Hey guys!
I record concert bands (50 - 75 students) live with a stereo microphone - I have been using various combinations of equipment (some borrowed - some my own) and would like to purchase my own equipment. I don't want to go the Pro Tools route - have done that and haven't been happy with it - my computer has frozen on occasion, and with live recording, I can't live with that.

I would like to possibly buy a DAW - maybe an 8 channel with mixing/phantom power, eq, CD-r or CD-RW, etc. I usually do stereo mic, but would like to have more flexibility and have the extra channels in case I want to record something with more mics. Are these DAW's easy to work with? I'm looking at something like the Yamaha AW1600, or the Korg D3200, or something similar.

I would like to pair this with a RODE NT4 stereo microphone.

I would like your opinions on these products and maybe a few others that maybe I haven't thought of yet. Are these super-reliable machines that I won't lose sleep over? Is the learning curve managable? I want to keep the price as close to $1000 as I can. Lower would be great also!

Thanks,

SpringMike