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You can do that already (just add some linux nerdery): grab a cheap room correction mic and a bit of Free Software. I don't think it can help with speaker placement, unfortunately. There are spatial microphones intended to be used with an ambisonic mixing system, but they are pretty pricey. I kind of wonder how hard it would be to adapt room correction to deal with speaker placement too (I hear "very difficult" and "hope you paid attention in diff eq").

This might work on the cheap, but you'd have to be able to figure out how to get it to work with your software: http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/BCR2000.aspx

Sounds almost like a (musical) synthesizer controller is what you need.
e.g. something like:
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/BCF2000.aspx

I highly doubt that stereos made 30 years ago sound nearly as good as my pair of B3031A active monitors. Screaming loud with clarity throughout the sound spectrum.

Of course, if you truly care about sound quality, you'll just use a digital output (either through USB or Optical) and buy a nice external DAC, thereby completely bypassing any potential electrical interference generated from a sound card.

For value for money, the Behringer UCA202 is great (about $25): http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx

A big step up is the Cambridge Audio DacMagic: http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summary.php?PID=320 ($400 or so).

Fantastic sound if you have a decent amp + speakers.

Well, I was factoring in stuff like buying a laptop from scratch. And then there's price. Low quality mics often result in low quality sound. A good set of drum mics with stands alone are going to run you, cheapest, $300.

There's ways you can cut corners, I'm sure, but $5,000 was a rough estimate anyways. d:

I find most bands worth recording and are getting real gigs have sound gear. With their gear, you capture the true sound of the band. With some bands, the easy way to get them to do a proper recording with limited quality equipment, is to record the entire band and use that as your click track for the individual sessions with the performers. That way the best condenser microphone can be used for all the vocals one at a time, etc. I use an inexpensive mixer with only 4 mic inputs, so I do this as normal practice. With 2 good microphones and recording each piece as a separate track, you can do excellent studio recordings with full separation for the final mix. Plan on spending a full day to record and re-record each track for just a couple songs. When done properly, you become the band's hero.
I use this mixer simply because I am on a severe budget.
http://www.behringer.com/1204FX/index.cfm?lang=ENG
With 2 decent microphones and then using a couple from the band, I can get couple decent tracks laid down at a time.
I often use the mixer to create my stereo wet tracks from my single tracks. It has very usable FX. The FX in Audacity work well also. I hope to start using Ardour soon, but I am having trouble with Jack. I'll get that straightened out later. Audacity is simpler for beginners.

Of the top of my head:
CME
TC-electronic
M-Audio
and at the more average sound quality level
Behringer

You know, they have mods (is that short for modules or modifiers or modelers?) for guitars (to make them sound like particular amplifier/speaker systems), MIDIs that sound like violins or trumpets, RSS feeds that sound like robotic overlords ... I think the technology is already out there to change the quality of a human voice.

There must be more gamers using voice chat than guitar players buying amplifier modelers.

I've had a pretty good run using Ardour, JACK, JAMIN and occasionally JACK Timemachine on an Athlon 2800+ with 256 MB of memory.

The most expensive piece of sound equipment seems to be the AD/DA converters (whether on or off board). I ended up with an RME Hamerfall 9652 (yes, the original one) and a Behringer Ultragain ADA-8000 (inexpensive at 230 USD). I also use a Behringer BCF-2000 for automation control, and a bunch of other rackmount processors. The sound is better than a studio I had recorded at a while back which used a Mackie D8B and a bunch of very expensive and fancy looking equipment.

I guess it depends what you want to get out of it. If you want to spend 30$ on a cheapie sound card, expect it to sound like that.... The audio *software* is available for Linux, so the only limitation is how much green you want to sink into your setup. (Hint, Behringer has a 30$ USB sound card available if you're looking to do recording "on the cheap" which would sound a bit better than an internal sound card, considering that you can move the AD/DA conversion process a bit further away from your machines' clock chips.)

Line6 isn't the only one who does this. Roland/Boss has had amp/cab modelling features on their effects processors for years. Behringer and Digitech to name a couple more also have products with this feature.

• Obviously you'll need a good sound card, Creative's Sound Blaster Live! is comparitvely cheap for the value you get.
• You'll need good microphones, also (it's amazing the difference quality makes). Nice mikes will let you record any instrument, electric or not. I would suggest the company Shure.
• Next on your list would be a mixer, I would highly suggest Mackie boards, and for slightly cheaper tastes the Behringer line.
• Another key component is good cabling. It's tempting to just run over to Radio Shack and buy what you need... but I've found those cables to have crappy shielding, almost no jacket, and die after about 2 years. I would suggest Hosa cables, or, if you have extra cash, Monster cables.
• Lastly you might think of getting a headphone matrix. This is mainly useful if you want to record a band/mutiple people at once. It allows you to amplify the sound a person is making back to them.Also it will allow you to have 6+ headphones w/o splitting the signal.