USB interface opinions

[quickfingers]

i have SONAR 3 on my computer; ive used it extensively on another computer for recording solo stuff as well as with a few bands at my dads, but i dont go over there anymore and unfortunately i cant just rob his house. i used a simplistic Tascam-US-122 to record track by track and such. however, the Tascam products are more user-friendly with Cubase, or so ive heard. i would like to ask what is anyones opinions on the interface that would be most effective to use with SONAR, or if Cubase is a better program and i should just get a Tascam and use it with Cubase. the inteface device worked fine with SONAR of course, but I know it supports Roland and a few other devices more interactively.

okay, to cut a long story short, should i continue to use SONAR, and if so, what input device? or should i just buy an input device that comes with Cubase and use that? opinions from the experienced, possibly?

[Dr_simon]

Couple of things

1) how much do you want to spend
2) exactly what do you want to do (is lots of simultaneous I/Os important for recording say a live drum kit)

as far as the software is concerned I think it is pretty much a matter of preference. I know a lot of people (including myself) who have been very happy with Sonar however by the time you have bought a bunch of plugins it can get very $$.

As far as an I/O goes, what sort of sound card do you have ?

Can it except S/PDIF ?

If all you want to do is record guitar what about a pod xt (which can act as a USB interface / sound card) ?

Another thing to look at might be a line6.com tone-port

It may well be that the sound card will do as far as an I/O device goes with out the need for a USB interface.

[quickfingers]

1) cheap-o, 200-300 dollar price range.

2) although i realize recording a live drumset or the like nearly impossible with one of these babies, i have a few friends with mixers if i needed to do that. i really just need it for plugging in a guitar or two, track by track usually. im not sure what kindof sound card i have. do i check that in hardware preferences? the problem ive had with SONAR (on my computer, not others) is that it says i have no MIDI outputs when i start up the program, and it doenst allow me to hear MIDI or any kind of sound effects. i was under the impression that an interface deals with that issue (at least it did at my dads house, his said that too until he got the Tascam)

i probably need a new soundcard or something, i just dont know. nobody that knows about computers that i know knows anything about recording, and vice versa.

[Dr_simon]

Midi and audio are very different and, to record guitar you don't need midi at all.

why not use a second hand pod xt ?

This will plug into your computer via a USB interface and allow you to track guitars.

If you want more you can upgrade later.

[quickfingers]

well the MIDI was just a bonus becuase if you dont use MIDI, youre really not getting half of what you could get out of a recording program. im not talking about making techno, just adding **** in, or effects, or experimental stuff. i dunno. i can get really into MIDI.