I would look into the Mark Of The Unicorn 24 I/O, that is capable of 24 line inputs and 24 line outputs simultaneously via their PCI 424 card which will accommodate up to 4 units. That's a lot of tracks. Their stuff works well and they are more Macintosh oriented than PC. This coming from a PC owner of a 2408 mark I I for many years.

Conversely I went with the Alesis HD 24xr to mate up with my 36 input NEVE and/or API 3124's. I just prefer a purpose built recorder. Not that a lot of folks don't track 24 tracks to a computer. Many do. Less to go wrong with a purpose built device. And your cost will be that much different even though only the HD 24 is now available and the xr has been discontinued. I think the HD 24 is perfectly adequate.

One from column A & One from column B
Mx. Remy Ann David

@Remy
I tried the MOTU 24I/O before the SSL came out with their 24I/O a/d/a and i have to tell you, i was not impressed with the sound of the MOTU. it did not have the clarity of my previous unit which was a ECHO Layla. when i got the SSL the cotton came out of my ears!!!
if i may also add.....recording large track counts you will need a 10,000 rpm hard drive to make things go better.

Good for you, you are onto now.

I'm using FF800's, Lavry Blacks for mastering end and reaching for the Lynx Aurora 16 with the aes/ebu card to replace the FF800 actually. The FF800 are the best bang for the buck IMO,if you are on a tighter budget, it all gets more costly from that point on. $1500 for the FF800 is a deal. But if you don't need the pre's in the FF800 ( which I don't use either), Lynx Aurora 8 or 16 would be my direction. Better quality.

For two bus, the Lavry Blacks are in another league... so open and smooth.

personally, don't skimp on the ADDA

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. Its so cool to have a forum where people are willing to help others with less experience. Thanks again

But you know talking about converters is sort of like saying Ampex is better than Scotch is better than Agfa. Me? I think the most important thing is the microphone preamp & microphone selection. Everything else is secondary. My Scully 280A, with germanium transistors sounds better than my Scully 280B, with silicon transistors even though the 280B, sounds better. Clear and clean isn't necessarily better than smooth. Fat could mean clouded or punchy. I've been to enough listening tests with enough highly trained individuals to know that what you perceive as clear, clean, transparent may in fact be remnants of artifacts. There is something very interesting about the sound of an analog delay line called a transformer.

You can't convince me that what you think is better is better
Mx. Remy Ann David

Another option is to get the MOTU 24 i/o and have it modded by BLA. They can open it up and work some magic, then send it back to you. BLA is black lion audio... of which I have no affiliation whatsoever. They are just the only company that I know of who mods that unit on a regular basis

Yeah and they modify a lot of Digidesign equipment to make it sound more respectable without Digidesign ever providing them with a usable schematic because of their " proprietary blah blah". Which to me is just stupid crap since all professional equipment should be supplied with schematics. Otherwise it ain't professional. ProTools what a laugh without Pro documentation. Yeah that's professional. NOT. So the guys a Black Lion Audio must be pretty swift since they obviously had to reverse engineer Digidesign proprietary blah blah which actually didn't sound so good to begin with and that's why you sent it to Black Lion Audio. It would be like us sending away our Neve & API consoles to be modified to sound better. Like modify beautiful George Massenburg Labs equipment so that it sounds better. If Digidesign was so good, why didn't they do it right the first time? Probably because they're more software jerks than hardware jerks but jerks just the same.

I have Pro Tools and I have ProTools. Remember when you would buy discreet stereo components instead of a Capehart all-in-one Stereophonic record player? We all knew the separately selected components could outperform any " all-in-one" device. So when you have Pro Tools, you have the real deal, multiple items matched to your specifications. When you have ProTools, it's a box lunch. But marketing hype can turn lead into gold when it's still really just a heavy piece of painted crap.

Not liking newer technology stuff all that much
Mx. Remy Ann David