Mixer/recorder

hey everyone -

I'm in the market for a mixer/recorder and I have NO clue about this stuff... can anyone suggest something that is moderately priced (around $400 - $800usd) that we can use for small gigs and recording? I've been trying to use my laptop but I want to get something dedicated and professional for this. The music bug bit me real hard and now it's costin!!! =)

thanks for any help!

How many channels do you want to feed into it and how many busses do you require?

Do you need inert points for higher quality vocal preamps, do you want to patch an effects processor through it ?

If you want to use it for gigging you will need an attentional power amp and speakers.

However if you want to use it for recording and dont intend to use more than two channels at a time than you may want to think about a nice preamp and break out box to feed into your laptop rather than a desk.