Home recording on a PC

[MKB]

FIREWIRE ALERT!! I'm just now going through a few issues with M-Audio FireWire interfaces, seems that there are a lot of them available on ebay that don't work. After doing a bit of research, it appears that the FireWire interface specification allows for conditions that will make the interface chips go bad. If you plug in a 6 pin cable at an extreme angle, or the cable becomes worn or broken, it can damage the interface. So please do not hot swap or hot plug any FireWire equipment, make sure your cables are in great condition, and plug/unplug it as little as possible. FWIW, you can fix a broken FireWire interface, but it involves soldering and desoldering parts with pins you need a microscope to work with. Very difficult.

One suggestion; if you are wanting to get into recording and aren't computer savvy, you may want to consider a used workstation such as a Roland VS-1680 or Yamaha AW-16. These are going for $200-300 on ebay, are built like tanks, and you have none of the compatibility/software issues you get with recording with PC's. They just WORK. I have a M-Audio 410 into a Pentium 4 laptop running Mixcraft, and have issues with it very often. But my used VS-1880 works perfectly every time, and sounds great. There's nothing like fiddling with software problems to kill your creativity.