First off I want to say that this is a fantastic forum, I got alot of helpful advice on my last post and as a matter of consequence I am posting this. I need an interface with at least two xlr in and preferably an optical out to connect to my g5 and I was hoping I could get some suggestions. I am trying to build a set up to work with MOTU DP to record acoustic guitar and vocals right now and I want to able to record the guitar in stereo. So if anyone has any suggestions as to the hardware or a different means to achieve this I am open to any and all suggestions.

The MOTU 828mkII has optical in/out (ADAT or TOSlink). It has two preamps, with the XLR/quarter inch combo jacks. also has a seperate headphone mix output.

However, I'm not sure why you would want to connect the optical from the G5 to the Interface.

The 828mkII should be connected via firewire to your G5.

I use the optical out on the back of the 828 (in this case TOSlink which is 2 channel, ADAT is 8 channel) to feed my monitors which have a digital input.

Fields

Yep, the 828 would do what you need, alright, and would be particularly appropriate if you're using DP.

The 828mkII is the way to go......

http://www.motu.com/

The mbox from digidesign has two focusrite preamps with phantom power and eight channels of optical i/o. it plugs in via usb.