When my carreer playing in bands ended, I continued writing and recording for some time. These were the days when one still used 4-track reel to reels and 4-track cassette decks overdubbing tracks like crazy and hoping the mix comes out perfect in the end. MIDI was just starting and becoming something really amazing at the time. One had MIDI cables and guitar and mic cables running all over the place. MIDI recording software was in it's infancy and at the time I used, on my old Commodore-128, a controller program called Sonus Super Sequencer. It was really nothing compared to what there is out there now. But at that time it was really pretty cool. This only recorded MIDI data and no audio. This controlled your MIDI keyboards and played back through the synths all that you had recorded. You still had to have all your gear connected up through amps and mixers and tape decks to record all your audio.
A few years later I got burnt out for one reason or another and sold all my equipment. I didn't play anything for around ten years or so. I was shopping one day with my wife and came across an electronic Yamaha keyboard. Started tinkering around on it and it all started again from there. It really felt so good to be playing again. A little time after that my wife mentioned to me 'Hey, why don't you get you a guitar and start playing that again?' I didn't argue.
I am now fully back into writing and recording again and loving it as much as I ever did. Things are so much more incredible and easier than it used to be. With a computer, a digital audio workstation (DAW), a guitar, mic and a single controller keyboard, one can do things that 30 years ago would have taken a giant studio full of multi tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment to do.
I am doing things now that I could only have dreamed of doing at that time. Truely amazing.
It's like being a kid in a candy store.
For all my recording I use a DAW (digital audio workstation) called "REAPER" by Cockos which I think is excellent.
My instruments are a Gibson Les Paul Studio Deluxe II, Keyboards are a Yahama MOXF8 and I love this keyboard. An M-Audio keystation which is a smaller and a really nice compact and versitile extra controller. My mic is a Shure SM-58.
I run my Les Paul through a Blackstar HT-1R combo tube amp. This little amp is perfect for a small one room studio. Small in size but sounds really big and full. Les Pauls and tubes go so well together. In the past a lot of my songs were recorded with running my guitar through a Line 6 UX1 with the Podfarm software. The guitar modeling Line-6 produces is excellent. But running it straight into the computer it has that computerized 'fuzziness' to it. Easy to compensate for it with some fine tuned EQ'ing. Now I record my guitar by mic'ing the amp. And I am now running my guitar through a Digitech RP360XP which I really like. Guitar modeling and FX unit that is really versatile and can do just about anything I need to do with guitar. The guitar sounds so much better and more natural this way.
My vocal mic I run direct through a Line-6 UX-1 using their POD Farm software.
I use lots of different VST's and VSTI's (virtual studio technology instruments). There are a lot of great free ones out there that I use and there are many others that I have tried and use also.
This is not a complete list. Just some of my favorite VST's that I have tried out and really liked.
Drums - XLN Audio / Addictive Drums There are other great drum VST's out there but this is my personal choice.
Organ - Native Instruments / B4-II SoundFonts / VB3
Synths of - Native Instruments / Pro 53, FM-8, Kontakt (sample library player), Vokator
all kinds Steinberg / Halion 3 (sample player)
Arturia V Collection - awesome set of vintage synth emulations.. Minimoog, Arp 2600, Moog Modular,
CS-80, Prophet V, Jupiter 8, Oberheim SEM, Wurlitzer piano
GForce / Virtual string machine
Synth 1, Helix, Crystal, Oatmeal, Oddity
FX - BassLane, Ruby Tube, SpinnerLE (leslie emulation), Tapestop, Wide Bug (stereo widener)