How's my thinking II

[harphunt]

My goal is to put together an inexpensive 8-16 track home "studio" for personal recording (just me, my guitars and drum machine). I was looking at stand-alone units, but figured I could do better cost-wise on my computer. After many searches on this forum and elsewhere, these are my thoughts:

-Soundcards are better than USB as there are latency problems when over-dubbibg with USB. I've chosen M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Would you agree?

-I need an interface between the soundcard and vocal mike and/or guitars. I'm considering the Eurorack UB-502 or 802. Could I use my old Digitech RP-1 w/adapters for vocals and guitars instead? The soundcard has RCA ins.

-Software. I'm considering Cakewalk Home Studio 4 or nTrack. Any thoughts?

-I've read recommendations for a seperate hard-drive. Is this for storage purposes only?

I'm using Windows 98SE / Pentium III @ 933MHz / 20GHz drive. I knew absolutely nothing when I started my quest (other than 4-track tape recording) and am wondering if what I've come up with is on "track" (no pun intended).

Thanks for all the info.

PEACE

[Gidge]

i think computer based would be a great idea for your needs.....

a Delta Audiophile is a great choice....i have one myself.......

for guitars, yes you can go straight from the DigiTech to the soundcard......

for vocals, if you arent doing anything serious, you can go thru the Digitech with a dynamic mic, but not condensers......id definitely go with either a Delta DMP3 preamp ($149) or a Yamaha MG 10/2 mixer ($99) instead of the Behringer........

I prefer N-Track over Cakewalk unless you will be doing alot of MIDI work........if you are more analog audio based (guitar,vocals,drum machine) Id go N-Track......

now all you need is the mic and something to monitor with......

[harphunt]

Thanks Gidge!

Any other input would be greatly appreciated. When you don't know much, it's hard to ask the right questions. Salespeople just want to sell you whatever makes them the most money, not what would work for you.

Thanks

[Jeyan]

You have picked the best soundcard and software for the price, so be confident and go for it. (Computer needs a little upgrade if you can)