Getting back to basics.....

[chester0711]

I need some help folks! Big surprise I know!

I just joined the forum today, and I was looking to get some advice on a simple home recording setup. Let me give some details:

A few years back I set up a very crude recording studio on my desktop PC using a M-Audio Mobile Pre Interface and a free VERY basic 4 track recording software. The M-audio was suggested by a salesperson at Guitar center and the software was what I wanted to afford at the time. Needless to say my recordings were very raw to say the least and in the process I experienced lots of latency and other audio issues. I had a soundblaster sound card hooked up and the computer had 512 ram and 1.8 GHZ proc. Nothing fancy and full of problems and issues.

Fast forward to the present......I would like to redo my simple recording studio. This time I would like to hook my laptop up. I currently have a Toshiba Satellite with a 1.6 GHZ proc and 504 MB ram....I have a fire wire connection which is the way I would like to do this. I am also running Windows XP media center edition!!!! I understand this causes problems with M-audio products. My sound card is whatever is on board..nothing fancy.

I have used the soundcard wizard provided on this site and It came up with some suggestions based on what I input......

-Focusrite Saffire LE
-Presonus Inspire

These were 2 options in my price range that were not M-audio products.

Will these function okay with my current operating system?

Can I use the M-Audio Mobile Pre successfully with my current laptop?

Is the Mobile PRe a soundcard or just an interface?

I am just recording myself playing acoustic guitar and some vocals.......any and all thoughts are appreciated.....I beg your forgiveness for me being such a newby!

[chester0711]

Anybody know the difference between the focusrite sapphire LE and The Focusrite Sapphire? Is there one?

Is the Presonus Inspire a large downgrade? How about the Presonus GT?