huh. i was under the impression that you couldn't use usb for real-time recording, and that firewire was the only way to reduce your latency down to easy levels.
i wasn't saying that the mobilepre was bad for what i've got, i was more saying that i just didn't want to use something as basic as that for my interface. mainly, i want more recording channels and a midi i/o on a system that wasn't bus-powered.
i completely forgot about a 2x2 interface. they're cheap, i'll look into one of those.
500$ is ultra-budget range? =( =( =( i thought i was going mid-line or so. i'll look into the ionix and the profire 2626.
so now i've got four options, with a black mark on one. anyone else have opinions of the presonus, saffire pro 40, ionix, or profire?
initial thoughts: the firestudio and the saffire pro allow you to assign phantom power per two-channel sets. the profile's got it in sets of four. not a big fan of that...ok, carry on.