Hello, I've grown a little tired of my current setup because it involves a lot of back and forth of files and listening... I just want to make things more simple and efficient.

I purchased a Fostex MR8HD for portability, as well as not having the worry of latency issues occuring. I felt at the time it was more reliable than a computer. no updates or viruses to worry about. Well... it may be a combination of the crappy pres on the Fostex and the constant battle of transferring files back and forth that has me annoyed and frustrated. So, I'm thinking of revamping my entire setup.

I have some gear that I'm hoping to sell; a couple mics and a couple guitars. If I sell it all including the Fostex I would imagine I'd have right around $725 to work with. certainly not much, but I'm poor so it's all I have.

I'll only need the ability to record two tracks at a time... but obviously if there is something that offers more XLR inputs, and is within the budget that would be great too. I don't track drums often, but when I did it was nice to have four channels... and it would be nice to do so in the future.

I'm looking for an audio interface (preferably firewire), a quality budget condensor mic, and a mic preamp (maybe, will a budget mic preamp be that much better than the pres on a decent audio interface?).

For mics I'm looking at the AT4040 or Shure KSM27 for $300 new (planning on buying used if I find a good deal). If I have money left over I'd like to pick up a AT2020 to have an additional condensor mic for stereo recording.

I'm looking at the Alesis firewire devices, the PreSonus devices, the Focusrite Saffire, TC Electronic Konnekt 8 and Edirol UA-25 items too. Opinions on these?

And lastly I'm wondering if I'm better off with not purchasing a mic preamp and putting that money into simply purchasing a better audio interface that has decent pres on it to begin with. I do have a cheap little ART Studio MP, and it sounds better than the Fostex pres. but I'm looking for something where I wouldn't need to bother with that.

I'm mainly recording acoustic guitar and vocals, with some DI bass, electric guitar and keyboards. I have a laptop and desktop that I'll be using with the audio interface with both. so I'll still have the option of portability.

Anyway, any suggestions and help is GREATLY appreciate. Hopefully my post wasn't entirely incoherent as I felt I jumped all around.

Any questions that will help you HELP me? Just ask.