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!

[deadend228]

I reset my 828 several times. I also went through the uninstall and reinstall procedure over and over again for about 3 months. I couldn't send my model to MOTU because I bought it from a friend and didn't have it registered or under warranty or anything like that. I really wanted it so that once i learned how to use it i could make professional sounding recordings, rather than getting something i would just grow out of. but it just got to the point where it was a huge headache and i was spending all of my time trying to get it to work instead of working on music.

I'm looking to spend under $400.

The interfaces I was looking at were the Presonus Firebox, M-Audio Fast Track Pro, M-Audio Firewire Solo, and the Mackie Spike. I've read good and bad reviews for both. Crack and pops aren't that big of a deal to me because I want to go with a warm, Lo-Fi analog sound rather than a cold crisp clean digital sound. I just want something that won't have too many problems with noise and will pretty much be plug and play. Ease of use is my main concern. I dont want to spend more time trying to get things confired that i do actually working on music. I know that cables are usually an issue as well, and I use mogami silver series cables for everything. So I shouldn't have any problems with those.