Not long ago, only expensive recording studios, stocked with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear, could do what Phoenix does in his apartment. Quantum leaps in digital technology in the past decade have changed that.

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 recorded directly onto a computer's hard drive. It then puts hundreds of editing, mixing and mastering options within mouse-click reach.

This collection of hardware and software has replaced racks upon racks of analog gear used in the storied studios where Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin laid down the rock classics. You can edit, mix, add effects and polish endlessly. If you don't like what you hear, start over.

"Technology has really broken down some doors for musicians and producers," says Mark Miller, founder of Seattle-based Kalara Studios. "An artist can work from home in an environment that allows them the freedom to work at their own pace, without the pressures of a high-priced studio."

As with any complex system, a DAW can be complicated to set up and requires diligence to learn to use. The good news is that companies such as Apple and Yamaha view home-music recording as a growth market. Both supply customer support. And new Apple Macs come with GarageBand 2, a program for creating music loops by stitching together samples of different instruments.

To set up a DAW, experts advise following these basic guidelines:

• Choose your platform. Windows PCs or Apple Macs both work well. But if there's a choice, it's worth weighing the trade-offs.

Apple has become the professional recording industry standard by controlling the design of computers that work well with digital editing tools. Apple fine-tunes its motherboards, sound cards and graphics cards expressly to integrate with digital editing systems.

By contrast, you should anticipate major tweaking to get a DAW running on a Windows PC. "Some of this stuff isn't as plug-and-play as it should be," says Jake Ludington, technology reviewer at MediaBlab.com.

• Buy ample computer power. Because each nuance of sound must be processed, audio work is one of the most demanding tasks a computer can do. If you're running Windows, you'll want a machine with a fast processor such as a Pentium 4, Pentium M or AMD Athlon. If you're using a Mac, you'll want a model with a G5 processor.

Don't scrimp on memory or hard drive space. You can get away with 512 megabytes of memory, but consider doubling it. Also boost hard drive storage to at least 100 gigabytes. Adding an external hard drive via FireWire or USB 2.0 connectors is an easy way to add storage capacity.

• Pick your editing software. The top-selling programs include DigiDesign ProTools (www.digidesign.com), Steinberg Cubase (www.cubase.com), Cakewalk Sonar (www.cakewalk.com) and Logic (www.apple.com/logicpro). Each comes in a pro version, with prices ranging into the thousands of dollars, and features that go deep.