Larry,
Do yourself a favor and invest in some 'for Dummies' books. For instance, to start out, Home Recording for Musicians For Dummies

It will take you through diverse topics such as:

Anatomy of a Home Studio
The Right Set Up for You
Getting Connected: Setting Up your studio

MIDI and Electronic Instruments
Multitrack Recording
Mixing your music
Mastering your Music

Then, there's another one, PC Recording Studio for Dummies

With chapters like
Discovering what you need.
Setting up your recording space
Choosing COmputer Components
Examining Audio Components
Connecting your Hardware
Understanding Computer Recording Software
Getting a Great Sound Source
Recording and Editing Audio
Using MIDI
Exploring Software Synthesizers (which is what the DXi/VSTis are)

Both of those books will help make your understanding of recording at home a lot easier, and when you go through the forums, and you read where someone is doing something, where before you may not have understood it, you now will be able to go back and look at it with a glimmer of understanding. You may not know WHY, but at least you'll know WHAT, and that is the first step on the road to understanding.

Gary

I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!