Are you a budding musician? Maybe you're just looking to lay down a few tracks for your homeys? Well, you might want to consider building a home recording studio. USAToday has an article that gets you started:

Today, anybody can easily set up an amazingly capable home recording studio, called a digital audio workstation, or DAW. All you need is a decent computer and a modest amount of cash for some digital recording hardware and software.

Imagine fabled music producer George Martin sitting in the multimillion-dollar control room of abbey Road Studios about to mix and master the Beatles' raw recording tracks.

For about $3,500, including the price of a new computer, you could be sitting in front of a DAW on a kitchen table with capabilities Martin never dreamed of. A DAW converts analog audio - vocals and sounds from a musical instrument - into a digital file that gets etched directly onto a computer's hard drive. It then puts hundreds of editing, mixing and mastering options within mouse-click reach.

Read How to Run Your Own Recording Studio