Looking to buy a cheap recording interface

[NoSoup4you22]

Just got my financial aid from school and I'm looking to get a recording interface, probably $300-400 at the most. Firewire support would be preferred, but I'm only going to be doing vocals and dual-mic'd guitars, so I guess USB would be alright.

I'm running windows 7 x64 on a fairly high-end desktop - AMD phenom II quad core, 3.5ghz, 8gb ram, firewire pci card. Don't recall the manufacturer of the card offhand but I'll edit when I'm at home. (EDIT: It's made by VIA. Not Texas Instruments unfortunately)

I saw a craigslist ad for an mbox 2+protools 8+waves mercury bundle for $250, but wasn't sure if the mbox would cut it or not. Furthermore, I'm not sure if I even want to use protools, considering the hassle of getting it to run stable on a home computer.

Any suggestions?

 

[Scottxx]

Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.

 

[Wolfeman]

<----- Firestudio for sale $325

 

[dale_a_smith]

Yeah. Saffire pro is a great option. Be aware that the mercury bundle that comes with that M box will be an illegal copy and you don't wanna get involved in that.

 

[botus99]

buy from Wolfeman (or the Saffire Pro), use Reaper, learn on free VST's, become god

good luck

 

[NoSoup4you22]

I was looking at the Sapphire Pro 24 earlier, but felt it might be overkill for what I'm doing right now - but if it's relatively "future-proof" it'd be worth picking up. Will check out the Firestudio in the morning...

 

[AudioGeekZine]

TC Electronics Impact Twin.

 

[Skinny Viking]

Even a new Mbox would do well for you. Comes with PT 8, bunch of plugins and shit, USB, pretty good converters and pres (on par with Apogee duet from everything I've read) and an easy upgrade to another high end pre & converters later on via spdif

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTMbox/

You can find them cheaper if you look around.

the mercury bundle in that ad is pirated btw

EDIT - where's my fuggin cd bitch?

 

[NoSoup4you22]

TC Electronics Impact Twin.

Sounds good but a couple people say you can't use it with a VIA firewire chipset. Any truth to that?

Even a new Mbox would do well for you. Comes with PT 8, bunch of plugins and shit, USB, pretty good converters and pres (on par with Apogee duet from everything I've read) and an easy upgrade to another high end pre & converters later on via spdif

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTMbox/

You can find them cheaper if you look around.

the mercury bundle in that ad is pirated btw

EDIT - where's my fuggin cd bitch?

Think I'm gonna avoid Protools for now since I don't have a dedicated recording computer or hard drive. CDs are in the mail, patience grasshopper...

I'm probably leaning towards the Sapphire Pro 24, though if the Firestudio is comparable I wouldn't mind helping out another sneapster at the same time. My main worry is random driver incompatibilities and that kinda shit.

 

[Wolfeman]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm on a Windows 7 64 bit machine, and I'm using the mobo's built in firewire by VIA and it works ok

 

[NoSoup4you22]

PM sent

 

[guitarguru777]

If you want future proof with the option to spend less then a grand later on and get to 24 channels, the Saffire Pro 40 is unbeatable in its price range. Far better pre's then anything else in its price range and coverters that rival units costing 3 times as much.