Sandy, you have me pegged entirely. I mostly want to practice, rehearse, and send a song or two to the family. However, I have several friends who are long time musicians within the local community, and a couple of them are really excellent. They are, however, pig-ignorant about computers. If they've recorded ever it's been on a cheap cassette machine. I'd like at some point to be able to casually record with them, maybe make up a community CD. These people are the free performers who play every benefit, every variety fund raiser, and every seniors or nursing home in the area.

My ideas about this are vague at the moment, since I only started thinking about it when I realised the computer capacity I have now on hand. I might try to interest the local heritage museum, with which i have strong ties. Farewell to Nova Scotia was first collected, and possibly the lyrics written (reworked from a Scottish poem) here.

I also just like to learn about what people use - I spend a lot of time around various musicians, and go to festivals when I can, several times a summer.

I had been remembering Audacity being recommended, and will have to see if it will run with Vista.