Ya know, I think it’s a pretty good idea to start off with a cheap and affordable DAW for now until I get something even better down the road. Maybe I should start off with the $60 Reaper and then sometime down the road, I could get something like Reason, Cubase, etc.
I just wanna start off with a small basic studio.
To get a small basic studio all you need are:
1. A good computer (which I now have)
2. An audio interface
3. Studio headphones
4. Studio speaker monitors
5. A good microphone (which I now have)
6. Of course, musical instruments like guitars
7. A DAW
8. A MIDI controller/keyboard is optional too
I’m gonna start job hunting this month and if I get a job, I could save up for these things a lot faster. Even though I don’t have some of these things yet, I am still able to make music and record it. I’ll just record song ideas into Garageband on the Ipad for now.
Home recording is great. I don’t know why a lot of unsigned bands & artists neglect home recording ’cause it’s much cheaper and you’ll save money than wasting lots of money per hour in a professional studio locally. When you record at home you have complete control of your own sounds and ideas. You can be your own boss. You don’t have to have the engineer telling you what to do and giving your songs on how he wants them to sound like.
Home recording is the way to go, in my opinion.
I would like to learn how to produce, mix and master on my own so maybe I should start looking for books to tell me how or I could just figure it out all on my own.
I love home recording. I’ve recorded in a professional studio once before and I really didn’t like it too much to be honest. You can still get a great sound at home. You just got to know your stuff and do your research.
I gotta continue to make music ’cause it’s what I love to do. Can’t live without it.
Kev
K'Brocking 
This is a good checklist because personally I was getting confused as to what I needed. I was asking people about DAW’s and then someone asked, “What kind of interface do you want?” And I was like, “Huh?”
You know what would be a cool article for you to write? One where you expand that checklist by describing each item more in depth and what function it serves in the home recording process. Certain ones are obvious, like guitars and computers, but noobs might not know what the audio interface is. Others might SEEM obvious like microphones, but there are so many arguments as to which ones are the best. Maybe you would want to share YOUR opinion.