Need opinions on which hardware would be ideal

[arc76]

Hello,

I am a Guitarist trying to get the necessary hardware to complete a decent home(bedroom) studio setup. I am looking for some advice on a few items.
Here is what i have:

PC- AMD athlon 2.08 Ghz,512meg,120GigHD
Software-Sonar3 producer edition, cool edit pro
Soundcard-?
Mixer- Behringer eurorack mx602A
Keys/Synth- Korg X3 workstation
Amp simulator- Line 6 POD pro
Mic's-shure sm57's
Monitors-?

I plan to record guitars, vocals, and bass live one track at a time and everything else using the synth.
I was looking at the m-audio omni studio which includes the omni i/o but doesn't include midi i/o(needed to program POD sound patches and for the synth)I'm assuming I would need to purchase a midi interface like the midisport? Would these be good choices for my application?I am not very impressed with the quality of my mixer's mic pres. Do i really need the mixer if the audio interface includes 2 of them? Are the omi i/o 's preamps much better than the behringers? Any recommendations for decent quality powered near-field monitors under $200?

I was thinking as an alterntive to the omni studio, could i just buy the delta 66 pci card with breakout box and connect the DMP3 mic pre?Would this accomplish the same thing?

suggestions or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks for any help
Joe

 

[abolit66]

If you record one track at a time and need MIDI input then Audiophile 2496 would be a good choice. It's cheap ($99) and it has two inputs and two outputs and MIDI (no preamps).
Behringer, in my opinion is not a good choice for preamp, neigher preamps in cheap soundcard models. I'd recommend standalone preamps or mixer like Yamaha G12/4.
I'm not sure about nearfield monitors, it's hard to get good ones for $200.
Try to search ebay, sometimes you can find a good deal out there.
I'm using power KRK6 and I like them, but it's about $700 for new ones. I saw them for $400 on ebay a couple weeks ago. They are solid and sound flat from 50 Hz to 20kHx (+- 1db).

Peace.