Originally posted by Azrael
If you want to record on a more or less professional basis then there are some minimum requirements - and a 32bit soundblaster plus cheap PC speakers are far below minimum.

I agree with you, but I also think that talent, clever songwriting, ingeniosity, and trying to get the best out of what you have is truely important. I have two stories...

I was going through some tapes of things I had recorded years ago, on a crappy 4 tracks, and even though the sound quality is far from what I can achieve right now, I was quite surprised at how many good things came out of it. One of the things I did was record a Yamaha PSS-795 beatbox, but going through a preset of my multieffect, and the sound was quite unusual and good actually! Or recording my voice twice, and panning it left and right (sound stupid, but it's quite tricky, when you have 2 voices, a beat, a rhythm guitar, a bass, and want to play a solo, or a harmony part, but, it was all there, how did I cram it all in? I can't remember!)

Also, I went to see a guy (he's one of my student's father) that has LOTS of money (he's in the business of selling houses) and he loves music, and recording it. He has that professional studio... I was amazed... 2 digital 16 tracks, bunches of sound modules, expanders, a 64 voices mixer, amazing speakers, vintage guitars, and everything...
Well, he only uses two tracks of everything, to record his voice and his guitar... There, gear doesn't bring much...