AirTed wrote: I want to take Karaoke recordings and be able to ad my voice for lead and back-up vocals and take all of this and record on a cd.

What you ask for is muiti-track recording. Are you familiar with recording devices?

Ted,

If you are TOTALLY green as far as recording process goes, the single best thing I could recommend doing is to find two recording studios to spend some time in doing some recording and possibly mixing.

Go to a local guy with a decent reputation, and would readily call himself a project studio. Spend a day there.

Then, book a day in the best pro-level studio in your region.

See what all they do. Ask as many questions as you can about how they work, their equipment, mics, etc...

Before jumping in and spending a few hard earned dollars, only to find out that this is a lot more than you wanted to get into, go see if it's what you thought it would be.

There's a lot of options to get into this game... almost too many.

There's a lot of gear priced to make you think it's a bargain, and other stuff that really is a bargain.

As I'm sure you will quickly find out, there's no limit on how much you can spend. But the key is to at least get an idea of what, and where you perceive your position and abilities are.

I know an absolutely fantastic guitar player who's been playing for over 40 years. He looked at all this new inexpensive gear and thought he would get in on it and save a buttload on recording.

I tried to warn him, but he just wouldn't listen. $5000 and 2 years later, he's throwing in the towel. He's gonna get less than a quarter of his money out of it, and he's mad as hell that he's dinked away 2 years of his life trying to even get the 1st solid recording done.

By the same token, I know a guy in his 30's who's spent about the same, and is making a decent amount of beer money on the side.

The key is to not buy the cheapest piece of gear because that's all you've got in your pocket and you can get it now. Be picky. Spend wisely... especially on microphones and preamps. These are the real tools of the trade.

But it isn't all about the gear. You also need a decent tracking and mixing environment. Or at least one that isn't detrimental to what you are recording or mixing.

So, go spend a few bucks in those studios and make sure that you really want to commit the next coupla' decades to the craft of recording. It's rewarding, frustrating and costly as hell. But if it's in your blood and you're just crazy enough... you'll not be able to get enough of it.