logicred

Ah ha, it appears that Alesis do a £100 USB FX model which gives a stereo mix, and a USB 2.0 FX model which is just over twice as much and this provides 8 separate outputs via USB which is what I need. Gets good reviews, but twice as much ;-( I read an old post somewhere that suggested that most people don't need the mixing element, just the recording element and can make do with outputting as 8 tracks to a memory card, so am now looking into this which sounds like an even better solution!

[quote name='OldG' timestamp='1386318852' post='2298599'] Cheapest.... an Alesis multimix 8 will get you 8 seperate ins to your lappy via USB - around £110 new. [/quote] Thanks. This device sounds perfect, but one of the latest posts in this thread says that it won't record as separate tracks via USB (at least the 4 input one won't). Just as a stereo mix?

Budget of around £130 to get things moving. Having played with track recording on a laptop I really like the idea of going the laptop + external device route to be honest.

Thanks all. That's good info ;-) I will take a look at some of those devices. I don't have firewire and have no PCMCIA slot. I appreciate what you said about live recording. I could probably do both in fact (record live, but then remove the vocals and mix them in later to get them perfect).

Hi all. I have taken a look through the forum, but am a bit confused. We are a 5 piece band (2 singers) and at rehersal I want to record us on a laptop each on a different track so can mix down later. Is there are mixing device that will take 5 inputs and output as USB to software so I can do this? My laptop is quite old and I am guessing that perhaps a beefy processor is needed? I want to purchase something S/H ideally. Even a 4 track version would probably suffice if the price was right and we would have the vocals on one channel. Also, we reherse once a week and during the rest of the week so I want us to make the best use of our time and start recording songs during the week (to get the best quality) by doing the following: 1. Insert the original MP3 cover track into Audacity (or whatever) as a new track 2. Play my bass line as a new track 3. Email the RAW bass line track and MP3 file to the other band members who do the same. 4. The end result is a 5 track RAW file which can then be mastered. Is this the normal way of doing things? Thanks for any pointers.