About the Alesis MultiMix USB... If I remember correctly, their USB hookup only sends a stereo signal to your computer, and not each individual channel separately. So, the most you could do is record one stereo track, or 2 mono tracks. They do however, make a firewire mixer that has the ability to send each individual channel to its own track simultaneously. You can see it >HERE<. If your laptop doesn't have a firewire port, you can always get a firewire pcmcia card. I got >this one< to be able to hook my soundcard to my laptop, and it works perfectly. It's got a 4-pin FW hookup, a 6-pin FW hookup, and 2 USB hookups. Plus, you can plug an AC adapter to it if what you're plugging to it is powered by the USB or FW.