Firewire Solo or E-MU 0404? Advice appreciated.

[rotren]

I am about to upgrade from my SB Live! and am looking for advice for an audio interface. I want to do multitracking, record my guitar amp with a SM-57, record some bass guitar, and some vocals through a condenser mic. I probably wouldn't need to use more than 8 -10 tracks in total. I would also like to hook up a midi keyboard for programming drums and maybe bass. I would also only need to record one instrument at a time.

I have a 1.4 Ghz Pentium 4, will soon have 768 MB RAM, and a brand new 7200 RPM hard drive. I don't have any other recording gear - just amps and guitars.

I was thinking I could get the E-MU 0404 + small mixer with built in mic preamp. Then I saw the Firewire Solo with 48v phantom power, gain control, clip LED, near zero latency monitoring, etc. I like the simplicity of the Firewire Solo and having easy access to everything, plus portability. The 0404 gets rave reviews, but I would need either a mic preamp or a mixer board. With the Firewire Solo, it seems I don't need anything extra (no mixerboard needed) - correct me if I'm wrong.

Can I use a midi keyboard with both these audio interfaces?

Would what you recommend for my situation? Thankful for advice.

 

[Monkey Allen]

Well, I upgraded from the SBLive to the Presonus Firebox. It's a nice little unit that has everything you need. Look it up and see for yourself.

 

[lion_tone]

I love the Emu stuff as I have an 1820m....but honestly...I would at LEAST have 2 channels of recording potential especially with guitar amps, as you might want to mic a cabinet + ambience ala Page, or record two amps at once for tonal colors. You can have a pretty kicking small rig with an emu 1212m and Behringer ADA8000...