Originally posted by mc9mm
Ok my first question for you guys will be:
How do record a professional sounding song with
my recording equipment:
Guitar pro demo
Goldwave (shareware)
and the 1.50$ microphone that came with the computer?
;)

First I would understand the technical limitations of your resources. If you understand the limitations of your $1.50 mic then you can work with it, if you are after a distorted lo-Fi sound it may be perfect.

First thing I got my head round was the concept of gain and signal to noise ratio coming through your mic and to be honest id experiment with recording direct first. Recording with a mic is much more complicated as you have lots more variables to think about i.e. off axis colorations (like if you put the mic to the side of your speaker it sounds different from placing it dead center), room ambiance (how echoic is the room ?), mic colorations (can the mic get the top end high order harmonics you were after ?)

If you are wanting to do a song, like Schmange says, how are you going to do the other instruments ? Vocals are just as tricky to record as guitar and recording direct is not an option ! You might want to try getting an SM57 and an SM58, they are both industry standard and about $100 bucks each.

Hope this is food for thought
S