Which Of These 3 Preamps? Options

[SadPandas]

Hi gang,

I am in market for a new preamp for my 8 core. I have been using the firebox here at the house but would like to use that with the macbook and put something in it's place. With artist pricing both the Presonus Fire Studio Project and the Focusrite Pro 40 come out to be about the same. I also just found a 'slightly used' Motu 828MK3 for around $499.00. The 1st 2 are a lot less 'expensive' but i am a little nervous about the 828 being open boxed, etc.

My uses are recording guitar, bass and vocals into logic 9 here while we record drums at our practice space using a digi02 and a symtec. These are just for demos but IF we get a once in a life time take i would like to be able to use the track for the 'real' recording. My firebox has treated me well and i even scored a couple of national (super bowl) commercials using it believe it or not. luck was on my side . I was just thinking with my new Logic set up I might as well get a newer pre amp to go along with it. I know many of you have super extreme studios with lots of gear but i would like an all in one sort of ad/da preamp to make things nice and easy. So, my question to you good people is; which of the 3 above mentioned products would you purchase if you were in the market?

Thanks for taking the time to read this... im a little spun from a full day recording so i apologize if i have left anything out.

love,
pandas

[ironhead]

Hi gang,

I am in market for a new preamp for my 8 core. I have been using the firebox here at the house but would like to use that with the macbook and put something in it's place. With artist pricing both the Presonus Fire Studio Project and the Focusrite Pro 40 come out to be about the same. I also just found a 'slightly used' Motu 828MK3 for around $499.00. The 1st 2 are a lot less 'expensive' but i am a little nervous about the 828 being open boxed, etc.

My uses are recording guitar, bass and vocals into logic 9 here while we record drums at our practice space using a digi02 and a symtec. These are just for demos but IF we get a once in a life time take i would like to be able to use the track for the 'real' recording. My firebox has treated me well and i even scored a couple of national (super bowl) commercials using it believe it or not. luck was on my side . I was just thinking with my new Logic set up I might as well get a newer pre amp to go along with it. I know many of you have super extreme studios with lots of gear but i would like an all in one sort of ad/da preamp to make things nice and easy. So, my question to you good people is; which of the 3 above mentioned products would you purchase if you were in the market?

Thanks for taking the time to read this... im a little spun from a full day recording so i apologize if i have left anything out.

love,
pandas

ok all these above mention audio interface are very good choices but for the price and performance i would go with the focusrite saffire it's in the same price range as the Presonus Fire Studio even though presonus is good also but the motu is a little more expensive the saffire and the motu both has on board dsp for mixing with compressor and eq without using your computer dsp (but hey you have a 8 core who cares) you may also want to look at this product The Yamaha 01X ( it's been around for awhile now though)its an interface and controller , you name it but i don't know if it is compatible with LP 9 and snow leopard. A great piece of advice to you since your are going to record bass and vocal ang guitar you may want the best preamp for recording quality you may want to spend most of your money on a dedicated preamp to get the best sound in with a good inexpensive audio interface or go to your music store near you and test the audio interfaces to see which one has the best pre for recording quality especially vocals
I hope this help