Lorenzo wrote:

I have now: my guitars, bass and an old PC (Windows ME... urgh! 500MHZ
Celeron, 128MB RAM, El Cheapo Soundblaster clone).

On the hardware side, I assume that for my goals I will need to upgrade
the PC, plus buy a good soundcard and some mixer or preamp, am I right?

I don't have the money right now for buying all that hardware, so I
thought that a good idea would be to buy some DAW software on the old
machine and start working on the backing tracks. I saw Cakewalk Home
Studio, which seems to have a lot of features to get me started until I
upgrade to something better (it's also the only one that works with
Windows ME).

If you're *that* new to recording, you might like to check out the EMU
0404 sound card. Check that it has a Windoze ME driver. If not, upgrade
to Windows 2k or Windows XP Home.

The EMU 0404 can be purchased for $80-$100 in USA. It comes shipped with
all the I/O you'll need and the (limited edition) cubasis software plus
a bunch of other stuff. Also it has a software mixer so no external
mixer is needed and they are going to have 192kHz software for free
download "real soon now".

It's a cheap way to get started but the card is good. And, no, I do not
represent EMU or any such affiliate - I just like value for money!