Recording

[lackstone]

I went through some gear when I first started recording in 2005 after a long hiatus from playing. Mics, mixers and the first DAWs were in rotation. Then along came the Zoom H4 and all of the gear got sold. I have Cakewalk now but I haven't given it a honest go. I figure if I play live that's how I should sound on record. So, the H4 captures a faithful record of me and that's all I care about. I can render MP3s on it and then send it to the cloud.

[Silence Dogood]

I'm a Luddite when it comes to such things.  Are you recording vocals and guitar, or just guitar?  Do you need an external mic with the Zoom, or do  you just set it in front of you and capture the recording?   I find the iPhone great for just capturing ideas, but I admit it would be fun to get some decent recordings of some of the songs I have composed over the years.  And with all the easy technology that abounds, it seems almost criminal not to do so. 

[B0WIE]

A Zoom replaces a couple pieces of gear and simplifies mic placement. It's limiting, but decent and having something that gets used vs not using a set-up because of the effort requires is sometimes the most critical difference.
The next step up is an interface (mic preamps with converters that hook up to a PC or laptop) along with a couple of mics. There are hundred dollar interfaces and mics but, when you get to the $300 point, you're getting to where it can start to sound "professional". That's not to say it holds a candle to true studio gear (where a "good" microphone will cost about $3k), but $900 worth of gear will get you to the point that you can't blame the gear for not sounding good enough.

 The nice thing about having a pair of mics is that you can use all sorts of mic placement. Not only does this help in getting better tone, but layering multiple guitar and instrument tracks becomes far more viable than a fixed-placement mic recorder.