Recording Interfaces

I've decided that I'm going to buy Sonar X3 Producer and switch my studio over to a virtual board studio, with a touch screen monitor. My problem is which interface to get. My needs are simple, which is the ability to record 16 channels simultaneously, 8 XLR mic in's (4 are condenser mics), and 8 line-ins. My research has taken me to: M-Audio Profire, RME Fireface 800, Tascam, Konnekt and others. I still don't know which to buy. Any tips I can get would be most helpful. Could I get away with 12 ins? Maybe for a time, but eventually I'll need the additional in's (some solutions require 2 units). Thanks very much. 

Thanks, James.....why do you need ADAT? It that how you get from 12 to 16 ins? (I don't have the Sonar product yet, so I assume 'spdif' channels are just a way to set up a monitor bus). I have a headphone amp I can engage when I have more than 2 musicians recording. 
What has your wandering eye been looking at? 
Bruce

Johnny, Thanks, man....that really seems like a good product for my needs. It's very economical, too. I hope that doesn't mean I'll be sacrificing and audio quality.
I'm trying to migrate away from mechanical boards. It's a little bit daunting for a 62 year old dude, knowing I have to learn how to operate new software and all. But I've done it before with Akai and Roland platforms.
I started out with an analog 8 track (Otari 1/2") and a Tascam M50 board with a bunch of rack effects, a big stereo spring reverb and was mixing down to a Studer-Revox half-track, so I find this digital world unbelievably cool.
And no more worrying about bad connections or wires that are shorting and making noise. It's awesome. 
Thanks a bunch!

James....I checked the link. Nice toy, but too pricey for me. I agree on the final output being more dependent on skill, content, etc. The Tascam is out of stock for a month or so, so I have time to decide. In the meantime, I'll get the other components in place. Thanks very much for taking the time to share....Bruce

Astrumur
My research has taken me to: M-Audio Profire, RME Fireface 800, Tascam, Konnekt and others.

It really comes down to (a) the quality you need and (b) how much you want to spend.
 
RME are very good and have excellent low-latency ASIO drivers (I would say that I suppose seeing as I've got one), but are not exactly cheap. I have a Fireface UFX (connected by USB, not firewire) plus a Focusrite Octopre linked to it by ADAT which gives me 8 "pure" line ins on the RME and 12 XLR/line inputs split between the UFX and Octopre plus far more outputs than I know what to do with.
 
What I would suggest is being wary of firewire interfaces on PCs. They are very sensitive to which firewire chip is at the PC end and there may be driver issues as well. To complicate matters further many USB interfaces won't work properly if attached to a USB3 socket on the PC - they need a USB2 socket to work. As USB2 is likely to disappear from PCs before too long (there are already laptops with only USB3) it's worth checking any interface you choose is USB3 compatible.
 
The other thing to check is how good the manufacturer is at providing up to date drivers - a new version of WIndows can make your interface obselete without good driver support. Personally, I've seen M-Audio ignore new versions of Windows for months (or even years) far too often to want to give them any more of my money.

As others have said, it is best to get an idea of how much money you want to spend and how much you intend to sell professionally.  If the latter, you need to spend a little more because there is always some little twit thinking that x y or z brand is necessary.  Otherwise you spend the first part of any session explaining your system to some one that doesn't know anything but the adds they've read in a magazine but is sure that is what they need.
 
If for your personal use, you have a lot more leeway as long as you realize finding a single interface w/ 16 ins/outs is costly - most of those are made for professional studios.  Lynx comes to mind, tho at a more reasonable price the new MOTO line might fit your bill.  What you most likely have to do is find an 8 X 8 interface w/ ADAT expansion (ADAT being a digital in/out format).  You can spend a couple of hundred dollars on an 8 X 8 preamp and converter (Behringer) to closer to $1000 (Presonus) and over (Audient).  These are separate hardware units that simply plug into your interface and expand your system.   another route is stacking, whereby units from the same company can aggregate together (something ASIO drivers don't normally do).  So 2 8 X 8 units double your fun.
 
My own set up includes a TC Konnekt 48 which has 4 preamps, 8 additional line inputs, spidf and ADAT in/outs.  You can stack the whole family, tho I haven't tried it.  The hardware is superb, conversion is very good and preamps good and it comes w/ some great DSP (including reverb from the TC 4000).  It is cheap considering the quality since the original drivers were horrible and the reputation never recovered.  The drivers are fixed now but it can still be found for $1000 any day - and I got mine at less than that. It would be easy to add preamps from a mixer for the line inputs, getting close to your requirements before counting the digital ins.  I use mine w/ a Tascam UH-7000 hooked up via spdif - the 7000 is a new high end preamp/converter that I use as my main converters and for overdubs.  (Tascam has some new, budget units out that might fit your requirements and they are part of the Gibson family with Cakewalk).
 
It is good to get other people's opinion.  And read the mags.  But until you get a budget (esp. top line) it is hard to make recommendations.  Just remember that every extra dollar you spend on an interface will end up costing more than that to take advantage of it.  Better converters need a better room, mic and monitors to use them to their best advantage.  And better converters don't necessarily mean a better end product until you learn how to use them.  And even then, likely hood of your audience hearing the difference is small.  So buy the best you can afford and learn to use it.
 
@

The sound quality of Tascam equipment has always been excellent for the money in the 35 years I've been using their gear. I like brands that have staying power like Tascam and Yamaha. All that gear still keeps going just like the energizer bunny.
 
Tascam had issues with using 3rd party ASIO divers and are now reported to be writing their own in house now. Focusrite has been the golden boy interface for the last year or so, I think with improved drivers Tascam will give Focusrite a run for the money now. 
 
Did you check all suppliers for the Tascam? I just used that link so you'd get an idea.
 

Astrumur. I can't imagine that the difference in the signal is all that different from the cheaper interfaces to the expensive ones.

 
The difference isn't simply in the analogue/digital convertors (in fact many interfaces use the same chips) but in their mic and line pre-amps and the circuitry that surrounds them. Higher end interfaces generally have a much lower noise floor than cheaper ones, though like anything else you do get diminishing returns above a certain price point. If you're recording and mixing a lot of tracks then 6dB |(or even 3dB) less noise per track can make quite a lot of difference to the end result. The other advantage tends to be better drivers, with implications for latency, and better (or more feature-equipped) firmware, software mixers/control applications and, often, manufacturer support.
 
Whatever, any decent audio interface with solid ASIO drivers will outdo a PC's built-in sound with ease and turn in workable results. I used a Cakewalk UA-101 for quite a while and it was fine apart from I badly needed more than 8 inputs, wanted lower latency, and eventually its USB socket started acting up. The RME does sound different, but not different enough to render my older mixes useless.
 
There actually aren't many interfaces with 16 or more inputs (I guess most people, especially at the consumer end of the market, mostly use software synths and just don't need them), hence the use of ADAT to digitally connect additional units to increase the input/output count. ADAT's like MIDI or the C programming language - it's been around for ages, when invented did its job so well it became the "industry standard" and still does it so well it has never been rendered obselete.
 
As for RAM, my DAW PC does other stuff besides audio, particularly graphics and once in a while video. You could probably do fine with 8GB in a 64bit system unless you use sample libraries a lot in which case being able to load them into RAM rather than having them streamed from the disk is useful, I'm told. Mind you, RAM is pretty cheap these days and more is generally better as it reduces the chances of Windows having a swapping fit at a crucial moment.