I need Lots of Advice ! LOL

HI,
    Newbie to the forum but not to recording. I've been using MC2 for years to lay drum tracks in real audio which I send to my keyboardist who does his thing, and then back and forth. When my hard drive crapped out , my wife bought me a new computer [ I can hear you all moaning because you know what's coming] - An HPE9210t  with a quad 8300, 2.5 ghz, and 6 gig Ram. Windows 7, 64 bit .  Nice computer but now none of my old programs work. I've finished dealing with the video problems so I'm here in hopes you folks can help me address the recording problems.
     After contacting Cakewalk tech support they told me MC2  would not work with windows 7 but MC5 would, as well as Sonar.  I don't need a program as complicated as Sonar so I opted for MC5. I've downloaded the 5.05 patch . I also changed sound cards to a new ASUS Xonar Essence STX .
      I have a latency issue even with the switch as low as it can go. I cannot monitor the drums as I'm playing them thru my headphones- I can hear them thru the speakers, but with lag.
      I'm hoping someone can tell me if I can expect this program to work with what I have, or should I have to purchase something else to make it work.   All I want to do is lay drum tracks with my Roland e-drums, one track at a time, with real audio.  Real simple.     any help would be greatly appreciated, even if I have to buy something else.    thanks a lot !
 

ASUS Xonar Essence STX

this is not a low latency recording soundcard.  sorry - I wish you had come here asking for help BEFORE you invested money in a soundcard.  check my website for soundcard recommendations.

you MIGHT be able to get it to work with low latency by moving the latency slider in OPTIONS>AUDIO toward the FAST side.  but likely you'll start getting popping and clicking during playback and recording with it on the FAST side.

  I was checking on your equipment Beagle and I see the Asus is the motherboard, not the sound card, my mistake. And the Motu is your interface. Very nice equipment but more than I need for my use. 

    I've moved the latency switch to the extreme many times and I'm still getting too much of a delay. I can return the sound card, that's not a problem.

     Tried to access the info on your site but it seemed to be down. I will try again in a while.

      Can someone comment about the Creative Titanium card - it says it's windows 7 compliant and it fits PC Express slots ?  I had an Audigy 2 in my old computer which worked fine with Windows XP.

       Guitar Hacker and Beagle I appreciate your help and your patience. thank you .

What Guitarhacker means is "don't get a Sound Blaster". They are also not designed for recording.
M-Audio, Presonus, Focusrite, E-Mu (the 'professional' line of interfaces made by Creative), and the Roland/Cakewalk line of inexpensive audio interfaces are some you should look at. There are others, too.
Welcome to the forum.
 

   Thanks so much for the advice and the welcome !  My problem is that I had no idea I could use another interface other than a sound card to record. But since I had been using only MC2, I didn't know about any way other than a sound card. 
 
    I've been going thru my Sweetwaer catalogue trying to figure outwhat USB interface I am going to buy . Will probably go with 6 channels at least. I need two for my drums. Hopefully I will eliminate the latency problem first. Then will work on learning MC5 intricacies. 

      I thought I would post a link to one of the tunes my keyboardist and I created a few years ago . He uses fruity Loops and I was using MC2.  It's called Captured.  At the time, he was in CA and I was in NY so it was done over the internet by sending the ideas back and forth. We called ourselves Psylicon.  LOL ! 

        Thanks so much for all the help, everybody !   Peace,  TED

         http://www.drumminfool.com/psylicon%20songs/CAPTURED.mp3

   thanks for reeling me in Greg !  You're right . I'm not ready for the Sonar learning curve yet, so I will get a 4 channel, I guess !

There is nothing to prevent you from using a 16 channel (or more) mixer and sending the R & L channels to the 2 inputs on an interface.

You could also multi track your kit by playing the song multiple times, and recording the kick and snare on the first pass, then the high hats and the cymbals on the second pass, then high and mid toms on the third and so on....putting each one into a unique track.

Heck that's what I do with guitars and other things..... why not with drums.  Isolate the mics for each part of the kit and you're good.

Thats the beauty of MC5.

Even though my good friend Greg is right on about the 2 input limitation in MC5, remember that if you buy a 8 input interface you can alway upgrade software down the road. Just the other day the upgrade from MC5 to Sonar essentials was just $79 So always plan ahead. This will keep growing as you grow.

   After speacking with my friend at Sweetwater I ended up purchasing an AVID  Mbox Mini [without the pro tools ] .

    It will take a few days to arrive and I will let you know how it works out - or not .  Thanks to all of you who responded for your encouragement and helpful advice !