help/suggestions for recording interfaces

[HTH AMPS]

ok, I'm finally getting back into some recording and want some gear to facilitate this.

It'll mainly be for recording ideas direct to HDD via a Palmer Junction, but I'll want to demo some songs later I'd expect.

The Junction would most likely be fine into the existing 3.5mm microphone input on my laptop's sound card, but I think an external USB device would be better.  It'd be handy to have mic preamps on the sound card, XLR inputs, phantom power and some way to monitor the signal.  Was looking at the Lexicon range of stuff and they look pretty cool... http://www.thomann.de/gb/lexicon_alpha_studio.htm

Ideally no more than £130.00, ideas?

[Johnny Mac]

If your laptop has a PCI slot then E-MU do some tasty stuff. The A/D D/A converters are top notch. Not sure about that price but its worth getting something good.

[_tom_]

I'm using an Edirol UA-25EX at the minute and its great. Might be slightly out of your price range at about £150 (unless its gone down in price). Better than my old Presonus interface imo, which tended to give a muddier sound, this isnt as warm but the clarity is way better and the "sterile" sound can be eq'd out anyway I guess.

[HTH AMPS]

probably gonna build a Urei valve mic-preamp at some point anyway, so I just need something 'bare-bones' that will interface with my laptop for the time being so I can use the Palmer Junction direct.  Later on I'll be able to record the direct signal using the Palmer and have a mic'd tone with an old Shure Unidyne (pre-SM57) mic through the same Urei mic-preamp that was used on VHI.

[HTH AMPS]

the budget is 'ballpark' at best - I'd rather spend a bit more and get something fit for the job rather than have to buy something else again in 6 months.  This looks pretty nice AND simple to use... http://www.thomann.de/gb/digidesign_mbox_2_mini.htm

[MDV]

Emu tracker?

[HTH AMPS]

I'm using an Edirol UA-25EX at the minute and its great. Might be slightly out of your price range at about £150 (unless its gone down in price). Better than my old Presonus interface imo, which tended to give a muddier sound, this isnt as warm but the clarity is way better and the "sterile" sound can be eq'd out anyway I guess.

Been comparing the Edirol UA-25EX with the Digidesign mbox2 mini.  The sound clips they've posted on Thomann show the former to be slightly warmer and punchier in the mids, though the latter comes with ProTools 8; hmm  :?

I do like the built-in compressor/limiter on the Edirol, that might push me towards the US-25EX a bit more.  Not gonna rush into this, need more advise.

[HTH AMPS]

listening to clips recorded with this interface, I think it's the best I've heard so far in the £150-£200 range, there's a punchyness to the mids (some of the others seemed hollow through the mids and lacked punch).  Anyone got experience with this one?

http://www.thomann.de/gb/maudio_fast_track_pro.htm

[MDV]

I've heard of driver problems with the edirols. Crashes, reinstalls if you knock it off while the computers on, that sort of thing. Good hardware though.

If youre on vista emu drivers werent optimised last I checked either, but the dacs and pres are better IMO (than the Mbox at any rate).

Any of those 3 are basically the top choices though in that price range. Learning to use the gear right, or well, is a FAR bigger bottleneck to getting good sound than the gear, you should be fine with any of them.

Personally, though, FWIW, I think the software package and DACs and Pres of the Emus put them head and shoulders above, but have heard complaints about vista performance (have used 1616M with vista extensively and not experienced this) and the gain dials are a bit sensitive (occasionally irksome but nothing that cant be dealt with). Edirol hardware is good stuff, but software wise not so much, and mboxes are OK but I think have the poorest price/performance ratio because getting in the protools clan is a selling point with them.