Introduction to recording audio

Hey welcome to maketunes Jonathan. Pretty crucial to a solid computer based recording setup is your audio interface, or soundcard. What soundcard are you currently using? You'll want to be using a card which supports ASIO mode. This will essentially mean your audio (and midi) input/output will be nice and quick, and you should have pretty clean audio signals, without all the background hiss that a very cheap consumer-targeted soundcard (or even worse, onboard audio!) will give your recordings. Depending on your needs for number of inputs/outputs/extras, decent ASIO based soundcards start around $99, so are pretty affordable these days!

I haven't dealt much with microphones/guitars myself, as I'm an electronic muso, but I'm sure some others will give you some good pointers on choosing decent mics and preamps etc.

One thing I might suggest as well is that as you've already got Flstudio, thats probably as good a place as any to start with learning about computer music production - and as you learn, you can then add more complexity and start recording other instruments etc too.

I myself mainly relied on trial and error to pick up skills with various musical software packages, eg draw a few notes in flstudio, and see what happens... it can be a bit hit and miss, but you're almost certain to retain the things you learn that way I've found.

Hey dude.
I record alot of drums/guitar/vocals and anything else a mic will pick up - homemade percussion, birds in the trees etc.

My setup is becoming quite extensive, but from what you described, one of these should be sufficient:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrackUSB-main.html

It just plugs into your USB and becomes your soundcard so to speak. Some friends of mine use them and they are pretty damn good. About $130 US. They have phantom power too, so you can use condenser mics.

You would definitely want a decent Mic too. I would suggest some kind of large diaphragm condenser - it would make your guitar sparkle and your vocals crispy clear. Example:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Nova-main.html
It's only the one pattern but would definitely do the trick. You could get really good quality sounding recordings from both your guitar and vocals and tambo etc from the one mic. And they're only $129 US - which is cheap as fuck for condenser mics.

Of course, all of this hardware is no use without the correct software!
I'm not sure if you can record Audio into Fruity, I don't use it, if you can, then you're good to go.

Personally I use Ableton Live - as it is incredibly user friendly - some people may tell you otherwise - but I find for getting ideas down FAST - there is no substitute. You could also try Logic, Protools, Cubase, or even Garageband if you are a MAC user.

I use alot of M-Audio gear myself and I find that it is incredibly good value for money and stands the test of time. It also works well with Ableton, as I believe it was designed with M-Audio gear in mind... Or something like that? Meh.

Anyway, hope that was helpful! Good luck.