Help! I'm Looking For A Clue, puzzled over software/hardware needs Options

[tabor]

I have a brand spanking new mac mini and want to record some live performances to cd at near-studio quality sound for a "sample cd" of my work as a classical operatic singer. I know I'll need a good condenser microphone...

...any suggestions?
and a decent interface....any suggestions?

and some software that allows me to burn in at least 16 bit sound to a CD, keeping the possibility of CD duplication open...

...unless I can do this with Garageband 2 and itunes, which I doubt.

I'm doing live performances. One or maybe two tracks and very little editing if any, but I need it to have decent sound quality.

what should I be looking for?

(thanks in advance for any help)

Tabor

[kaboombahchuck]

Yes, Garageband 2 / iTunes will do cd 16 bit... this occors everytime You use iTunes to burn a CD...
I don't know how much money you have, so it is a bit difficult to answer your question with any acurasy.
However, The mac mini has a 5200 rpm hard drive. This will limit the amount of tracks you will be able to record, regardless of which interface you have connected to it. About the best you could hope for would be to connect the mini to the main out of the mixing board (I assume you have a Mixer). If you do not have a mixer Alesis, Mackie, and Berhinger all make affordable mixers. That would be the cheap way to go..
If you like tossing around money, I would get a 7200 rpm external firewire hard drive, and something like the MOTU 828 mk11 firewire audio interface.... that is if the mini has firewire.
If you are used to using Garageband, just go with that. It will do anything you will need, and I believe it supports 24 bit (could be wrong about that), and is capable of recording 8 tracks at a time.