Bare necessities to get started?

[pophops]

I've been playing for a long time but never recorded myself except for on the very basic windows sound recorder. (I know).
I have a Takamine NV360 with Cooltube pre-amp, a Roland AC60 amp and a computer running windows 8.
I'd like to build my own backing tracks but haven't a clue where to start.
What other equipment and software do I need to get started?
For instance, do I need an interface? What would be an easy software package for me to use? Is there a guide available for absolute beginners?
Unfortunately cost is an issue, so I need to do this as cheaply as I can.
Thank you for any help you can give

[rick-slo]

Do spend a few hours searching through the many prior threads that answer this exact question.

[Mr Fixit eh]

Alot depends on your budget and what you want to do with recording. If one microphone is sufficient, a USB mic will do the trick for $100 and download Audacity software for free. I have a Blue Yeti and I really like it - very decent sound quality and I like that it has a gain control on the mic - many don't and you'll have to play around with your sound level settings on your compluter to get the sound right.

A problem that I had (and many others) is that I couldn't get the guitar vs. vocal mix right when I recorded with only one mic. The guitar would be too loud. I went with a USB interface/mixer, like the Yamaha Audiogram6 - it allows you to mix multiple inputs. Of course, you'd need a microphone still.

Steve