Oren, let me be clear. I agree that the hype does not pencil out for the most part. One does not need a top end setup to get decent, even stellar results. I have used a M-Audio 24/96 card for about 10 years now, and it works great. I bought a $99 special Tascam US 800 recently for when friends come over, but i went back to using the delta card. It is fine.

I hear folks talking about their $1,000 dollar interfaces, and their $5,000 interface, and i have to laugh. Having said that while you can get a good clean solid signal in the box with a built in card, they are also famous for being the bottleneck of the system.

I believe that a decent, solid interface or card with drivers written with recording and such in mind is the heart and soul of a decent system. After that so much can now be done in the "box" so to speak. Vocal, and instrument processing is a software world these day.

You hear so much big talk at many other forums about the search for the best interface, the best mikes, the best preamps, the best compressors, the best ..... Well you know, it is silly.

Good frank, and honest conversation about the realities of what practical, and useful, but let's not go to far the other direction.

HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2025, Realband, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 9 32c , Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app.