An interface

The key to being able to do a recording ourselves is to be able to actually record wherever we want. We needed a way of connecting mics to a laptop. I started looking into audio interfaces, which is a more confusing world than I would have thought.

Technology for home recording has taken some amazing leaps in recent years. I won't feign expertise by posting a bunch of specs and opinions. Instead I'll tell you the trade-offs I was balancing.

• Cost
• Quality of recording (s/n ratio, sample rate, bit depth)
• Preamps (needed phantom power)
• Number of XLR inputs
• Connection (USB, Firewire)
• User reviews

After a few days of intense internet research, I went with the Cakewalk (previously Edirol) UA-25EX. I chose it for it's apparent quality and consistently good reviews. It should allow us to record anything (guitar, vocals, electric guitar, organ) with relative ease. The downside is that it only has 2 inputs, which limits us from a drumset perspective. However, I've been reading up on recording drums with 2 mics and think the sound will work for us. I will post results from those tests later.

Here's a pic of the interface hooked up...