the home studio

I recently bought a Tascam US-144mkII - very happy with it so far.

MIDI Interface, stereo mic pre, lin input, headphone and line out - all in a box the size of an external hard drive. Connects to the PC via USB2.0, very low latency, about £130.

lin input = line input

that looks neat. would I still need a decent internal sound card to run my sound through my hifi?

I'm guessing not, but that I would need an extra line out to be able to play different things through headphones and speakers?

I don't know how the interface would work with an internal soundcard. I bought the Tascam because my old PCI Soundblaster didn't have drivers for Windows 7 when I upgraded.
The Tascam has a line out on the back, but that plays the same thing that's coming out of the headphone socket on the front. However, there is a monitor mix control (the top left knob), where you can dial in the balance between direct monitoring of the inputs and what's coming from the computer.

the edirol ua-25 comes recommended by me, could be worth checking it out as an alternative. i haven't used the tascam.

The focusrite saffire series are useful because they have OK preamps and function as good soundcards. I find when there's a budget the best bet is to consolidate these things.
If you want DJ style headphone + out outs don't get the edirol ua-25 (unless you're ok with splitting the mono outs)

actually just noticed you're on a PC. Might work with one of those asio sound card ghosting programs. Is it asio4all?

I'm appreciating these suggestions! so maybe the focusrite saffire 6 would cover everything. I don't know anything about asio sound card ghosting, something that wld allow you to get stereo out of two mono outs? anyway I'm leaning towards the sapphire, I think.

shouldn't be a problem with the saffire as I'm pretty positive it has multi outs. Want to list your computer specs + budget? Sometimes you can get some pretty great bundle packages. Have a look on gumtree too, you can get some great gear for cheap if you're quick and willing to travel a bit.

I'm getting a new comp so specs are ??? (prob decentish w/ lots of RAM) and budget is w/e I have left over afterwards.

get a presonus firestudio, best box in this price range

k so I figure I should upgrade my recording setup - at the moment I'm recording to minidisc with this mic which I think would be okay for my needs if the convoluted and messy passage from that to a .wav on my computer didn't diminish the sound so much. So... what should I do? I really don't know anything in this area. (I'm mostly recording from guitar amp but there'll be some acoustic stuff too. I don't really need anything too fancy, just something that isn't full of unwanted fuzziness and digital artifacts.)

idk how you can soup up yr gear but i wld be very interested in some merdeyeux music

Do you have a Mac or a PC? What software are you already using to grab the audio from the minidisc?

Does your minidisc have a digital out?

nah that's the biggest problem with the minidisc, i can (as far as i can tell) only deal directly with its files through the specific software, which doesn't seem to run on windows 7. and even if i could get the software to run, it seems that converting the files out of the sony format is still a pain. so atm i just have a shoddy line out direct to laptop, recording it in audacity. though i also have ableton, i assume that could be a better option.

ogmor, i record pretty much every sound i bother to make! lots of lo-fi loop pedal noodling here https://soundcloud.com/eeeeeein

For micing a guitar cab you'll want something like an SM57, which really needs a pre-amp/USB interface to connect it to the computer. For that I use one of these http://tascam.com/product/us-144mkii/

oh and a mic stand of course

that's useful, thanks. The SM57 is famously useful for micing anything you'd ever want to mic, right? And would a mixer with USB output do the job of the Tascam thing? Something like http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/MIX02AU-6-Channel-Mini-Mixer-with-USB-by-Gear4music/K82 but less rubbish than that particular one probably is?

The 57 is versatile, definitely can be used for guitar cabs, drums. For acoustic guitar it's reasonable but not great. I use mine for vocals as well (with an external pop shield), but I'm a fairly basic singer so a more expensive mic would be a waste for me. The stereo Sony mic you mentioned earlier would probably be better for acoustic guitar. But I don't know how you'd connect it directly to a PC - through the line in perhaps? Maybe someone else can confirm that. I use a Zoom H1 (micro SD card recorder) for acoustic guitar anyway. I mix in the box, and I've never owned a mixer with a USB output, so I don't know how that might work out.

Talk to me about sound-blocking/sound-absorbing curtains -- I want to hang one over each of three doorways (one to the garage, one to the crawlspace, one to the main floor of my house) and another one over the basement stairway. Primary goal is to reduce sound leakage out of the basement so as not to bother my family/neighbors, but dampening some of the reverberation within the basement would be nice as well. Eventually intend to take additional acoustical measures but this is the first step. What kind of curtains/sheets/blankets whatever should I use?