Opinions on gear

You don't say what other gear you have.   I've hear good things about the saffire - a nice basic interface.  The ISA8 is a very nice preamp (I've got the ONE) and good conversion from what I've heard.  If it was me, tho I'd probably get an interface w/ more built-in in/outs and preamps and get a great stereo front end rather than more good preamps.  $4000 (isn't that the price of the ISA8 w/ conversion?) will get a set of top of the line channel strips for recording the main instruments, overdubs and mixing back through.  Better bang for buck since most interfaces have good conversion and good preamps built in.  The ISA is better than most built-in preamps, but not by much.  Something like the Aurora stereo preamp/EQ and a moderate stereo comp would give you an overall much nicer sound, even if your drums, etc. went through an "average" interface.

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Royal,

a real can of worms - there are lots of choices/threads for interfaces and everyone has an opinion.

1st, how do you work.  If you are mostly doing stereo/overdub work and have disposable cash it is probably best to go as high-end as possible for those two tracks.  If you are wanting to record bands, bang for buck will get almost the quality but quanity, too.  If you don't have the montioring, you'll miss some of the quality aspects.  Also be aware it takes time to develop the ear to hear the sublte differences between high and lower end gear.

With those provisos in mind, the Saffire is good.  So is TC stuff (the TCK 48 runs about a $1000 now).  The Steinberg MXR is less than those two, but has a great reputation.  RME is a good choice, and has a great reputation for hardware as well as drivers. 

A step up, reputation wise, is Lynx.  They have a pci-card w/ 4 in/out  (or 2X6 both ways) for a $1000.  You can add a daughter card to it for SMUX ADAT (16 i/o at 48 kHz or 8 X at 96 kHz) for $200.  So, if you needed "less critical" recording you could add anything from a behringer preamp and conversion unit to the ISA8.  Very flexible, and lots of pros use Lynx (Goldfrappe, for example).  It doesn't include preamps, etc.

Farther up the foodchain is the Orpheus, a Prism unit.  $4500 (I think) gets you 8X8 conversion, 4 preamps and ADAT digital i/o for expansion.  Kinda overkill for home work, but unless you add large band recording you won't really need anything else for a long time.

If you get a $1000 interface or the Lynx instead, you'll have plenty of cash for an analog front end.  Preamps aren't over rated, but it is a gain of millimeters (IMHO) the more money you spend.  The ISA preamps are a great buy, thoroughly pro, high clean gain w/ just a little transformer roundness.  Spending more is fun, not necessary.  Something like the aurora GTQ2 adds EQ - probably the most expensive piece of outboard.  Which is why it is such a good deal.  Manley's Langevin Dual Vocal Combo is another contender - only shelf EQ's but an opto-compressor added.  Too bad they just went up.  If you mostly do a track at a time, Aurora and Rupert Neve Designs both make expensive channel strips w/ everything.  You can't use them to master w/, but using the RND Portico II unit was the first time I've felt like my stuff here at home has gotten close to the same "big console" sound I've gotten in studios.  Hell, even my wife could hear the diff on her vocals.  Not that she has bad ears, but she doesn't really care about that end of it and leaves it to me.

Almost any high-end hardware is going to add something to your chain.  And good hardware holds it value once you take the "drive it off the lot" hit.  And shopping used is OK, since most of them are well made.

If you upgrade to SONAR X1 you'll get the ProChannel.  Software, but very good.  Rhythminmind has some nice soundclips on his site (do a search, there is a thread around) of it against the hardware 1176.

So, I've given you some ideas and price ranges.  If you plan on sinking some money over the next few years, it is a good idea to go as high-end as possible and add to your chain as funds come in.  You can also look for deals that way.  I use a lot of software effects, but good hardware is still best on the important things.

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I use Focusrite. I have the Saffire 2 channel version & midi.

I also use the Rode NT-2A and the SM-58 in it from time to time as well as my POD2 for guitar. Since the Saffire has really nice preamps in it, I do not use any sort of mixer board. One less thing to worry with.

I think the results I get are impressive to say the least, considering just how "barebones" I run this DAW.

I don't think you can go wrong with the Focusrite gear. If you're buying top quality gear for a hobby, that's totally cool... have fun.

just for another view:

i have one really nice high end mic preamp, a A Designs Audio MP-1.
class A tube, single channel.
this is a wonderful preamp.

but sometimes i like the sound of my super cheap preamp more, for certain things...

i use a very cheap ART DPS for it's convertor mostly, but occasionally for it's preamps.

i think i might have paid $219 for it. 

it sounds great. 

i compared tracks recorded with it (convertor only), against tracks using a Lucid AD 9624 on a similar system.. 


there just wasn't that much difference. 




i always say, get the best you can afford.


that said, i have a super cheap convertor, and it holds it's own against almost everything else i've heard.
so, for what it's worth, there it is.