Have heard about cubase but don't really know what it is/does....

I guess it don't *have* to be PC based, could use a digital 8 track recoding machine (burn to 100mb zip discs, can be transfered to CD, or just burn directly to CD) but the PC based set up would be superb if it works how I need it to, as it would offer a whole new world of mastering options to tweak a semi-pro souding demo into a real pro top notch recording.... also allows uplink to net for MP3 etc....