hey Jones...I'll bet your Mac came with a decent sound card...but, you should take a look at what the Firewire bus is capable of first...I assume your Mac also has the Firewire architecture--which is designed especially for the transfer of audio/video to/from your hard-drive...this way, you won't have to be concerned with connecting your INs directly to the sound-card...you also won't have to worry about the quality of the sound-card's ADCs/DACs or how much processing power the sound-card itself is using up...you will, however, have to buy an external unit--i.e. MOTU or such--which will allow multiple INs with quality ADCs/DACs, quality mic-pre-amps, and much more--depending on how much you're willing to spend...IMO you should take advantage of the Firewire...let us know what you decide to do...I have a MOTU 828 and it's great.