget = under $5,000

Just to start

abelton live + reason seems to be a popular choice for techno types.
if you want something a bit more flexable look into logic audio. the "big box" bundle includes logic audio, a few software synths, and the exsp sampler for about $250.00. add a keyboard and midi interface and you'll be off to a good start.

if you just plan on recording by yourself, one or two audio tracks at a time, the m-audio 24/96 ("audiophile") card is a pretty good bargain($160.00). if there will be multiple musicians recording at once, something like the m-audio delta 1010, motu 828, or motu 2408 would be more appropriate. these all record at least 8 tracks at once. An analog mixer would be nice to have around if your recording groups. even if you don't actually "mix" with it , the extra mic preamps and monitoring cababilities are handy.

there are a ton of low cost microphone availiable. my favorites are the studio projects B1(<$100.00) and C1($200.00). the shure sm57 is a classic for a reason, try one before buying anything else.

powered monitors are very fashionable now. i haven't used any of the current models and can't really recomend anything. i do think its a pretty good rule of thumb to spend about half your budget on monitors, microphones and preamps. if you can capture good sounds and hear what your doing, the rest becomes much simpler.