I believe you can still get a PreSonus FireStudio at amazon for around $540. It has great mic pre's and 1/4" ins. Plus it comes with something like Cuebase LE(i forgot), which I know nothing about since it does not work with intel based macs.

Certainly there are issues with all the different boxes. Be sure to check the forums for which DAW you preffer. There are driver issues with the different boxes too. Check the PreSonus forum to see what they say, that is if you are curious:

http://forums.presonus.com/

I being a mac fan chose the presonus based on a great review I read in my favorite mag Tape Op. The Firestudio 2626 are nice in my opinion, I am not sure about that alesis box.

One of the great moderators here, Remy uses the Alesis. I think its a HD24 if I am not mistaken. I am sure that Alesis have great boxes too. It all depends on what you like and who you trust. Again check the forums to see what people are saying about issues with DAW's and such. Consider what you are doing and what your long range goals are so that your box will better suit you as you get older and expand or contract.

I would suggest you go to places like sweetwater.com and amazon.com and search the reviews of the different products to get a better idea of what people think about the money they spent on the specific products. Often times it may steer you to something you did not expect. Also spend time talking to your friends that record and find out what there opinions are too, it helps to get advice when making a important decision about your interface.

I'm using Audition 3.0, by the way. Actually, I just want something inexpensive right now, since I'm out of work. The brands on my "don't buy list," so far are: Beh#$%^er, N@dy, Ph%$ic H*lix, and M@ckie. I've just never had any personal experience with Alesis. From what I have heard, people seem very pleased with Alesis. Then again, we are talking about a cheap mixer here and not a pro board. This is the mixers I've found that has all the channel requirements I need: http://www.alesis.com/multimix8firewire And then there's the USB 2.0 version. I'm not sure which is technically faster, but I suppose that whicher one I find at the lowest price would be the best one. :wink: And then there is this thing: http://www.alesis.com/io26 Call me ignorant, but I can't quite tell whether each track would show up in my software or not with this product.

And honestly, I don't need good mic pres. I have a preamp that I use for vox, but I really just need 8 1/4" inputs. Of course, I still need XLR inputs with phantom power, but that is of secondary importance I suppose.

In case anyone was wondering, I need 8 1/4" inputs for my Yamaha dtxtreme IIs edrum set, which has 8 individual outs, all 1/4".

I understand. I did go to the Alesis website and did not find a forum. I wonder why?? Anyway, if you can get a good return policy on the product, go for it!! I would say call sweetwater, they have a great return policy. Maybe someone has a better price? Just make sure you can get your money back if you don't like it after say 3 weeks.

Sounds good, I hope you have a blast with that Alesis, let us know how it sounds.

By the way, I like that program Audition 3, it looks very cool!

I wish they made it for my mac :-(

The Alesis IO26 is an awesome interface with great pres and reasonable driverseast a couple of hundred dollars more expensive than it is for it's price. I have it's baby brother the IO14 on my win XP laptop and it works really well. It's quality is very similar to the Presonus interfaces that cost about 100 dollars more IMHO. UNfortunately they discontinued the smaller IO14, but as it uses the same software and drivers as the IO26, driver support continues. If you're a windows 64 bit system user there are currently no 64 bit drivers for it yet. As Mac systems are still on 32 bit, (Logic, DP, Protools, Live etc) it doesn't affect that right now (when snow leopard comes out, expect to see Logic and other DAWS migrate to 64 bit).

You also get Cubase LE with the Alesis interface.

Presonus FP 10 ($399) or the Studio Project ($499) both have 8- 1/4" line in on the rear panel that can be used as A/D converters w/o the preamps, Either one of these units can be daisy chained with the same type to give you 16, or 24 channels for future expansion if that is a consideration. I am very happy with my Project interfaces.
I have used Alesis Mini and Nanoverb reverb units and they have been well built and trouble free but no experience with intefaces.

As fate would have it, the evil empire's "stupid deal of the day" was the Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire. :shock: :shock: :shock: Talk about ironic. What's even better is that I got one from a brick and mortar dealer selling it brand new on Ebay for $164 with free shipping. Not bad when everyone else is selling them for $299. I just thought I'd share that with all of you. 8) I'll let you know how a cheap mixer performs. Or, better yet, I'll post a recording or two if I ever get the time to record. :D