What is the best music making software?

What's the best budget recording software and equipment for making a music track?

• I've got all the instruments (guitars, drums, midi/electric keyboard, and microphone but it's a cheap one) and a computer with windows xp media center and a built in mic, but I need to know what programs are out there for about 50 dollars that'll work on windows xp and let my band record and edit music easily. We also need some pointers on what microphones and other stuff we'll need for most rock type music. and remember, only windows stuff. we don't want to have to buy an imac or their version of xp just to run garageband. we can do that at one of our friends' houses when we record @ really good quality.

• Answer:

  For 50 bucks??? I don't think you're gonna find ANYTHING that cheap, unless you get REAL lucky at a pawn shop. Now if you want to kick in another hundred, go buy an Alesis Multimix 8. Plugs direct to your computer with a USB cable, sounds great, and is easy to use. You can also go directly to a CD burner with it. It comes with a Cubase LE program, so you can record in wav.