You will need a soundcard. Some soundcards have analog to digital converters built in. These types of soundcards usually only offer a few channels of I/O (ins and outs). There are a few that have 8 or more channels but they are few. A more conventional approach would be a soundcard and outboard converter package.

To record drums, bass and guitars all at the same time, you will need at least 8 channels of I/O and perhaps more. I regularly use 9 or more channels on drums alone. My system has 18 channels of I/O.

Some of these outboard converter packages may have mic pres built in. You will need one mic pre for every channel of input you have. You may also need a small mixer for mixing headphones and for monitoring inputs while you are recording.

That's about the best I can offer without mentioning specific types or brands.

I know your saying you say you only want to be told what KIND of products you should get, but..

If you are really clueless you should just get the cheapest working thing out there to get you started, and that would be somehting like an RME PCI card with 3x ADAT in/out and a behringer ADA8000.
That way you have 8 ins and outs for a pretty low price. You could just buy 2 and have 16 in/out. they are dirt cheap, and they work.
When/if you outgrow your ADA8000 you still have a nice card to plug a different converter to.

Gustav

Save yourself $200 and get the studio edition of Sonar. It won't slow you down as a beginner. The extra features in Producer are nice but not essential, mainly convenience level stuff for experienced engineers. Put the extra money into your I/O bank or a microphone. Can't record without a few of those!

Maybe this isn't what you're looking for, but if your just going to be redording and mixing. If your not going to be doing any digital editing, throwing parts around or anything like that, maybe what you want is one of those Roland 880s. It's pretty good for biginners to learn on. If you just want to rock in and get rock out, it's perfect. If you want to be more hands on, maybe not.

Re: I'm New at This - Look Here If You're Good at Recording

loki_cmr wrote: ...I went to GuitarCenter and the dude there ask me a couple questions about my computer and said I should get Cakewalk's SONAR3 Producer Edition and he told me what hardware I needed, but the hardware part sound like "blah blah blah" and i was like ...... :? becasue I dont know what the hell he was talking about...

Loki_cmr

The FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT rule of recording is, "Don't follow any advice on recording or gear you get from any of the undead working at GuitarZombie."

Instead, hang out here for a while, and some of the other internet recording forums and learn from pros and home recordists that actually have some experience and know what they're talking about.

hey, speaking as one from another struggling local band with a limited budget, i would not invest the $479 (list price?) in software, especially if you are a beginner. try mackie tracktion, it was only $80 last time i checked, and it is incredibly easy to use. as far as hardware goes, ebay.com is my ultimate source for gear, you get used stuff (new stuff too), but no high markups. guitar center tried to sell me an interface for 800, i got it for 425 on ebay. ive gotten my bass, amp, 2 cabs, mics, cables, all kinds of stuff on ebay and have never gotten burned. i use a motu 828 interface, it works fine for me as a beginner/intermediate user as long as you have a decent computer to power it.