Do I need an audio interface?

I am interested in purchasing the guitar tracks pro3 for my home computer and I have a question. Will I need an audio interface to be able to connect my guitar directly to the computer? If so, what should I look into buying additionally? I would like to be able to record my band (which consists of a couple guitars, bass player, drums, and lead vocal) and mix the sound using the software. I am not, however, interested in unloading a ton of money on some nonessential equipment. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks,

jrod

Let's backup a second. You said you want to record your band. How do you want to do that? Do you want to record the entire band at once, with each instrument to it's own track (maybe drums to a few tracks)? Or are you planning on recording one or two instruments at a time?

GTPro will only allow you to record two tracks at a time (at least two was the limit with GTP2, I think GTP3 has the same limit). If you want to record your entire band at the same time, you'll need a mixer and have to mix the band to two tracks. If you want everyone on their own track, then you'll need something like SONAR and an audio interface that supports all the tracks.

The TonePort UX2 only allows for a couple of tracks.

It seems as if you can record all 32 tracks on GTP3 if you have a computer that can handle it and an interface into the computer that gives you numerous input streams so that you can set each track appropriately.

Check out something like this http://www.presonus.com/firestation.html. You need firewire for your computer but it this unit gives you 8 inputs. My friend has this and love it. He also uses http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/185277/ for the XLR inputs into this unit. It supports ASIO and gives you 8 mono options and 8 stereo options that you can choose for each track.