I'm wondering if anybody can find some good data to illustrate the
falling cost of recording music over time.  Lots of people point out
that the computer has made it cheaper for those aspiring to record
music professionally -- but how much cheaper?

What I suspect I can find easily is data on the falling price of
computers, and prices for particular packages useful to musicians. 
But what I'd like is a chronological picture of how this fits together
for real musicians, how it relates to the costs of studio time (which
I don't have good chronological data for), etc.

Anecdotal discussion might be sufficient, provided it has a degree of
rigour or authoritativeness about it.

I know ( http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-09-06-025-04-OP-0012 )
that the answer to this question depends on lots of details ("kind of
music, the number of musicians, result desired, quality of
technicians, ad nauseum") but because the answer need only be
illustrative, these do not need to be completely addressed.