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!

[Airearts]

both m-audio and presonus at their lower end(cost wise) should serve your
needs well. Do yourself a favor and check out RME's interfaces, their fireface
series while pricey,are subjectively some of best sounding units around.

you may really end up regreting an all in one recorder,as you find you've
bumped up against it's feature set in about a week.