M-Audio DMP3 will do your job

On the DMP3 - it's a clean, no frills pre.. sounds a little muddy on some sources like direct electric guitar, but it does decent vocals and it's a good deal for the money.

DMP3, that sounds good, listen to dave! Other preamps under $200 include the art line that has a bad rep around here- hey, they're not pro level but for a demo they are ok and gets the job done- I did many a tracks with them before I could afford better pres and am not ashamed of any of 'em. As a matter of facT I still own a 2 ch art tps that I use for tracks I don't need to keep, such as scratch vocals and scratch guitar or scrath bass when my good pres are tied up tracking drums- so, they have their uses, even after you can afford better!

thanks, that's what I'll get.

Even though I have better preamps, I still use the DMP3 sometimes on acoustic guitar (depending on the flavor I'm after), and it is also great for a mobile recording unit.

I have found the differences in inexpensive mic pres to be minimal. They are all like cheap ice cream. Sure they come in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and mint but you can still tell that it is cheap ice cream. When you move up to ice cream from a "boutique" ice cream shop, the difference is evident. That being said, I think the best cheap mic pre solution is a small Mackie board that can offer several channels of mic pres on direct outputs, like a 1604. None of the under $500 mic pres I have heard sound significantly better than a Macke pre of any type, vlz, vlz pro, whatever..