Firewire mixer or regular mixer with m-box?

[bohemianjm]

Hi everybody. What a great site this is.

I'm finally ready to get my mac. To record. But, to go with it, I need a firewire mixer. Do you have recommendations? Somebody told me it's better to get a small m-box and plug an analog mixer into it. But I was thinking of maybe getting a mixer with firewire built into it. there's one made by Alesis, firewire multitrack 12 and also, Phonic helix 12. Are they any good? Or is it indeed better to get an mbox with a regular analog mixer?

I record jazz-type of material, it's important for me to be able to record at least 4 tracks simultaneously.

Very much looking forward to your reply.

Thanks,
Jake

 

[KenekeBarnes]

I just got the Presonus Firepod (Firewire) for my pc. It has 8 inputs, phantom power, and preamps for all, for $600 new, though I got mine used off of ebay. I've got nothing really to compare it to, but I'm very pleased with it.

 

[reshp1]

The mbox 1 records only 2 tracks simultaneously, and the Mbox2 does 4 but you need to purchase additional A/D converters to do so. The choice of going Mbox, Mbox2, or any of the other Protools LE systems is almost completely dependant on how much you want to use Protools. Protools only works with Digidesign hardware, and the LE systems come with the program, which accounts for much of the package cost. If you have no desire to use Protools, or have a DAW program already, then the best bang for buck is probably not going to be a Digidesign interface.