I recently purchased the Zoom GT 2.1u Guitar effects Pedal. The u stands for USB interface.
The quality is really very good. I used this to create my podcasts for several weeks as well as some music at home. The advantage is, for less then $200 US /$295 AUS you get a really good Guitar multi effects pedal and an audio interface and it comes with Cubase LE so you have everything you need to get started apart from a cheap mic.

Of course you cannot use condensers as there is no phantom power.

The Zoom site does not really mention using it for voice much but it works quite well with a great gate and noise reduction option, it is also one of the quietest pedals I have come across. It does still give a little hum if you try to record to close to the monitor with guitar but I don't think there is anyway around that (For us single coil users anyway)

Pedal also has some great amp cabinet and mic placement modelling sound in it for use when recording direct into the USB interface.

I did a segment on one of my Podcasts about this pedal a few weeks ago. There are some sample sounds on their website also.

Other options for Home Recording are Audacity on Mac and Windows as well as Krystal on Windows only, both are free

BTW Only discovered this site today, I will give it a big plug on next weeks show.

Regards

Andrew Brierley
Home Recording Odyssey Podcast
http://www.homestudio.com.au