Mac Mini + Live Multitrack Recording Options

[Quintron]

Hi All, glad to have found this knowledgable spot!
First off I know hardly anything about Macs except they have a good track record as stable units good with audio applications.

As I'm sure is the case with many others I have become enamoured with the new Mac Mini but am wondering if it will be sufficent for what I need.

I run a small Jazz CLub in Ireland and for a long time was considering a laptop to record live gigs there. I was looking at Macs and PC laptops, but on a budget of next to nothing with the venue, all desirable options were off limits.

With this new machine there is some hope. I am looking at the 1.4Ghz mac mini with 512MB RAM option. I would also get an Edirol FA-101 usb capture card and was wondering how good these would be at live multitrack recording using Logic or Cubase (Have both). I would need to record usually up to 6 Mic imputs or 4 MIc ins with maybe 2-3 Line ins at a push. The usual setup for a night is about that. Sometimes less. Mix it down when I get home. What can I expect from this box with the FA-101 (or indeed a cheaper alternative if anyone knows??)?

Any options / help / advice greatly appreciated!

One of the sellers of this for me is that it would also be an excellent replacement for my ailing PC at home.
Adding a KVM switch I'd have the best of both worlds. Not a laptop, but a unit in the two places I need it most. (Its' lighter to transport than a lot of Laptops) and a hell of a lot cheaper!

If my above expectations are unrealistic then caould anyone suggest the max abilities of this unit for live recording. I could work something out.

Sorry for the barage of questions.

Cheers in advance,
Quintron.

Thanks, I really appreciate your input, Q. At the end of your reply, you stated and asked, "The only thing I'm confused about is the direct monitoring aspect on say a Firepod. If I send all my imputs to the firepod to record and then send the signal out of the firepod and into individual channels on the desk for a seperate live mix, does the direct monitoring mean that this method doesn't tax the processor to much hence the "no latency direct monitoring label"?" And this brings up yet another question from me (I got a million of them.)

Obviously, I am not the person to answer this, because I didn't really understand the question (sorry I'm so ignorant). But I think this may be a question I am also confused about. Apparently, you plug eight things in -- they run into the computer on the firewire port all together, and then all eight are magically is separtated back out into the same eight tracks you started with which you then can workwith, fix, and prettify separately once they are on your computer? Or are you automatically mixing down to (say) stereo as you record, and there's nothing to be done about it? Either option is ok, I just want to know before I buy.

If what you record is what you get, I'm just curious about what you do if (say) one track, i.e., harmonica, is too loud and you need to make it softer. If you're stuck with it ok, but I would like to know that now.

Why? Well, here's an example: There's a digital recording of one the two bands I am in. I hate it because I played really, really, badly that night. In particular, there is one totally obvious blooper note in the middle of a lead that I wanted to get rid of, but the guy who digitally recorded it said it was impossible to remove. And then the guy who digitally recorded it divided the songs into tracks and did the whole thing up as a CD, complete with liner notes et al. I think he thought he was doing us a favor, but I have noticed no enthusiam amongst the rest of the band for marketing this little gem (yet we sell three others).

Neither of the bands I'm in is perfect. Not by a long shot. That's why I need to know whether post production manipulation will be possible with my planned set up, whether it's a mini-mac or a iMac with a FirePod front-end.

Finally, I can't even begin to figure out what Q meant by "no latency direct monitoring label," so when somebody answers Q's question, could they please explain his question, too? So I can understand it? Thanks!