2-6 channels to Hard Drive; Behringer, Edirol, ???

[kc7fys]

Greetings. I am a former DAT taper with Sanken COS-11 mics, looking to move to a device to record line and mic inputs to my PC hard drive. I want flexibility, good mic preamps, 48V, compactness--just what everybody wants.
This quest began when I came across an Edirol UA5 at a secondhand store the other day for roughly 228USD, and went online to do some product-checking. I found out that the folks over at Doug Oade are doing an upgrade on the analog input portion of this unit--and that it's by far not the only one out there to choose from.
I was attracted to the Behringer BCA2000 because I like to mix one monaural board feed with a stereo ambient signal(s), and this cheap unit does that. What are the next steps up in terms of quality, etc, in this usage area?
Anybody do what I do? Know of a better forum for exactly this hobby?
Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[ssscientist]

I am a former DAT taper with Sanken COS-11 mics

You mean 'former bootlegger'. Unless it's just Grateful Dead shows that you want to move over to your hard drive, I feel nothing but hostility towards someone who id's himself in this patently transparent way.

I've had songs that I've put months of work into coopted by people who ID themselves as 'DAT taper(s)' and have had to sit by doing a slow burn as they made their way across the internet as low-quality MP3's to potential fans/buyers/customers.

You won't find any help from this cowboy...

 

[kc7fys]

I think you meant "dork"...

If you term archiving bluegrass festivals and other authorized performances as "bootlegging" then you've maybe grabbed the wrong word. Maybe you're thinking of the guys who sneak into the Bon Jovi show with a minidisc duct taped to their leg and a couple panasonic capsules on their glasses bows. Flac and Shorten compression schemes are lossless, and most commonly used by archivists--or "bootleggers" as you call them. Fastidious attention to bit-perfect clones and good recording techniques are the norm as well.
Anyway, the problem you refer to does exist--but maybe not in the form you may know about.
Anyway... back to the topic: I often record Slim Dunlap (Minneapolis guitarist/former Replacements member) at his monthly installment at the Turf Club. He provides a monaural SBD feed, which really needs the ambient club stereo pair. I've always wished for a small 4track DAT device, but none exists, nor will it ever. Going to laptop has been the most obvious move, and now devices like this Behringer seem to make that possible. Have any of you used it?
Jonathan