Modern technology for music creation is really cool.

15 years ago I was plugging a guitar into a cheap Zoom guitar processor that sounded like a can of bees, then into a Tascam Porta 7 cassette-based 4 track. Sound quality was mediocre at best, but the ability to layer four tracks (or more if you bounce) was unbelievable.

But compare that to this morning.

I plugged my guitar directly into a Line6 UX2 stereo 24 bit audio interface, then into the laptop. Guitar amp simulations come from GearBox, an application that works in conjunction with the UX2. Drums come from another application, Linplug RMIV, that is "wired" into the main multitracker application, Tracktion 2.

Tracktion 2 isn't limited to 4 tracks. It isn't limited to any track count, and will keep going until your processor chokes.

Effects are applied not by bulky rackmount devices or stompboxes, but rather additional plug-ins that can be applied individually to each track or globally to the mix.

This cost me all of $350, or about the same as the Tascam cost me 15 years ago.

This stuff doesn't necessarily give me the ability to fore go the big time studios (you still have to know what the hell you're doing), but it still produces good enough quality that listening to those old cassette mixes make me cringe in a big way.