The PC recorders and software these days are so powerful, attached to a lap top with a quality mike and bam .. you have a professional recording. I have a friend who does bluegrass, Amazing CD and they are selling quite a lot. They recorded it at home in their living room with a notebook and some GNU free editing software. Made the CD covers themselves and stamped out their own CD's originally. Now they shipped them off to be duplicated due to time. So my question is this, why do we need to spend the dollars on a professional studio. One session will cost more than the hardware and software you need on your PC? I am not being cute here, just asking the question. My ear cannot tell the difference. I am not talking about what I do and that is plug a cheap mike into a PC. I am talking about the new firewire recorder and decent mikes. I swear I could not tell that my friends did their CD at home. It is perfect. What are your thoughts? Or tell me why my thinking is wrong?