Lanceindastudio
How is the low latency performance on the Tascam units? They look really cool, but low latency performance means everything for my workflow, lots of softsynths, etc. and fairly high track counts almost always.

 
Well, I made the mistake of loaning it to a Gibson clinician to check out, and now he's not giving it back... When I corner him and get it back, I'll check the actual latency. The driver gives you five options - not numbers, more like from lowest to highest.
 

WOW!!! IT COMES WITH Cubase LE. I assume that will be changing to SONAR X3 LE or something soon lol.

 
You assume correctly, at least for upcoming products. I think it's too late to recall all the units from stores and start over...
 

Just found this....great deal..amost $100 off on a Quad Capture

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/roland-quad-capture-usb-2.0-audio-interface

Another Focusrite endorsement for you. I narrowed in on the Focusrite line myself when I got a new audio interface a couple months ago and have been more than pleased with its performance.

SiTheMon
I'm going to have a look at the scarlets 2in2out for her. There is a package deal including mic, leads and stand for £198 from Anderton. I checked out the video for setting it up and it had a young girl singing and playing acoustic guitar which is exactly what maddie does.

That 2i2 looks like a snappy singer/songwriter interface. And it says it is bus powered too - which can be a big bonus if any recording is to be made any easier away from home base. Provided the mic and headphones are worth a darn in that package it looks like a pretty good entry-level deal. Since MIDI is possible across USB now, having an actual dedicated/proprietary MIDI port isn't so important today - and that's about the only thing missing from those smaller Scarletts. If your daughter ever needs to work with softsynths, software samplers, or other VST instruments, you can get a small MIDI controller that's USB, has controller sliders and knobs (for controlling the DAW) and never need a physical MIDI proprietary connection or cable.
 
I only went with a MIDI-capable interface myself because I have a small collection of legacy MIDI keyboards/synths and samplers that I've been buying since the mid 80s, that I still love to tinker with and that still work great. I don't need samples of a Yamaha D100 or DX7II, a Roland D50, or an Oberheim OB-8. Or even a Memorymoog+. Or a Kurzweil K1000. I own an example of each of them in living color - and have owned each of them since new. Even if I did need samples, I would get great use of my Ensoniq EPS16+ sampler...lol It is nice to have access to a lot of outboard sounds tho, as it saves a lot of computer resources. But I digress.
 
Best of luck with your new setup - I imagine that it will prove to be an absolute blast to the young lady (& you).

rontarrant

Beepster
I found the Beta57 is REALLY nice for clarity and higher end vocals

Thanks, Beepster. I'll have to put that on my list of things to get eventually. I hadn't looked at the Beta57 until clicking on your link, so I was surprised to see it has a steel mesh over the business end, unlike the classic SM-57. The classic always made me nervous without the steel mesh, so I always went with the '58.

Yeah, man. They really are great mics. I always liked the clearer tone of the classic 57's but they are indeed much more physically brittle (which does not work well at aggressive bar gigs where things frequently get smashed) and I found sonically a little too brittle as well due to the diaphragm being so close to the wind screen. The beta57 has that nice crispness but you don't get all the plosions, bumping problems and overaccentuation of the "ssss" and "ffff" sounds. You can get in nice and close like you can with a 58. Because of their design too they're easier to hold on to. Just really very nice mics and I'm surprised they didn't think of that design earlier.
 
Cheers.

I was going to buy the TASCAM US-366, but the guy at my local music store recommended the MOTU Microbook II for �189. It works very well, has good routing options and built-in mixer, compressor, and multi-band EQ. It's also very compact.

I have a Roland Quad Capture and it is very good. 
 
Advantages:
- good driver support
- pre-amps are very high quality (they're the same as the ones used in Roland's more expensive interfaces)
- automatic gain setting is a huge time saver
 
Disadvantages:
- no button to switch between headphones and speakers; have to pull wires out the back for headphones only!
 
 
The Octa Capture has this button but is a higher price bracket.
 
Overall from what I've heard there isn't a lot between the Focusrite and Roland products; they are both excellent.
 
If I didn't have the Quad Capture and was looking for an interface today then it would depend on my budget.
On a lower budget I'd buy the Focusrite, on a higher budget the Octa Capture

Beepster
I'd recommend the Scarlett series as well. My 18i6 has been absolutely trouble free since I got, was easy to install, has very nice mic pres and Focusrite support is great. Also I think they are a UK based company so you would be buying local.
 
The 2i2 and 8i6 would both fit in your price range and they are pretty much the same unit I have without as many connections BUT you also get a "loopback" feature (8i6 only I think) which I think is something a younger person might appreciate. It basically let's you run a channel from other programs directly into your DAW wihtout any wires or extra weirdness so she could input youtube vids or WMP straight into Sonar very easily for practice or whatever.
 
The Roland unit mentioned is nice but more expensive for what you get and personally at that price point I'd be looking at a MOTU instead who are probably a little more reliable of a company than Roland at this point.
 
No need for us to be nice to them anymore now that they aren't our parent company. They still make very nice instruments though but I don't think they were really cut out for this whole DAW game.

Plus 1 on Scarlet Series--Mine has been Flawless for 2 Years.
Got mine the Same time as the Beepster--(his good fortune convinced me!!)

Been real happy with my MOTU interface, basically problem free.

Hey - I happen to subscribe to Brandon Drury's Home Recording newsletter, and looking through an article in it from today's edition, I noticed a link to some sort of Audio Interface Wizard, so I thought I would include its link here - in case anyone wants to give it a whirl at helping choose an interface.
 
PLEASE NOTE - I have not tried this wizard, and have zero clue as to whether or not it is any good, but I figure if someone went to the trouble of listing something like 273 different interfaces from 43 vendors in it, that they were at least TRYING to build something helpful.
 
So, here is the link: http://recordingreview.com/soundcard/soundcard_wizard.php
 
Again - I'm just the messenger here, but maybe it has helpful information or a workable 'process' for narrowing down interfaces to a list that matches someone's needs - to some degree.
 
Bob Bone