I don't know how advanced you are in terms of recording, but if you got your Mac recently, it would have shipped with iLife(and so, it would have a nice audio program called Garageband). GB sacrifices fine control of things so it can be really user-friendly. Try it out and see if you like it.

Pro-Tools needs hardware to run, so no freebies on that front. You can get Cubase from various P2Ps and torrents, though it's not legal(if that sort of thing bugs you, then don't do it. If it doesn't, i won't tell
8)

Check out limewire(a p2p), thepiratebay.org (a torrent site- so you'll need torrent client- maybe uTorrent or BitTorrent).

Let me know at what level you are at, and what sort of music you make/produce and i'll try and help you out a bit better.

btw, how new are you EXACTLY to recording?

Are we talking complete newbie, or have you got some idea of what's cooking in the studio?

im going to school for recording...Im still in first semester.

I have garage band and i have used it. I wanted to get something more advanced though. I wanna start building up so I have some pro equipment. Possibly wanna have a studio eventually.

I have limewire...i dont use it really.

Im not sure if i wanna download stuff illegally lol

If you're new to recording a cracked version of software that's way over your head will do you no good. Get good at using Garageband. It's a great peice of software. The plugins sound great. Compression with one slider(how cool is that? You can't mess it up.). Most effects with one control parameter. It's stupid proof. Don't take it as a toy though. It's a good learning tool and you can do some amazing stuff with it. Albeit limited stuff. If your a newbie, that should be good enough. Then when you're ready to go with Logic Express, you'll be glad that your piracy hasn't driven the price up beyond your reach.

Other free software: http://audacity.sorceforge.net
Look for a program called ardour. It's a little more complicated than Audacity but it can also do more. Find plugins at link removed

Cracked software can introduce a slough of problems. Spyware, Backdoor trojans. How do you think they got the software? It wasn't by asking nicely. They had to hack someone.

ok thanks...does anyone know how i can hook up my V-amp to my computer? I wanna record some songs straight into my computer with out micing an amp. Just to mess around. But I dont know how to go about it.

Go to Radio Smack and pick up a dual rca to single stereo 1/8" chord and two rca to 1/4" adapters plug those into your V-amp's line outs and the 1/8" end into your soundcards line in. The only problem you will have is that the V-amp line outs might have a bit too much gain for your soundcards line in.

I don't know how limited your funds are (absolutely nothing if it's like my college experiance), but you might want to check M-Audio stuff on eBay, or keep an eye out for sale flyers from music stores. This gear should interface directly with your Mac via Firewire and the newer stuff includes a version of ProTools. No need to get fancy, they make several single channel interfaces that are very cost effective.

This would give you something very much like the pro equipment to learn with. At the same time you don't blow your bank account, and can produce some really good quality tracks.

JMO