Originally Posted by: fool4gibsonFor recording to a PC can you not just buy a microphone and plug it in the computer? and then use a recording software from the internet?

Hmmmm, a 'good' microphone will set you back anything from 300 to 30,000 bucks (you can probably get by with a cheaper one but with recording gear you generally get what you pay for and unfortunately it's usually quite expensive). One of those mics you see in a pc shop just wouldnt cut it, the sound would actually be worse than if you played straight into the line-in on the pc. You only get benefit from micing an amp when the amp is cranked up high, thats where the real tone comes from, unless you use a loadbox of course. One of the guys here recommended me a Palmer PDI-03, excellent piece of hardware. You crank your amp as high as necessary, then feed it into the loadbox via the line out where you can either have speakers or headphones at whatever volume you want comes out of the loadbox. Great for home studio where you don't want to wake the neighbours up at 3am.
As far as free software goes, there is only so much you can do and the limitations are quite high. The best editing software I found that was free is Goldwave (get it on download.com). I've yet to see a decent free sequencer, they are usually demos anyway and you only get the goodies when you register the product (like with Cubase VST or LE).