>I need to record some piano music on a CD. I was wondering, is there a cheap way of doing it (aside from going to professional studio) with a microphone and some software on a PC? If yes, what software would I need?

I built myself a home studio this summer (I had an amazing session last night with me on bass, a guitarist, drummer, and singer... stayed up and drank beer until almost 3am... still made it to work by 8:30).

On the PC side all you need is a PC or laptop (I'm using a Dell laptop) with a decent Audio Card, and then some software. SONAR or Home Studio from cakewalk.com should work just fine.

Then get a mixer, something like a Mackie multi channel mixer and some Sure microphones. Plug the mics into the mixer, send the mixer to the sound card (what I have is a cable with RCA on one end and a 1/8" headphone plug on the other so I use the Tape Outputs on the mixer and just plug it into the line in on the Audio Card) and hit record.