Troubles With A 828, Checking Other Interfaces, I Need Help/advice. Options

[deadend228]

In February I bought a g5 iMac. I use reason and ableton live. I also got a MOTU 828mkII from a friend for a VERY good price. However, for the three months that I had it I couldn't get any kind of response from it. I consider myself to be very entry level as far as digital recording goes. Anyway, I got tired of trying to get the mkII to work and refunded it with him. Now I'm looking at getting another interface. I need something to record a guitar direct and also to record vocals and an acoustic guitar through a microphone. I've read the reviews on have major problems with drivers and whatnot. I've even considered just buying a Fostex mr8 or even an analog multitrack cassette recorder, but I've already invested so much into my mac that it would seem like a waste to not utilize it, but I'm becoming very aggravated with trying to get things to work in sync. I need advice on M-Audio or Presonus interfaces. I've been thinking about getting a Firebox. Also, should I consider getting a mixer? At this point my aggravation level has couded my mind and I cannot put forth any constructive thought towards my problem. I just want to record folk/singer songwriter kinds of things and also record my guitar direct to put with things I do in reason to have a post-rock mogwai sort of thing.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[mortalengines]

I really like my Mackie Onyx 1220 & it is quite literally a plug & play device. You just follow the directions that come with the unit & plug it in & go. I don't know if the mixer is really necessary in retrospect. Mackie has a couple of variations now (the 400 & some portable unit whose name escapes me at the moment) & I would probably get one of them now. The 1220 is a 12 channel mixer with a firewire option & at the time I wanted to produce bands. Making my own music has gotten in the way of that idea & I usually work with one or two other people at the most (and not very often either, to be honest). The mixer has come in handy for some routing things here at home between my PC & my Mac & also as a monitor for preparing for my live shows but that's about it. Hope this helps. I will also say that for whatever it's worth, I haven't had a SINGLE problem with my mixer or the firewire card in the year that I've had it.