Hey everyone, I've been perusing the forum, & didn't see anything that quite answered my question, so here goes.
I'm a music student on a tight budget, but i'd like to be able to record music in my apartment. Don't worry, the neighbors don't mind. However, I'd like to be able to do live recordings, as I don't enjoy recording each track separate. So i would need hardware that had at least 6 inputs (e.g. guitar, bass, vocal mic, 2-4 drum mics). I've looked at things like the Digi001 system (I've actually recorded on one, except the engineer wouldn't let me get close enough to really check out their gear, so I didn't get to figure out how the sound got from mics to mixed to Digi) and various other PCI & USB interfaces, but it's DAMN confusing. Any suggestions/advice/warning would be MOST appreciated. Thanks

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"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."
-Mark Twain

What do you mean by a tight budget? Do you already have gear such as stage mics?

If you want to connect your mics/instruments to a piece of Digi equipment you just need cables with the appropriate plugs on the ends. You get protools with the equipment which is a programme for taking the signals from the digi stuff into the computer. It can then used for pottering with the sounds you've put in.

Do you really need more than two inputs at a time? Is it for a group or just you?

Do a search on the web for prices of the various Digi stuff. You can even download from www.digidesign.com a pdf doc describing the stuff. While you're there, have a look at the free DVDs they propose.

Hi gogo,

before you make any rash decisions (especially when it comes to spending precious money on equipment you're not sure about) check out some of my earlier posts in the Mac OS9 forums.

You should also check out Damann's posts elsewhere in the Mac OS9 forums.

Check this company out:

http://www.motu.com/

Have a look at their firewire 828 interface. It's an 8 in 8 out unit that plugs into your firewire socket on your mac.

M-Audio do some great interfaces for the money too. Check this page out for a selection:

http://www.m-audio.net/products/m-audio/delta.php

Definitely check out Emagic's website (Logic is a fabulous piece of software, and they make good hardware too; check out the deal you get with the Logic Big Box package):

http://www.emagic.de/english/news/index.html

Check out Presonus's firestation interface also:

http://www.presonus.com/html/products/firestation.html

I personally wouldn't recommend Digidesign equipment. The MOTU 828, for example, is known to have superior sound quality to Digi's 001. Plus, everything in the links I have provided above are compatible with ASIO/VST, which means you have access to all of the colours of the software rainbow afforded by ASIO/VST.

With a Digi 001, you would find that it's not quite so flexible and reliable when using it with the ASIO/VST platform. It is primarily designed to only work with RTAS, which is ProTools own software platform, and there is not as much choice in terms of plug-ins or software instruments.

I could ramble on about this, but instead I recommend you check out the above links, figure out what most suits your needs and buy the right stuff that you can expand as you need to into the future without constraint or complication.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info on other interfaces Teiwaz. I'll definitely look into those.