Why not do it yourself?

It's not terribly difficult. There is a lot of help on these forums. Ask good questions, you will receive good answers.

Do you want to go mac or pc based?

I think Jam is right...you are much better off doing it on your own...I did and I am better at what I do because I was forced to learn it all. Another very important question besides mac or PC (MAC is my strong preference) - what is your total budget to spend. I have $70k invested in my home studio and that's being careful...but it can be done with a lot less. The budget will make a huge difference re: options you pursue.
Also, what do you want to do has a lot to do with it: compose, record, mix...what's your particular passion or is it all these things? I got into it because I wanted the challenge but I am a composer too. You will never get bored if you go down this path but it can be costly.

JPstudios wrote: You will never get bored if you go down this path but it can be costly.

Should change that 'can' to 'will' in my opinion.

Thanks for the encouragement to learn my way there. My request for a coach is to accelerate the process a bit, knowing that I learn best from demonstration and practice. That said, I'll also be sniffing around these forums for specific inquiries.

Sniff away!

I've had local engineer mentors help me out along the way. It was really helpful, especially to have someone come in the actual room to look at and hear what you're doing.
However, there's a tendency to do things their way for the wrong reasons.
That is: "Well, Tim does it this way so I should too". Wrong.
Does it produce the results you want? Do what gets results for YOU. Right.

I subscribe to a couple of mags: TapeOp, Mix, Remix, and eMusician. Sound on Sound and many others are also good.
I just don't currently subscribe to them. Add that to my list of to-dos.
By the way, TapeOp is free, and my favorite.

I've also gone to resale bookstores and looked for learning material.
Check the publication date. Some stuff never changes, but setting up a DAW does.
I've bought a few books online. This site has some good recommendations on reading material.

You'll find there's a lot more to think about than you ever realized.
And by finding it out yourself, you'll find out about more stuff that's important that your "coach" may not have revealed/known.
Maybe big things like acoustics and electrical engineering, and a zillion little things too.

All that said---
This forum is the best, most reliable source I have.
Not as convenient as the in-house guy, but here you have dozens of guys/gals to offer insight.

What you are really asking for is a mentor. The problem with that is, is that mentors are usually "not employed". They either fall into your life or you fall into theirs. I was fortunate enough to have had 2 mentors when I was just in my mid teens. Both had small, custom built, rudimentary studios. Both were electrical engineers. I would not be the engineer I am today if it hadn't been for them. But they never saw or heard any thing I ever did. They did however share with me their experiences, insights, concepts, shoptalk. And remarkably, I was even able to "give back" to them other employment opportunities and money for older, outdated, heavily used, equipment. They provided for me that college education I was never able to afford. So I basically had 10 years of private tutoring, over the phone. I was lucky enough in that these guys were not your run-of-the-mill electrical engineers. One was the son of one of the founders of IBM. The other one was an electrical engineer at Bell laboratories and "the father of vertical hold" that made commercial television possible in 1948. OMG! I was so lucky.

You are now here with a large consortium of some very talented & highly experienced people ready to share with you everything you need to know. We all have our specialties and so suggestions, opinions & directions will differ greatly. But you will be able to cull this information altogether, to arrive at what is best for you.

So, what's your favorite brand of recording tape? What? You don't use recording tape? Then how do you expect to record anything? Oh right, we have computers don't we? I have no idea how to use those newfangled things? I'm just amazed at how this magazine can move and change colors. Not sure how your supposed to plug this magazine into an electrical outlet? But hey, I'm not complaining.

I'm a lumberjack and that's OK.....
Ms. Remy Ann David

Well I'm getting the message loud and clear. I've decided to have a "kick-off" session with a local engineer (I posted the same request on Craigslist and got quite a few responses). Then I'll be back here. One of the list of questions I'll ask him is about vocal mics. I bought two recently, the Sterling ST-55 and the KEL HM-7U. What thoughts do you have about the differences between those two?

I wish I could give you my worthless opinion. But I've not had any direct contact with those particular microphones so I really can't say. I'm old and I use older microphones that are nearly the same age as I, 53.5. Plus or minus 10 years. However, I wouldn't NOT consider any microphone a vocal microphone, regardless of its manufactured intention. I've used a popular bass drum microphone, the AKG D-112 as a vocal microphone just for its completely different texture. Not quite recognizable as other vocal microphones. And in particular, I did that for an announcer's demo for a 2 announcer commercial by the single vocal actor against his Audio Technica condenser microphone. That, along with a change in his vocal inflection, along with my editing of overlapping/stomping upon other words was quite effective. I like Psycho engineering.

Professional Psycho
Ms. Remy Ann David