Newbie seeking wisdom(band setup)

[Frossbyte]

I play in a 5 person rock band, 2 guitarists a drummer a bassist and a keyboardist. I am looking for not only a live setup but a recording setup as well, I am a carpenter by trade while attending college so I have started building my own studio in my garage. I know everything I need BUT the recording route is a little confusing. I know I need either a digital multitrack recorder with a built in HDD or a computer based hardware config to do the job. Well I have a p4 ht 3.2 ghz proc with a sb audigy and 1.5gb ram and dual HDDs. I also have a p4 2.6 ghz laptop with 512 ram, I kinda want to be able to use the laptop as much as possible, maybe with an external hdd. So what Im asking is, What is the best hardware (Firewire or USB2.0) I can get that will allow me to record 10 tracks simultaniously and into sonar 4 without braking me totally?

Also do I need any types of preamps if I have a powered 10 channel mixer I am running all of my mics and such through? And anything else I would need to record an entire bands practice seesions? besides mics and ofcourse the basics.....

I know its a huge Q but I would really appreciate the help.

 

[Stealthtech]

You can use the PC and laptop for recording. Will need to consider your interface. # of ins/outs will dictate multi-track count. Or, you can mic and patch thru the mixer output a stereo track to a 2 ch. card.
A standalone portable HDD recorder will work just as well. Consider the ins/outs once again.
Use both: Record to portable and bounce to PC for edit.
Firewire/USB ? Dont know which is really better...I prefer a PCI card with breakout.
If you want a 10 ch. interface, I highly recommend RME multiface or Delta 1010.

 

[Frossbyte]

Ok lets say I wanted to go with something like the Hercules 16/12 firewire I/O with a 10 channel powered mixer what would i need to get my drum mics, 2 vocalists 2 guitars and a bassist recorded? could the hercules do this all simultaniously? and would i need preamps with the powered mixer? Also i cant use a pci with breakout with my laptop so i really wanna go firewire, any suggestions?

 

[Stealthtech]

copy/paste from a description of the Hercules

16 inputs match the number of sources used by a typical band
Plugging Hercules 16/12 FW into a laptop PC or a Mac PowerBook makes a great portable live recording solution.
48V phantom power amp for the 2 microphone inputs gives the flexibility
to record music played on-stage.
2 Hi-Z inputs to record a guitar and a bass.
All analogue inputs can record in TRS balanced mode, as required for long
cables runs used in live on-stage performance.

Many different possible configs. on this.
And note: some breakout boxes like the RME I mentioned have PCMIA cards.
Note: for drums you will use multiple mics which would be patched thru your mixer which should have preamps built in and send to a single stereo output.